The King Biscuit Blues Festival is an annual, multi-day
blues festival, held in
Helena, Arkansas
Helena is the eastern portion of Helena–West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas. It was founded in 1833 by Nicholas Rightor and is named after the daughter of Sylvanus Phillips, an early settler of Phillips County and the n ...
, United States.
History
The name of the festival comes from ''
King Biscuit Time
:''"King Biscuit Time" is also the name under which ex- Beta Band frontman Steve Mason releases his solo work.''
''King Biscuit Time'' is the longest-running daily American radio broadcast in history. The program is broadcast each weekday from ...
'', which was the longest running radio show.
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp st ...
and other musicians played live on KFFA every weekday, pausing for King Biscuit flour commercials and announcements of their next night time performances. Jim O'Neal, the editor of ''
Living Blues
''Living Blues: The Magazine of the African American Blues Tradition'' is a bi-monthly magazine focused on blues music, and America's oldest blues periodical. The magazine was founded as a quarterly in Chicago in 1970 by Jim O'Neal and Amy van ...
'' magazine at the time and an authority on blues history, said, "The King Biscuit hour was the thing that really crystallized blues music in this area.
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago ...
and
B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...
would come home from working in the fields every day just to listen to the King Biscuit hour. The festival was temporarily renamed Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival from 2005 to 2010 due to problems arising out of rights of the name.
The festival was started in 1986 under the guidance of the "Main Street Helena" organization, which is part of the "
Main Street, USA" program. Its purpose was to revitalize the downtown area of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
port city.
Lonnie Shields appeared at the inaugural festival.
There was no festival in 2020.
See also
*
List of blues festivals
Blues festivals are music festivals which focus on blues music. Blues is a genreKunzler's dictionary of Jazz provides two separate entries: blues, an originally African-American genre (p.128), and the blues form, a widespread musical form (p.131 ...
*
List of folk festivals
A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods.
Handicr ...
References
External links
King Biscuit Blues Festival websiteArkansas Blues and Heritage FestivalAustralia Day Upcoming Festival{{Helena–West Helena, Arkansas
Music festivals in Arkansas
Blues festivals in the United States
Folk festivals in the United States
1986 establishments in Arkansas
Music festivals established in 1986
Tourist attractions in Phillips County, Arkansas