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3 new Winners on the slate to be inducted, and a DATE
.. Designing a safe event for the Inductions in Rentiesville OK:
Saturday June 20, 4 pm til ?
out on the East Deck, with
Sunday the 21st as a rain date..
Bring Your Chair, a mask if you like.... great music, social distancing.
–we miss you ...be safe ...closed til the 20th ...

PRESS RELEASE (918) 855-0978 Rentiesville OK I-40 @ US 69
COMING SOON: JUNE 20 th, 2020 rain: Sun 21st
...socially distanced, outside event....
dcminnerblues.com selbyminner@gmail.com

2020 INDUCTIONS into the
Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame
This Class of Inductees has several stories to tell about music from this state!
The TULSA Connection:

J. J. CALE ...famed guitarist / songwriter ( After Midnight, Cocaine), friend of Eric Clapton He and Leon Russell are really two of the greatest innovators behind the 'Tulsa Sound”

JAMIE OLDAKER Tulsa; drums; in addition to playing with J.J. Cale and being called "Eric Clapton's Best Drummer" he played with Freddie King, Bob Seeger, Albert Collins many more and is....helping Dr. Bob Blackburn of the OHS create exhibits at OK POP; the Museum being built in Tulsa up near the Cains Ballroom.. . OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDER

DAVID TEEGARDEN Tulsa; drummer lots of jazz, but also Blues...toured with Bob Seeger and many more...will be inducted and also in the OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDER category with his recording studio across from the Church Street Studio (think Leon Russell) to help create a MUSIC ALLEY in Tulsa. Works with youth as well.

new! ...EDWARD 'SPIKE' GORE Tulsa drums... totally in demand, he does the job so well ..works often with OBHOF inductee Leon Rollerson

new! . ... MARK FURNAS Tulsa, Guitarist with Leon Rollerson and many more. Works with Jim Halsey Booking Agency ...who took Country Music to Las Vegas...

BIG MIKE MOORE Tulsa area, Mike has the BIG BAND; Education Award... he brings the largest group of musicians....(well, really, it is between him and his band-leading friend OBHOF Inductee Jim Davis of Checotah High School.) Big Mike sings the blues, styling his vocal arrangements to fit the big band era of the tune, some 30 musicians playing together..... wonderful!

the OKLAHOMA CITY Connection...

HAROLD G. JONES OKC  drums,
vocals , OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDER created a DVD Documentary, called "Celebrating Deep Deuce, 'The Lady' Second Street" This DVD chronicles the transition of the Charlie Christian Jazz Festival from Venues to the street..the work and commitment and people it took to get the Festival outdoors on Deep Deuce – demolishing a broken building, for one thing...It is a great story!
His bands have been: We the People and BLT; Bottom Line Transaction, among others.

WALTER TAYLOR III
Gifted drummer. GREAT track record... ( see his complete bio below in this release)
OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDER with his Blu Fonk Movement; building community and helping others while growing a love of Deep Blues.


North West Oklahoma Connection:

‘ SLICK WILLIE’ LAWSON
Stillwater, Perkins ...You may remember we inducted Poochie a few years back. She sings and brings a party when she comes...the consummate guitarist behind her was her brother Slick Willie Lawson! High School math teacher.

new! .... TIM AUSTIN MITCHELL Enid OK: kin to the famed Opera Singer Leona Mitchell Tim is a very adept musician and tours regularly on the road with the top R & B artists of our times. Also a solo artist with a great CD.

Closer to HOME:

TAMMY ‘BAM BAM’ GLIDEWELL RIDGEWAY Drums, Tahlequah ...15 years with Miss 'Mama' Blues ..Dorothy Ellis. Power drummer!

BOZ SKAGGS TX, McAlester OK, CA Toured with Steve Miller and has a long string of his own hits... we just found out this famed recording artist is qualified for an induction as he DID actually live in McAlester for a time as a child! Lucky us to be able to put him on the wall and give him a trophy!

The MUSKOGEE Connection:

LAWRENCE WRIGHT  & the
STARLIGHTERS Kansas City,
Muskogee OBHOF Inductee Lem Sheppard asked me to include Lawrence Wright as he led the 'top blues band in Kansas City ' for many years.

WILLIE WRIGHT
Muskogee, Wichita KS Tony Mathews (OBHOF Inductee) asked me to induct Willie Wright... "he was so good to me when I was just a kid from the country going up to Muskogee...The Wright Brothers had a three piece vocal group and Willie took me under his wing and taught me things on the guitar and I just want to thank him, Selby. He has played music all his life and in church the last 30 years, He is still alive..." Well I started asking questions and found out they were brothers - Lawrence was one of the three!

STANLEY ‘SIR STAN’ GRIGGS vocalist/entertainer born in Okmulgee, lived in KC, currently form Los Angeles...you may have seen this man at the Rentiesville Blues Fest last year... a character and fun entertainer with a life in the music

Also Awarding
OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDERS

SCOTT BOOKER LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
  OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDER
    founder ACM@UCO in OKC; Education 
working to build a Music Mecca in OKC he has created a new age school which has graduated ten years of students...Music business, Contracts, Recording and Sound Engineering, Guitar and Band Development as well as Singing and Performance... this is not traditional music instruction which often leaves out guitar (?) and certainly does not teach the business side of the music...( I mean oboe and french horn and how to read jazz improvisations...oh no!) The Academy of Contemporary Music is in Bricktown right by the canal and the Biting Sow.

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ANITA ARNOLD Memphis, OKC, B.L.A.C. and organizer of the Charlie Christian Festival, also active with the Oklahoma African American Educators Hall of Fame as a Board Member...brilliant.. OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDER

Dr. Bob Blackburn CEO and head of the State Historical Society OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDER; a brilliant man,and big inspiration to me and a friend. Has taken the Historical Society into a bright cross-cultural future. Telling the stories...The Tulsa Race Massacre included.
Larry O'Dell from the State History Museum....did considerable research on the approximately 50 Historic All Black Townships... even to digging the holes and putting up the signs the project generated at town halls in the 13 remaining Townships! OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDER
INDUCTIONS 2020
So we have a plan! 4 pm Sat June 20, but if it rains, then next day, Sun. June 21st
Social Distancing out in the yard, the music on the East Deck
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_____________________________________________________________________an. . . . and. . . the Labor Day Weekend Blues Festival UPDATE:

We love to play... and one of the things we love the most about playing is you... all the great people we meet along the way. You all sustain us more than you may know...
We miss you all , I know you miss each other as well.
This is a year of compromise.
MOST FESTIVALS are saying "next year" leaving many performers unemployed. However thanks to the Oklahoma State Arts Council and the Oklahoma Humanities and the Oklahoma Museum Association.... we are
FUNDED to pay MUSICIANS... ....SO WE WILL!
It will be free to you unless you choose to donate. We will have T shirts for sale as well ...
We will be on line Sept 4, 5, and 6 in 2020! So bring on the ....

Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival ...
@ YOUR HOUSE!

(...at My House?? ... YES!)
Sept. 4, 5, & 6

We have OMA, OH, OAC to thank for our ability for the Festival to GO VIRTUAL to your house...and pay everybody! Many of our private local sponsors have had a hard spring.

There have been NO deaths in this county yet from old 'Rona.

The festival takes 4 months to prepare and we won't know that we can gather in large groups (1000) in time to raise the money to pay for it.

HOWEVER - moving into the new age...

Do you have a phone that gets Facebook?


We are going to put together a great show and stream it live to you!

We even hope to have musicians JAMMING in REAL time from coast to coast!

Many of the reasons to shift to the internet
amount of information on safety verses the time needed to create the event
attendance would be lower
sponsorships would be down
no deaths in this county so far; ...travelers carry this virus
not equipped to keep all social distancing requirements in place for 1000 people (the Inductions are OK - MUCH smaller group of people)
no worries about rain (translation: MUD!) ...
this is my house. . .I have been home alone 60 days keeping the virus out of here
I am quarantining my place, just like you are...
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INDUCTION 2020 Photos below:
D.C. Minner founder at his induction to the State Music Hall of Fame in Muskogee...

Some of this year's OBHOF 2020 class
Lawrence Wright, Sir Stan (2), Big Mike Moore, Boz Skaggs (2) , J.J. Cale (2), Tammy Bam Bam Glidewell Ridgeway w Miss Blues, also with Walter Taylor, Slick Willie, Jamie Oldaker, Harold G. Jones,

Other inductees from earlier years.
... bios will be on the website at click >> dcminnerblues.com
Thank You Thank You Thank You!
to the OK Humanities, The National Endowment for the Humanities,
and the Oklahoma State Arts Council!!!!
OKLAHOMA MUSIC COMMUNITY BUILDERS

several of these 2020 inductees are being honored for growing the professional music communities in our state. So many Oklahomans have had to leave OK to be recognized – indeed, to work – that many people have no IDEA of the vast amount of music this state has exported. If they get famous in another state, that state gets the credit! (Count Basie’s band was made up of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils, Lowell Fulson – Top of the West Coast Blues Scene with the longest run of hits was born up around Tulsa etc.)
Credit where credit is due…
It is time to grow an Austin or a Nashville within our own state! 
So who is helping with the process by giving back and giving forward to Oklahoma? 
>> click >> David Teegarden  has a recording studio going on the street in Tulsa where the famous Church Street Studio is located
Scott Booker ACM @ UCO  << click < …ten years of graduates at a revolutionary college – Rock and Roll, Marketing, recording engineering, band management…being in bands singing all rock instruments songwriting !!! in Bricktown, OKC
Jamie Oldaker   helping the OK POP Musuem with the OHS
also Harold G. Jones Jr. singer, drummer and inspiration to put the Charlie Christian Jazz Festival on the street and his DVD about 'The Lady" as they call the Festival
Also Dr. Bob Blackburn with his fabulous music exhibits at the OK History Center across from the Capitol on LIncoln in OKC and together with Larry O'Dell for their work on the OK POP Museum in Tulsa which will celebrate the Popular cultures of this state...
BELOW THIS LINE - INDUCTEES from earlier years Spotify blues playlist above
Pat does roots blues and keeps the clubs in Clarksdale hopping. Tahlequah
LEM SHEPPARD OBHOF in from Pittsburg KS, Shy Willie from Muskogee - lived in Chicago for years...
Magic Mike is back -- Played Rentiesville w Miss Blues
OBHOF Inductees ROGER HURRICANE WILSON above, LEON ROLLERSON below
OBHOF Inductee Leon Rollerson
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we recently lost OBHOF Inductee Berry Harris of Wichita... a great friend of Rentiesville and the Blues Festival born in Stringtown OK
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VIRTUAL BLUES FEST
@ your House !
SEPT 4, 5, 6 2020
D.C. inducts his old Music Buddy - and Narva's brother - Larry Johnson during a Festival here years ago. Narva Johnson of the Larry Johnson Foundation to be honored for keeping the music alive!
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GUITAR LESSONS ONGOING after COVID
BIOGRAPHY:
Walter Taylor III AKA “The Doctor” Drums/Vocal
Born June 26, 1956
Oklahoma City-born musician lived the first part of his childhood in Kansas City, Mo.
Taylor started drums at age 11, with his stepfather, Ashley Monroe Taylor Jr. Bandleader and bass player, would take13-year-old Taylor, along for his first club gig. So whenever the band took a break, he would have to sit outside until break was over. By the time he was 14, he’d be performing in the legendary Deep Deuce District. At 16, taking leadership for popular High School band, Bold Underground, eventually becoming an opening act for their favorite group, Kool & The Gang. Desiring more, Taylor would migrate into funk, soul, and Gospel bands.
Uptown Syndicate: First recording opportunity. Uptown/You’re a Woman would be released on Fat City Records, and Taylor found himself touring the renowned Chittin Circuit. Manager, Pete Tyler, from Stax Records, knew all the stops to sustain major airplay. Uptown would release another single featuring Taylor, on a partial lead verse. Just Be Yourself/Bloaded, again would take them to the road in support of the new release, and received major airplay. The group would open for The Impressions, Rufus and Chaka Khan, The Ohio Players, and many more. Touring Kansas City, Mo. Uptown would hook up with Bloodstone rivals, The Talisman; singing group, arranging and recording their single in Oklahoma City. Shady Side of Town/Running From the Devil, would be released and showcased in Kansas City, and the record was a huge regional success .
Jokers Y-ilde: This popular group would gain the favor of RCA Records executives. Also would open for Frankie Beverly and Maze, S.O.S., Rodger and Zapp, Kool & The Gang, just to name a few. This would be Taylor’s first songwriting/producer experience. Nothing But A Party/Very Special Love, would be released and would rival mainstream artist. The industry would change and the group would disband. In 2009, Uptown Syndicate, and Jokers Y-ilde would be inducted into The Oklahoma Historical Society Funk and Soul Exhibition and book, Another Hot Oklahoma Nights, A Rock and Roll Story.
After Five Jazz: After 5: Considered the young lions… After 5 Jazz, would become talk of the touring circuit, opening world-class artist like, Midnight Star, Barney Kessel, George Benson, Alex Bugnon, Nancy Wilson, Little Milton, Freddy Jackson, LaLah Hathaway, just to name a few. Producer Taylor, would fly to New York with Executive producer, Steven D. Jones to sign a distribution deal with Warlock Records, for Jones Chez Nous Record label. The CD release of Expressions, would go worldwide. Featured on major jazz stations, in rotation with the top names in the business. BET’s Jazz Central, Art Good’s, Jazz Trax, Jazz Times Magazine, etc. While in studio working on next project, group would disband.
Garrett “Big G” Jacobson: “Blues, Soul, Sensation” Year, 2000…Taylor get called to fill in for Garrett’s drummer who didn’t show for the gig… and has been working with every since! Recorded two CD’s, Soul Buffett. And “Live” In Person. Won The 2002 Oklahoma Blues Society Blues Competition, to compete in the IBC, International Blues Competition in Memphis, TN. Played BB Kings. Bricktown Blues Festivals, Dusk ‘Till Dawn Blues Festival, Rentiesville, Ok. Arcadia Blues Festivals, Acadia, Ok. Medicine Park Blues Festival, Medicine Park, Ok. 2013 Chicago Blues Festival, Rosa’s Lounge, Chicago, Ill, Kingston Mines, Chicago, Blu Fonk Blues Movement “The Big Blues Show” I, II, III, Oklahoma City, Ok. Belle Isle Brewery Blues Festival 2019, Okc, and the UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond, Ok. Home base.
Mothers Day 2004: Debut Walter Taylor III & The BisquitHead Allstars 2005 Charlie Christian Battle of Band. International Music Festival, 2006 Charlie Christian Festival, 2007 Charlie Christian International Music Festival, The Walter Taylor Band, and Jam Session
Walter Taylor III/TaylorMadeJazz: Debut 2009 Charlie Christian Music Festival. In 2010 Taylor would return to Deep Deuce to talk owners of The Sage Lounge, about bringing jazz back to the Deuce. They agreed. On April 30, 2010, Walter Taylor III/TaylorMadeJazz kicked off the first of many Saturday night sessions. Which led to the first, and last Deep Deuce Festival, put on by the residence and business owners
Deep Deuce and Beyond: Written by Historian/Educator, Anita Arnold features Taylor, and many of his photos and groups he’s worked with over the years. In 20010, “The Doctor” became a recipient of the prestigious Charlie Christian Award for his work in Jazz.
Taylor connected with Musician and Playwright, Tyrone Stanley and became percussionist for his many projects. Wings of Harmony toured New York City, and other cities for his award winning Wings of Harmony choir. Touring Musical, Soul On Fire, would showcase to a sold out, The Kennedy Center. Featuring Stanley, singer Shirley Murdock, and cast. With, “ The Doctor” operating from the Pit.
Blu Fonk Movement; Is one of Taylors many efforts to revitalize blues in Oklahoma City and beyond. Not as much of a band as it is a movement, Blu Fonk is the umbrella label Taylor applies to the multiple projects. “We’re just trying to start a movement here that hasn’t been started, because in our community, the blues no longer exists, he said.
Blu Fonk was born in 2014 as an entrant into the International Blues Challenge music competition. Taylor’s band included members “Sir” James Walker Sr. (guitar and lead vocals), Larry Banks (saxophone), Danny White (harmonica and vocals) and Vernon King (bass). They advanced into the finals in Memphis; Tennessee He has gathered musicians to compete every year since. “I don’t go in there to win; I go in to play the best that we can play,” he said. “If we win, we’ll take it.”
Beyond competition, Taylor also organizes showcases around the city, and is Musical Director for Dallas, Tx, based, I.A.F. International Artist Festivals. I’ve been blessed to back up recording artist, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Dr. Wayne Goins, Joe Settlemires, Hank Marr, Little Joe Blue, Barbra Mason, Little Jonnie Taylor, Tremaine Hawkins, Tim Minor, T.J. Hooker, and many others.
But my biggest support came from the late Sir James Walker Sr. and Miss Blues, Dorothy Ellis. She was with me when we started the movement… and I was with her when the Angels took her home. Miss Blues endorsed and encouraged some of the top up and coming musicians to play along side their seasoned colleagues. “The Big Blues Show,” is a culmination of the music from the community, normally during the Thanksgiving weekend, when we all give thanks. Bringing blues back to a true respectability is an important mission to him because he recognizes it as the groundwork of a larger culture and the countless genres that sprang from “I saw how personal it was, how spiritual it was...,” he said. “When you get deep into the authentic blues, that’s where you really see it happen. Remember… The Blues is Still…. ALRIGHT!
Walter Taylor III
*Some parts of this Bio borrowed from Ben Luschen OK Gazette story 12/22/16

a NEW BOOK - the first - on D.C. Minner and his family and life - told mostly in his own words will be for sale at the Blues Festival!!!
Blues JAM Session after COVID
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The Rentiesville Dusk ‘Til Dawn Blues Festival is presented by Friends of Rentiesville (F.O.R.) Blues, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit cultural and educational organization, with a mission to preserve and develop African American music(s) through education and entertainment. In addition to the festival F.O.R. Blues, Inc. hosts the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame ceremonies and blues workshops for all ages.
The Blues Club
103020 D.C. Minner St Checotah OK, 74426
dcminner@windstream.net    (918) 855-0978
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