[title subtitle=”words Dwain Hebda and images courtesy Bob Dyer and Fort Smith Riverfront Blues Festival”][/title]

The first time the blues came to Fort Smith, it arrived on the back of a flatbed trailer parked near what is now Harry E. Kelly Park. It was the first music festival of its kind in the city and at twenty nine, is today grizzled among the events that have followed. And that old bear will roar once more June 21 and 22, bringing to life one of the only true American art forms.

“The blues, I think, are more relevant now than at any time,” says Bob Marsh, part of the organizing committee who’s been involved with the event since 1996. “The blues are part of the foundation for all the other rock and roll. The blues and gospel, all that led into rock and roll with ‘Rocket 88’ in 1951 and going forward from that. Little Richard was a gospel singer before he was a rock and roll singer.”

A Muddy Waters and B.B. King fan, Bob started as a volunteer and has served on the board of the event for the past fourteen  years. He sees the event as a way not only to showcase the music he loves, but also as a way to keep the art form alive and vibrant. That, and it’s a damn good time.

“I want to emphasize how enjoyable it is for all of us to see the people come, especially the ones that have never been to a big music festival,” he said. “Come down and bring your lawn chairs. We have plenty to drink and eat, food trucks, vendors. Have a good time and watch the show and get hooked on the blues like we are.”

This year’s Friday night headliner is Mr. Sipp, aka “The Mississippi Blues Child.” Born Castro Coleman, Mr. Sipp started singing in church and was pursuing a successful gospel career when the blues got ahold of him in 2012. He found immediate acclaim as a guitarist, making it to the finals of the International Blues Challenge in 2013 and 2014, winning the latter. That year he also topped the field at the Gibson Best Guitarist competition.

This is his second appearance in Fort Smith. Saturday night’s headliner is harmonica virtuoso John Németh. A first-timer to the festival, he grew up a fan of hip hop and rock, but a Buddy Guy and Junior Wells track, “Hoodoo Man Blues,” changed his course forever. After honing his chops with various bands in his native Idaho and later San Francisco, he released his national debut album Magic Touch in 2007; work that moved Living Blues magazine to proclaim, “Magic Touch gives hope that the blues will survive.” He now makes his home in Memphis.

One joy of the festival is to showcase the next generation of artists to an often-inquisitive, always appreciative crowd, Bob says. “A lot of people tell me they’ve never heard of these acts. I say, ‘Well, you can’t get Buddy Guy to come every year,’” he says. “So, we try to do a nice mix of blues with different styles and highlight different instruments.”

Mississippi is widely regarded as the music’s cradle, but Arkansas has played no small role in the history of the art form, especially throughout the Delta. Blues luminaries who were born in Arkansas include Luther Allison, William Lee Conley, “Big Bill” Broonzy, Al Green, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Louis Jordan. But beyond its progeny, Arkansas was also host to some of the biggest blues artists of all time who came to play juke joints and bars in the state, especially Helena. The roster is star-studded: B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Amos “Junior” Wells, Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson and Albert King just to name a few.

Having been on the scene as long as it has, the Fort Smith festival has had experience to fill many a blues song, tales of rising rivers and shrinking attendance. The event will draw about 3,500 people over the two days which is slimmer pickings than in the past. But it’s still here, Bob says, which is more than a lot of events around the state can claim.

“What makes a good festival is the music of course,” he says. “Weather is always a big factor. We do ours in June, the weekend after Father’s Day. It might be hot during the day but in the evening time it’s very pleasant down there. We get a nice breeze off the river.”

The event is more than just a good time for city leaders, those tasked with economic development, tourism and the overall health of the city’s downtown. On all of these measures, the Blues Festival and the events it inspired are integral players, said John McIntosh who handles production and development for 64.6 Downtown.

“[The Blues Festival] was really a stimulus to the development of the riverfront back in the ‘90s,” he says. “That led to the development of the Fort Smith Riverfront task force, which I chaired, which led to the vote by the people for the penny sales tax which led to the development of the library system, the convention center and the development of the riverfront as we know it now. That’s real economic development driven by the arts. The blues festival cannot claim all the credit for that, but it was certainly helpful to show the citizens of Fort Smith what we could do on the riverfront.”

Asked why the event has held on when so many other events in Arkansas have dried up and blown away, John cited a frontier mentality doesn’t quit easily. “I think it’s just really the grit of the young leaders who have decided to make this something special and I really mean the young leaders,” he says. “It’s very gratifying to see the young professionals from this area who have said we can do this, no matter how long it takes, no matter how hard the work, no matter how difficult it is raising money.

“We take a lot of pride in our community and we’re going to do this and we’re going to make it work. It takes a level of skill, but it’s the determination that really makes it happen. We’re just a gritty town and that’s just how we are.”

Bob noted the event funds work in the community to keep the art form alive, providing scholarships and getting blues musicians into the schools to explain the music’s origins and perhaps inspire its future. But as to the allure of the festival, to which he and others have devoted so much time and effort, it’s as fundamental as 1-2-3.

“I really like the music and I want us to be successful and have something nice for the city, something for the city to be proud of,” he says. “We promote ourselves as the best little blues festival in America. If people will continue to come out and support us, we’ll continue to do this.”

For more information on this year’s Fort Smith Riverfront Blues Festival, visit riverfrontbluesfest.org.

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