Lightnin’ Wells

Location: R.A. Fountain

From our promo for this concert:

Lightnin’ Wells, who has called Fountain home for three years now, is celebrating the new release of his latest CD, Shake ‘Em on Down. Wells is an internationally renowned bluesman, specializing in the Piedmont Blues, which features more delicate finger-picking than the better known slide-guitar infused Delta Blues. Wells has performed extensively with a veritable who’s who of Piedmont blues stars, including Big Boy Henry, Algia Mae Hinton, John Dee Holeman, and Tarboro’s George Higgs. He is generally regarded as the leader of the third generation of Piedmont blues artists.

Wells concerts, however, offer much more than the blues. “Lightnin’s a professional entertainer more than anything,” said Alex Albright, Fountain General Store proprietor. “His performances are always first and foremost about showing his audience a good time–and that means a lot of variety presented with excellent musicianship.”

Wells plays acoustic guitar, resonator guitar, harmonica, ukulele, and banjo. He also whistles and yodels and usually offers a bit of historical context for the rare and classic Americana tunes that he covers.

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