Only since 2004 has it been called the Navasota Blues Fest, but it started in the early 1990s as a scholarship fundraiser to honor the memory of the town's blues legend, Mance Lipscomb.
Since 1993, 18 students have benefited from the scholarships funded through proceeds from the event.
This year's winner is Perry Gamble, a 2010 graduate of Navasota High School with a grade-point average of 4.59.
Gamble already has his career mapped out with an impressive degree of detail: Start at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, followed by veterinary school at Texas A&M or Louisiana State Univerity, then start a vet practice in Kentucky taking care of race horses, and eventually become a Texas rancher specializing in equine and cattle production.
Wow! And to think most kids Perry's age haven't planned their life beyond lunch tomorrow.
Blues Fest is set for Friday and Saturday at the Grimes County Expo Center, at 5220 F.M. 3455. The gates open at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
There will be a cocktail hour with music by Michael and Melissa Birnbaum. Micheal Birnbaum is a psychology professor at California State University, Fullerton, but on this weekend is simply a blues guitarist returning to honor Lipscomb's memory.
Birnbaum first met Lipscomb in 1964 and that started a friendship and collaboration that lasted until Lipscomb's death in 1976.
On his website, Birnbaum writes:
"I had been taking guitar lessons in all different styles from folk to flamenco to classical. But I loved the guitar style of Mance Lipscomb best of all. I was learning how to play his music by applying techniques I had learned in lessons to careful listening of slow speed, note-by-note playback of the performances on his first record.
"When Mance was to appear at the Ash Grove (a nightclub run by Ed Pearl that featured folk music), Bernie Pearl encouraged me to introduce myself to Mance. Bernie said that Mance was very nice, and he suggested that I peek in the dressing room between sets. Mance listened to me play, picked up his guitar and joined in, and we immediately began to call and reply musically within his style.
"We got along personally as well as musically, and after the club closed, we went out for pancakes in the early morning, a late night breakfast that we repeated many times over the years. I invited him to my house for dinner the next night, and I learned that Mance stayed in motels while traveling, which reduced his take-home pay from tours."
There will be a Blues Brothers Tribute from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, followed by Lorna Willhelm and A Handful of Blues at 8:45, then Don Kesee and The Bluesmasters from 10:30 to midnight.
On Saturday, the music starts at 11 a.m. with a free guitar session with Birnbaum; fans are welcome to bring their own guitar and play along. That happens before the doors open, so you don't need a Blues Fest ticket to participate.
After the doors open at 1 p.m. Saturday, the nonstop blues starts at 1:30 with Sweet Mama Cotton, followed by Steve Howell and His Boys at 3, presentation of the colors by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4006, Gary Boehm and the Texas Bluzcatz at 4:30, the scholarship presentation by Lipscomb's grandson Jimmy Lipscomb, then Brad Absher at 6, David Egan and Twenty years of Trouble at 7:30 and, finally, Texas Johnny Boy, Milton Hopkins, Hash Brown and Christian Dozzler from 9 p.m. to midnight. There will also be a silent auction.
Two-day tickets can be purchased for $25 on Friday. Tickets for Saturday only are $20.
To get more information on Navasota Blues Fest, visit the very complete website at www.navasotabluesfest.org. There you will find links to Michael Birnbaum's own website that lays out in detail, along with more than a decade of photographs, his remarkable bond with Navasota's Mance Lipscomb.
Benchmarking art
Pick up this community's daily newspaper, or just about any other, and you will find plenty of stories about budget-slashing in these tough economic times.
When one of the country's top universities -- Texas A&M -- is talking about cutting faculty and staff, and thus classes, you can imagine the challenge those charged with keeping the arts thriving must face every day. It's a domino effect that presents a real threat to one of the few bastions of visual pleasure we still have.
Job cuts means salary cuts means discretionary spending cuts means a tough road for survival of the arts. I mean, really fine arts, like what for so long has been offered even in our little college community, is in constant peril.
But the dominoes even tumble at the movie theaters where stories of dwindling ticket sales come at us every week. Now, part of that is self-inflicted because, in my opinion, the long-time steady diet of mostly bad to mediocre Hollywood fare is largely responsible for that decline. It's tough enough to get everyday working stiffs to drop 20 bucks for a good flick for two, much less a stinker.
Arts in the Brazos Valley, whether its on stage, on canvas, in museums, in churches or workshops, in stitching circles or seminars, rarely suffers from lack of a quality product or quality people dedicated to making it the best it can be. But when more and more families are faced with the choice of paying for groceries or paying for a night at the theater ... well, there's really no debate there.
When Chris Dyer took the job of director of the Arts Council of Brazos Valley a couple of months back, he did it with no blinders on. He knew that funding from traditional public sources would be diminished and that extra good old-fashion fundraising would be needed.
Every day in the USA some nonprofit board of directors meets and the main topic is how to raise money at a time when more people, by necessity, simply must hold onto their cash.
So in his most recent newsletter from the Arts Council, Dyer tells us about the latest idea the council has created to raise money.
"2011 will be a tight budget year for us all," Dyer writes. But, he says, "the Arts Council is working diligently to come up with new and creative fundraising programs aimed at addressing this funding need."
The example he unveils is a program called Benchmarking the Arts. And it's unique, I'll say.
Similar to the Bush Library's 2006 Locomotives on Parade auction that raised money through the purchase of 34 miniature locomotives and sent them to good homes throughout the city, this project will allow residents to sponsor a plain bench and then work with a local artist to turn it into a true work of art.
The professional artist will be compensated through a portion of the sponsorship, although I'm sure that any artist wishing to donate time and talents will be welcomed with the widest of open arms. Money saved is money earned, said some wise old bird once.
After the plain old bench has been turned into a bench with pizzazz, it can be displayed publicly "with the purpose of making functional art accessible and visible to the citizens of the Brazos Valley," writes Dyer.
Brazos Valley Arts League President Nancy Elliott has already started on her bench, using a 1940s theme to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Brazos Valley Arts Council. Her bench will be auctioned Sept. 21 at the Celebrating the Arts event at Miramont Country Club in Bryan.
To sponsor a bench and to start working with a local artist to bring it to life, call Dyer at 696-2787 or e-mail him at chris@acbv.org.
This certainly is not to imply that a bunch of bench sponsorships will solve the money crisis that Brazos Valley arts faces, but what is certain is that doing nothing is not an option.
Save the date
* Sunday-Aug. 15: The Theatre Company presents Into the Woods (696-2787, theatrecompany.com)
* Monday-Aug. 30: Spirit of Texas Bank Gallery, BV Arts Council, BV Arts League present "Oil Paintings by Kiki Curry" (696-2787, acbv.org)
* Tuesday-Wedneday: Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History presents "Lee and Grant" (776-2195, brazosvalleymuseum.org)
* Thursday-Aug. 21: StageCenter presents The Bad Seed (823-4297, stagecenter.net)
* Friday-Saturday: Navasota Blues Fest (936-825-6600, navasotabluesfest.org)
* Aug. 15: Texas A&M Art Galleries Dept. presents a Young Artist Series Workshop on Persian Mosaic Motifs, 1:30 and 3 p.m. (845-8501, uart.tamu.edu)
* Through Aug. 22: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum presents "The Culture of Wine" (691-4000, bushlibrary.tamu.edu)
* All month: Children's Museum of the Brazos Valley offers various programs, including Monday Madness, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (779-5437, www.mymuseum.org)
* Tom Turbiville is The Eagle's arts columnist. He's also sports director for WTAW-1620AM Radio. E-mail him at tom.turbiville@ theeagle.com.
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