For many, Hayward is home of West Coast blues
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival from Chris Amico on Vimeo.
Originally published in the Hayward Daily Review
Terry “Big T” Williams pours his blues out over a swaying crowd, music and sweat rolling off him, green guitar howling.
“I’ll play the blues for you,” he sings, and he delivers on the promise.
The sound comes from the Mississippi Delta, translated and augmented on its way to the West Coast, to Russell City, where a new blues emerged.
Playing in front of Hayward City Hall on Saturday, Williams captures the endpoints of a musical journey espoused by the annual Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival.
“West Coast music is mutt music,” Ronnie Stewart, founder of the Bay Area Blues Society, explains. “It’s a mixture of everything.” (more…)