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Jus' Blues Wrap Party

Sat, Aug 03

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Ground Zero Blues Club Biloxi

Ground Zero Blues Club Biloxi, Nola Blue Records, Jus' Blues Foundation Presents: Jus' Blues Wrap Party 2024 featuring Nola Blue Records recording artists, Lil' Jimmy Reed, Trudy Lynn and Benny Turner! www.jusblues.org

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Jus' Blues Wrap Party
Jus' Blues Wrap Party

Time & Location

Aug 03, 2024, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Ground Zero Blues Club Biloxi, 814 Howard Ave, Biloxi, MS 39530, USA

About the event

A veteran musician of more than fifty years, Benny Turner has played everywhere from the Chitlin’ Circuit, to Europe, Japan, Australia, and all points in between.  Content to be a sideman in support of the many giants he has worked with, in 2010 the time came for Benny to take his rightful place in the spotlight on center stage, to the delight of blues fans worldwide. Born in Gilmer, Texas on October 27, 1939, Benny and his older brother, blues legend Freddie King, learned to play guitar from their mother, Ella Mae (King) Turner and her brothers Leon and Leonard King.  While Freddie was captivated by the guitar and wanted to be a performer, Benny just enjoyed the music and the opportunities to share it with the older brother he admired and adored.  The boys used to race home from school to catch the last few minutes of a radio show called “In the Groove,” where they heard the music of artists such as Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Hank Williams, and T-Bone Walker.

Trudy Lynn comes from strong musical stock: the late Al “TNT” Braggs, one of Houston’s most electrifying R&B vocalists and a prolific songwriter for Bobby “Blue” Bland, was her cousin.  Growing up, she and her five siblings would gather on their big screened-in porch to sing in talent shows for the neighborhood kids.  By high school, she took it to the next level as a member of the choirs and jazz groups, even joining Archie Bell as one of the Drells, back in ’64 before they took off.  It was Albert Collins who was the first to get her on the stage while still in high school, at Walter’s Lounge on Lockwood.  After singing ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ and ‘Money,’ Lynn knew she had found her calling.

Still playing and touring the world... Lil Jimmy Reed is the last of the original Louisiana bluesmen. 

The blues was born in the deep South, a wild outcry against segregation, poverty and hard, back-breaking work. Sadly most of the great musicians who created this vibrant, influential music have passed on, leaving only their recordings to testify to their genius. However, one man, whose career stretches back to the time when rhythm ‘n’ blues was just bursting onto the popular music scene, is still with us and playing better than ever.

Leon Atkins, better known as Lil’ Jimmy Reed, is the real deal, as will be attested to by anyone who has been privileged to hear his stinging guitar work, gritty vocals and haunting harmonica. A tall charismatic figure, Lil’ Jimmy epitomizes the classic Louisiana down-home blues tradition. Born in the late nineteen-thirties in a shot-gun shack in Hardwood, LA, a small cotton and sawmill town on the Mississippi River, Leon grew up near a club where every night he absorbed the wail of the blues from across the street. At six he had his own guitar, made from a cigar box, and by the time he was a teenager he was proficient on both guitar and harmonica, playing local clubs around Baton Rouge. Filling-in one night for blues star Jimmy Reed earned him the sobriquet Lil’ Jimmy Reed and started him on the long path to success.

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