Neighboring musicians from Longview, Voodoo Healin', will come to introduce some in the audience to the performance of Freddie King, an Upshur County native who left a profound influence on blues music.

The program will also include the Harmonettes who entertained at last years banquet. Among their pieces this year, they will preform "That Old Ragged Flag" which they did last year at the Memorial Day services on the square.

The musical history of Upshur County which the museum strives to record creates the connecting thread among these diverse performers. While we have served as the birth place and/or inspiration for a number of musicians ranging from Johnny Mathis to Michelle Shocked, from Ray Price to Freddie King, with the Stamps Brothers Quartets, the Owens Brothers, and the Rangers, being added to the mix, no single musical trend has emerged.

Voodoo Healin's lead, Brock Whatley, came to the museum last September looking for a display on the famous blues playing son of Upshur County. To his surprise he found nothing.

Before Freddie and his mother, Etta King, left Lake Providence for Chicago in 1950, Freddie learned how to play the guitar with the help of his mother and his uncle, Leon King. In CChicago, he merged his country blues with the sounds he heard from Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and others, developing his own unique sound.

By the 1960's, he was recording with King Records out of Cincinnati and his way of picking was crossing the waters where English musicians especially Eric Clapton were inspired by his sound. Clapton joined King in the first intergrated blues band for a brief period in order to learn some of Freddie's techniques.

Local members of the African-American community remember how he performed benefits for them as they raised funds for band uniforms for Bruce High.

By the '70s, King had returned to Texas, performing mostly in Dallas and in Austin. In 1970, a lead-off band which performed with him at the Armadillo World Theater in Austin was called Storm, with a then little-known guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Freddie King's last performance was Dec. 25, 1976, and he died in Dallas at Presbyterian Hospital three days later at the age of 42.

With the inspiration which came from Whatley's urging, the board has decided to sponsor a Freddie King Memorial Blues Festival which will become a fund raiser for the museum. Tentatively the first festival will be next spring, with the music at the banquet serving as a kickoff to the organizational efforts.

Various sign-up sheets will be available for participants to decide how they wish to participate with the festival. There will also be displays concerning Freddie King, who would have graduated with the Bruce High class of 1951 had he remained in Gilmer.

Serving with David Robertson on the Program/Activity Committee are Connie Duke, Pat Maddox, Amy Patterson and Lynda Phillips.

Tickets are available at the Historic Upshur Museum, The Gilmer Mirror, and from board members for $15. For more information, please call 903-843-5483.

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