Blues Festival comes this weekend

Aug. 31—Expect a lot more local flavor at this year's Dusk-til-Dawn Blues Festival, organizer Selby Minner said.

"Usually I have fewer bands and out-of-state headliners who don't know us," she said. "This year, I decided that anybody that really wants to be on this festival, I'm going to hire them. That's the more regional people who have helped me over the years. So maybe it's at a jam session or a mini-fest or people who really have to be here."

The festival runs from 4 p.m. until wee hours of the morning, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Down Home Blues Club in Rentiesville.

Minner said the local focus enabled the festival to bump the number of acts from 30 to 50.

"All these musicians are our friends, and have helped us out ... playing in the jam sessions and at events," Minner said. "They really do want to be on the Festival, and so we are bringing them all in! They will bring the party!"

The acts perform on an outdoor Main Stage, inside the blues club and on a back porch.

"We're adding extra hours in the air conditioned club," Minner said. "The indoor bands are going to start at 4, the outdoor bands start at 6."

Muskogee bands include D'Elegantz, Friday inside the club; Cat Daddy, Sunday on the Main Stage, and Wild Card, Sunday inside the club.

"Over all these years, these bands are getting better and better all the time, and they're more than ready to carry the show," Minner said.

Friday is Native American Night. Performers include Cecil Gray, Rusty Traywick, and Pat Moss.

"He's Cherokee all the way," Minner said about Moss. "Jackie Tointigh, he's Apache, and he's going to be on the Back Porch Stage. Robert Glass is Cherokee and he's grown up at our place. He's been here for 10 years, and he makes quite a statement. He's in his 30s and he does keyboard, sax, guitar and singing."

Dallas bluesman Andrew Jr. Boy Jones will headline Saturday performances on the Main Stage.

"That man has been playing forever, he started out playing in the band with Freddie King, and Freddie King had huge hits," Minner said. "So thats a real good hookup to the Uptown Texas Hotbox style blues that we do, which is horn section, not harmonica.

Also performing Saturday is Scott Ellison of Tulsa, who has had two blues hits on national charts in the past 10 years and tours nationally, Minner said.

Gospel Night is 6 p.m. Sunday on the Main Stage.

"We won't serve any beer from 6 to 7 p.m. Sunday," Minner said. "And if they're seniors and they want to come in for free, and that's all they're coming to, they get a special wristband."

Performers include Warriors For Christ from Checotah.

"Eunice Warrior, who has her own ministry will bring her family, the Warriors for Christ," Minner said.

Also performing Sunday is Big Train and Locomotives.

"This guy makes his own guitars out of anything you can name, maybe a gas can or cigar box," Minner said.