April 2, 2007

LIVINGSTON, Ala.—The University of West Alabama and the City of Livingston organized the Sucarnochee Folklife Festival as a celebration of the regional culture of Alabama’s Black Belt. Now in its fourth year, the festival will feature a special concert Saturday, April 21 by Alabama bluesman Willie King and the Alabama Blues Project in memory of Sumter County blues legend Vera Hall. Additionally, the Alabama Blues Project, with the help of the Sumter County Historical Society, will erect a historical marker in memory of Hall, a 2005 inductee into the Alabama

 Women’s Hall of Fame.

“We knew that our cultural traditions needed to be documented, maintained and appreciated,” said Dr. Tina Naremore Jones, Director of UWA’s Center for the Study of the Black Belt. “Over the years, the stories, the songs and the crafts of West Alabama artists have faded from the minds of many people. The festival is an effort to restore those memories for younger generations. The memorial concert and historical marker for Vera Hall are additional ways we can celebrate the Black Belt and the people who have impacted this region and beyond.”

Born in 1902 in Payneville, just outside of Livingston, Hall established one of the most stunning bodies of American folk music on record. Though Hall sang her entire life, it was not until the late 1930s that her singing gained national exposure, when famed ethnomusicologist John Avery Lomax recorded over 200 spirituals in Sumter County during recording trips for the Library of Congress in 1937, 1939 and 1941.

Although Hall died in 1964, her work still garners attention. In 1999, techno-artist, Moby, included her voice and song “Trouble So Hard” in his multi-platinum album, Play, thus introducing Hall’s voice to a whole new generation of listeners. Prized by scholars and folksong enthusiasts, Hall’s recordings include examples of early blues and folk songs that are found nowhere else. Her masterful renditions of traditional songs and stories are a defining part of Southern Black culture and the Black Belt region.

Alabama bluesman Willie King will headline the festival and pay tribute to Hall. King’s album Freedom Creek was acclaimed by critics worldwide and received awards from Living Blues Magazine for Best Male Blues Artist, Best Blues Album and Best Contemporary Blues Album. Blues diva Caroline Shines, the daughter of the late Johnny Shines, and blues vocalist, guitar player and song writer Debbie Bond of the Alabama Blues Project will open for King, with Shines offering her rendition of Hall's "Another Man Done Gone."

Musicians from a variety of genres will also provide entertainment throughout the day, including Jacky Jack White, Russell Gulley, Jack & Jones, T & D Live, Morning Star Baptist Choir, the Emelle Dulcimer Group and the West Alabama Gospel Singers. They join storyteller Delores Hydock, potter Jerry Brown and other folk artists from across the state at the 2007 Sucarnochee Folklife Festival.

Additional activities include the Cornbread Cook-off, the Sucarnochee 5K River Run, a walking ghost tour through Livingston and the University of West Alabama campus and much more. For more information about the Sucarnochee Folklife Festival or the Vera Hall historical marker dedication, please call 205-652-3752.