Magic Slim is somebody who refuses to be denied. He started out playing piano, but in a cotton-gin accident he lost a finger on his right hand - "the main finger," he said - and couldn't manage the instrument. Also when he was a child, he built a guitar with baling wire from a broom, and "my momma beat my ass," Magic Slim said in a recent phone interview.
Deacon Burton & the Victory Travelers - 2 p.m. Starting in 1991 with the Blind Boys of Alabama, top-notch gospel choirs have been featured at Mississippi Valley Blues Festivals. The Mississippi Valley Blues Society learned about the Victory Travelers thanks to Otis Clay.
The purpose of the RiverRoad Award (as the Mississippi Valley Blues Society [MVBS] "a river runs through it" guitar logo attests) is to honor those artists who have devoted their lives to bringing what we call "river" blues - music that runs deep with emotion, like a river of the soul - to anyone they meet on life's highways.
Joe Price - 5 p.m. Joe Price comes from Waterloo, where he first began to play slide guitar using a slide he sawed from the handlebars of a neighbor's bike. Pretty old-school for an Iowa boy. He found his way to Iowa City, where he managed to solidify his craft when blues legends such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Honey Boy Edwards, and Hound Dog Taylor passed through town on their Midwest tours.
The Mercury Brothers - 2 p.m. The Mercury Brothers are Memphis-bound in early 2006 to compete in the International Blues Challenge after winning the local blues challenge and the Iowa Blues Challenge.
Daniel Burnside - 2 p.m. Opening on the tent stage at 2 p.m. on Sunday will be Blue Grass, Iowa's own Daniel Burnside. Originally from Como, Mississippi, Daniel is the son of legendary bluesman R.
The Tablerockers - 5 p.m. The current band is based in northwest Arkansas and premiered in December of 2001. It features Jason Davis on guitar and vocals, Texas native David Watson on drums, and Larry Boehmer on bass.
If you ever engage Carl Finch in a discussion about the health or politics of polka, watch out. And do not make any polka jokes. The singer/guitarist/accordionist/keyboardist for the Texas-based band Brave Combo is passionate about his polka, and he can work himself up into such a froth that you might mistake his tone for anger.
Hello and welcome to the 21st Annual I.H. Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. As is apparent from the name, the biggest change for this year will be the addition of "I.H." to our festival name. This addition of course stands for the I.
Part of the Ike Turner philosophy is that he'll play with just about anybody. For example, he appears on a few tracks on an album that was released last month. "They knew me, but I didn't know them," Turner said.

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