Lightnin’ Wells

Location: R.A. Fountain

From our promo for this event:

Nationally renowned local bluesman Lightnin’ Wells’ Saturday night concert headlines the upcoming weekend of live music at Fountain General Store. 

Wells, who grew up in Goldsboro but recently moved to Fountain from his 20-year residence in Farmville, has been presenting his professional mix of oldtime, blues, folk, gospel, country, pop, and vaudeville classics across the United States and Europe for over a decade. 

His shows draw from a vast repertoire of music from the first half of the 20th century. He performs on acoustic guitar, a National steel guitar, harmonicas, and ukelele. In addition to his outstanding vocals, his performances include whistling and yodeling.

Wells is known primarily as one of the leading proponents of the Piedmont blues, which features faster and more delicate fingerpicking than the more widely known slide guitar of the Delta blues. He has traveled extensively with a who’s who of the best Piedmont blues artists, including the late Big Boy Henry, Algia Mae Hinton, John Dee Holeman, and George Higgs, whose latest CD this concert will help celebrate.

Higgs and Wells have both recorded for the Hillsborough-based MusicMaker Relief Foundation, and Wells’ September 23 concert will also be a CD release party for Higgs’ latest, “Rainy Day.” 

Higgs, the Tarboro bluesman who in recent years has traveled throughout Europe, Australia, and the U.S., plans on attending the concert. “I miss my friends in Fountain,” he said.

Health problems this summer have forced Higgs to cancel his performances, and this will be the first opportunity he has had to meet his fans since the CD was released in August.

“We’re looking forward to it,” said his wife, Bettye, “and we all hope to see you over in Fountain.”

Higgs’ CD will be available from the Higgs family Saturday night only for $12, and Mr. Higgs says he hopes to feel up to signing a few copies. It regularly sells for $15-$16.

The Lightnin’ Wells concert and George Higgs CD release party begins at 8 p.m. Admission is $5. 

Tags: blues, Concert, country, Delta blues, folk, gospel, guitar, hokum, old-time, Piedmont blues