Blues fans are sure to have their calendars marked and tickets purchased for the Hoodoo Men featured at the UT Chattanooga Fine Arts Center on Friday, October 4, at 7:30 pm.
Patrons will be immersed in the multisensory experience of the art of the Delta Blues through sound, art, storytelling, and performance as Bill Steber–award-winning musician, photojournalist, documentarian, and storyteller–has a week-long residence at UT Chattanooga (UTC) which concludes with the Friday concert performance.
One of the two-man band, Hoodoo Men, Bill Steber is a Tennessee native noted to be “one of the last living links to the greats and history of the Delta Blues,” according to Robert Boyer, the UTC Fine Arts Center’s Director of UTC Live! Performing Arts Series.
So, what’s the difference between Blues and Delta Blues?
Geographically, Mississippi River Delta terminates one of America’s longest rivers. However, the Mississippi Delta is an alluvial plain creating a fertile land mass that climbs from the lip of the river from sediment that serves as the literal lifeblood of the area for commerce and culture.
B.B. King was once asked by the Smithsonian Magazine to name the birthplace of the blues. He didn’t hesitate – “the birthplace of the blues…all started right here.” An icon of blues stood on Dockery Farm on Delta ground where Charly Patton, Tommy Johnson, Willie Brown, Eddie “Son” House, Chester Burnette (Howlin’ Wolf), and Roebuck “Pops” Staples all got their start and used as their base.
The original Delta Blues featured acoustic guitar, harmonica, and makeshift instruments like a bottleneck to slide along guitar strings and a cigar box with three strings. The vocals are driving and soulful to reflect the times when slaves hoped for freedom, yet faced illiteracy, dire poverty, and other cultural limitations–like prejudice.
“The history of the blues parallels the history of Black Americans,” Bill Steber explained speaking to the Chattanooga New Chronicle while walking among his deeply expressive photography and art which is on display and open to the public for viewing in the UTC Fine Arts Center.
“Mississippi…is an ancestral homeland of sorts… from which they escaped social and economic bondage. The same Mississippi soil that transformed the Delta into the land of king cotton with the sweat and suffering of slaves and sharecroppers also produced a cultural legacy of music, religion, and rural traditions, that shaped and defined the African American community.”
The Hoodoo Men perform Delta Blues, but also introduce concertgoers to influences brought to the Mississippi Delta from West Africa. Steber and partner Sammy Baker are “blues conjurers” who’ll perform on a staged set to immerse the audience in the cultural and spiritual practices rooted in superstition and African traditions coupled with Catholicism.
• See Bill Steber’s art Wednesday, Sept. 25-Friday, Oct. 4 in the Fine Arts Center lobby.
• Enjoy Steber’s storytelling presentation and discussion of his visual art at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 3, free to the public. • Enjoy the pre-concert exhibition of art and photography of Steber at 7 p.m., Friday, October 4 prior to the evening’s concert at 7:30 p.m.