Willie King's Freedom Creek Festival 2004

FEATURING the great Willie King and the Liberators

Willie King at last year's festival OTHER ARTISTS include "deep swamp, rockin’ and rollin’, bad to the bone blues" from Mudcat,plus Alabama blues talent Little Jimmy Reed, Little Lee, Taylor Moore, "Birmingham" George Conner, Debbie Bond, Todd Johnson and Jock Webb, Clarence Davis, and Jessie Daniels!

We are very happy to announce that the Southern Foodways Alliance will be at the festival providing top quality food and refreshments

Hotel and motel accommodations are available in nearby Macon, Mississippi and Aliceville, Alabama. More choices are available a little further away in Columbus, Mississippi, Eutaw and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

". . . For King is not only a professional musician; he's also a community organizer in western Alabama's Pickens County.
He combines his two pursuits every June when he hosts his Freedom Creek Festival, a gathering of musicians, political activists and barbecue cooks on King's farm in Aliceville, Alabama. . . .

. . . To get there, you pull in off the paved road, drive past the two sagging white trailers where King lives and works, slip through the break in the trees, cross the freshly mowed field and park near the stand of maple, oak and pine. Those trees hug the steep slopes of a V shaped ravine cut by a small creek. At the top of the north bank is a lumber and cinder block stage, spray painted with silhouettes of the maple leaves lying all around.

Performing on stage in the John Lee Hooker style that seems to dominate the festival is Little Lee, a veteran bluesman from just across the border in Mississippi. He is backed by Debbie Bond, the guitar playing director of the Alabama Blues Project, and by Clay Swofford, the 18 year old keyboard prodigy from Dakman, Alabama.

But King strides away from the stage, past the eight foot long gas tanks that have been converted into charcoal grills, past the brochure laden community tables, past the whiskey drinkers in their lawn chairs, out into the woods where he can sit cross legged on the ground and explain his work. . . .

Willie King at last year's festival

. . . After all the other bands have played, just as the sun is reddening the line of trees to the west, Willie King & the Liberators take the stage. The lights strapped to the maple trees come on, and the small crowd of maybe 200, black and white, abandons the nylon chairs to wriggle and writhe in the dust before the stage. . . .

. . . The set's highlight is 'America,' a song from the new album. Backed by a groove that reminds one of Booker T. & the MGs, King sings of a broken love affair with a mixture of hurt over the broken promises, and of hope that the separated lovers can be reunited. But the song is not about a woman; it's about the singer and his nation. 'America,' he sings in a plaintive tone, with Halbert shadowing his every move, 'we've been separated too long.'

'Like that song says,' King argues, 'all of us in America have to try to make up with each other, just like a man and a woman. I love America, and America has been divided too long. We have to heal those wounds and really try to get it together this time.' "

(Above photos courtesy of Andreas Fuhrmann)

Directions

From almost any direction, the best route is to get to Aliceville first!

From Aliceville to Old Memphis (in Pickens County)

For further information please contact the Alabama Blues Project by email or by phone in the USA at (205) 554 1795.