A Celebration of the Life of Howard Armstrong
CARYVILLE, Tenn. – The Campbell Culture Coalition will be hosting the Second Annual Louie Bluie Festival to celebrate the life of Howard Armstrong from 11a.m. to 9 p.m. on June 14 at beautiful Cove Lake State Park. Admission is free.
The Festival prides itself on offering a diverse presentation of music, art, crafts and food. There will be storytelling with The Bell Witch, fiddle contests, fireworks and off-beat fun to go along with the incredible Blues, Jazz and traditional Mountain Music.
This year’s Festival will feature a special performance of “Between a Ballad and a Blues,” a new play about Armstrong’s life presented by the Carpetbag Theatre of Knoxville, Tenn.
In 1930, Armstrong recorded for the Vocalion label in Knoxville, Tenn. at the landmark St. James Hotel field sessions. His confidence was given a great boost when opera legend and movie star Grace Moore encouraged him to pursue a career in music following a command performance in nearby Jellico. After moving to Knoxville, he quickly became known as the backbone of the Martin, Bogan and Armstrong trio, a group that folk artist Steve Goodman called “the best string-band ever!”
For more information, visit www.LouieBluie.org or call the information line at (423) 566-0329.
Good to see your post about the Howard Armstrong festival and your mention of Steve Goodman. Goodman often doesn’t get his due. You might be interested in my 800-page biography, “Steve Goodman: Facing the Music.” The book delves deeply into Goodman’s revival of the career of Martin, Bogan and Armstrong, and Howard was a key interviewee among my more than 1,050 sources.
You can find out more at my Internet site (below). Amazingly, the book’s first printing sold out in just eight months, all 5,000 copies, and a second printing of 5,000 is available now. The second printing includes hundreds of little updates and additions, including 30 more photos for a total of 575. It just won a 2008 IPPY (Independent Publishers Association) silver medal for biography: http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1231. To order a second-printing copy, see the “online store” page of my site. Just trying to spread word about the book. Feel free to do the same!
Clay Eals
1728 California Ave. S.W. #301
Seattle, WA 98116-1958
(206) 935-7515
(206) 484-8008
ceals@comcast.net
http://www.clayeals.com
Posted by clayeals | June 14, 2008, 11:26 pmThank you for the article. I was the storyteller telling the story called “The Bell Witch Unveiled” at the Louie Bluie Festival on June 14, 2008. I told the story at 2:30 and again at 6:00. The story was based on my book titled “The Bell Witch Unveiled At Last! The True Story Of A Poltergeist” written under my pen name of DJ Lyons. For more information about my book, please visit http://www.bellwitchunveiled.com
Posted by askdjlyons | June 15, 2008, 6:41 pm