Blues In the News

Check out Blues @ Home in Saturday's Topic section of The Vicksburg Post.

‘Blues@Home’: Local artist merging art, words, tunes: "Vicksburg artist and gallery owner H.C. Porter is starting a project that merges art, storytelling and the blues.
For “Blues@Home,” Porter is teaming with Tena Clark, a fellow Mississippi native a..."

Stay tuned for more news on Blues @ Home.

Alphonso Sanders

We hung with blues horn player Alphonso Sanders for our seventh Blues @ Home photo shoot. In addition to being a bluesman, Alphonso chairs the fine arts department at Mississippi Valley State University. He gave us a wonderful lesson on the blues from inside his home in Cleveland.

He also gave us some samples on his trumpet and saxophone.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Blues @ Home project. We're headed to South Mississippi next for more photo shoots and interviews with two more Mississippi blues legends. We'll keep you updated here.

Bill Howl-n-Madd Perry

We had a great time photographing and listening to stories by bluesman Bill Howl-n-Madd Perry this week at Clarksdale's Ground Zero Blues Club.

He even did a little performing while he sat for the shoot...

We are happy to add Bill Howl-n-Madd Perry to our list of Mississippi blues legends for Blues @ Home. 

Bill Abel Blues

We visited bluesman Bill Abel in his 100-year-old home in Duncan for our fifth Blues @ Home shoot.  

In addition to being a Mississippi blues legend, Bill is also a painter and potter. He also makes guitars out of cigar boxes and driftwood. 

Bill played a few of his tunes for us while he sat for the photo shoot. He is a true artist and musician, and we're happy to have him be part of Blues @ Home.

Stay tuned for more Blues @ Home updates. We'll be heading back to the Delta later this month for more photo shoots and interviews.

Bentonia Blues

We visited blues legend Jimmy Duck Holmes at his famous Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia this week. He is one of the 40 living legends that will be featured in H.C. Porter's Blues @ Home painting collection.

 Jimmy keeps the historic site, once a juke joint and cafe owned and operated by his parents, open every day for visitors to come see the Mississippi blues landmark. The Mississippi Blues Trail has commemorated it with its own trail marker.

 Jimmy told us how he learned how to play the much sought-after "Bentonia Blues" from the late Jack Owens, one of many legends who performed at the Blue Front.

Jimmy shared his story of how he came to be one of Mississippi's blues legends with us. His oral history will be paired with the mixed media portrait painting H.C. Porter will create of him for the planned Blues @ Home exhibition.

He is certainly keeping the Bentonia blues tradition alive. As the last of the Bentonia bluesmen, Jimmy performs his unique style of blues locally, regionally and nationally. But, Bentonia, Mississippi, and the Blue Front Cafe will always be home base for him.

Check out our Blues @ Home site to find out how to sponsor one of the 40 paintings that will travel as part of the proposed exhibition.