George Higgs

Location: R.A. Fountain

From our promo for this show:

Tarboro’s George Higgs returns to Fountain for a concert of original piedmont blues on Saturday.

Higgs is the last of his generation of piedmont blues artists still performing. His Fountain show will be his first since suffering kidney failure and a series of strokes last spring.

“George is doing well,” his wife, Bettye, reports, “and heπs really looking forward to getting back out and performing. We always have such a good time in Fountain.”

Higgs is on dialysis treatments three days a week, which prevents him from extensive travel, but his rehab has gone well, Bettye says. “The doctors have prescribed him to play his guitar for his hands and dexterity and his harmonica for his breath and wind, and he practices every day.”

Most of Higgsπ repertoire is in the piedmont style of blues, which features more delicate finger picking than the slide guitar so often associated with delta blues. “George will mix in some delta blues, too,” said Alex Albright, Fountain General Store proprietor, “and some country, pop, and gospel, but it’s always in his original style.”

In recent years, Higgs has performed throughout Europe and the United States and in Australia, as well as to SRO crowds in Fountain. He has released two CDs on the MusicMaker label, including his latest, Rainy Days, which features two songs penned by his wife.

George Higgs’ January 27 concert begins at 7:30 with a performance by the Higgses’ jazz singing daughters, who perform as the trio Just Us.

Tags: blues, Concert, original, Piedmont blues