B.B. rules

LITTLE ROCK — Blues fans know just as well as students of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

So they don’t mind that the erstwhile King Biscuit Blues Festival is now the more prosaically named Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival. Adding excitement to this week’s

25th annual gathering will be the nonpareil B.B. King’s first performance ever at the popular event.

Some fans still call it The Biscuit or the Helena Blues Festival, even though its official name has been changed. The historic Mississippi River venue has gone through a name alteration in recent years too - to become hyphenated Helena-West Helena.

Opening Thursday night with the venerable King, arguably the biggest name in blues, the festival continues with Dr. John on Friday night and Taj Mahal on Saturday night.

King, who turned 85 last month, is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who was ranked No. 3 on Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” list. During two-thirds of a century performing, he has done more than 15,000 shows across America and around the world, with his trademark guitar, Lucille.

Hopeful festival officials are projecting a three-day attendance of 80,000, even withlast year’s policy change to charging admission for Main Stage shows at the formerly all-free event.

Helena’s blues boosters confronted 21st-century economic realities a year ago and began asking fans to pay for the Main Stage. This year’s charge of $25 provides a wristband good for all three days. Other stages are still free of charge.

“We didn’t hear a lot of complaining a year ago,” says Munnie Jordan, the festival’s executive director, referring to the Main Stage admission fee. “There were just some who said, ‘Why in the world have you not done this before?’”

Jordan, a Helena resident since age 3, was brought back to a job she’d held previously to rescue the festival a year ago when its finances were in disarray. She claims to have no musical knowledge, other than a childhood enthusiasm for Elvis Presley and seeing fellow Phillips County resident Levon Helm and his sister play music in their younger days.

She does admit to knowing a thing or two about fundraising. This year, she recruited Southern Bancorp as the festival’s largest sponsor. Other major sponsors include Helena’s neighbor across the river, the Isle of Capri Casino, as well as AT&T and the Delta Cultural Center.

The center took over the city’s former railroad depot in 1990 and renovated the building. It stands a few steps away from the festival’s Main Stage area, between the levee and the town’s main thoroughfare, Cherry Street. The center, part of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, now houses exhibits devoted to blues history.

The center is home to the nation’s longest-running blues radio program, King Biscuit Time, broadcast each weekday from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. and hosted by the show’s longtime maestro, “Sunshine” Sonny Payne. Jordan says it is hoped that King will appear on Payne’s program during the weekend.

“When B.B. was starting out and still had a job in the 1940s driving a tractor in Mississippi, he would rush home at lunch to hear King Biscuit Time and his idol, Sonny Boy Williamson,” Jordan says. “B.B. has never played the festival before, and he and Sonny Payne are the same age, 85. It will be so great if we can get the two of them together to share some stories.”

And what would a festival be without an official historian? Berbon “Bubba” Sullivan holds down that honorary post, thanks to his involvement with the event since its birth. The former farmer, lumberman and traveling salesman decided to indulge his love of the blues by starting Bubba’s Blues Corner in part of a building he and his wife bought for an antique business.

“I opened the shop a year after the festival began,” Sullivan says. “It makes you feel good that the festival is still going strong after a quarter of a century. It’s had its ups and downs, but to think that we’ve got two of the greats this year - B.B. King and Taj Mahal - and neither one of them has ever been here before.

“The first year we had some help from the University of Mississippi, who have a museum and helped us with our poster and so on, and we had CeDell Davis as our first act on the borrowed trailer we used for the stage. Robert Palmer, the Little Rock writer who then was with The New York Times, got up with his flute and they played together. Two weeks later, there was a half-page article in the Times, and that helped establish our credibility.”

Texas blues-rocker Anson Funderburgh is a festival mainstay who has performed every year since 1986 with his band, the Rockets. Jordan notes that Funderburgh and his musical pal, Michael Burks, a Little Rock-based blues rock guitarist who will perform Friday night, have lined up a special treat for locals and other true-blue blues fans.

“Michael has come for a number years to the tent-city campgrounds, and he’s called ‘the Mayor of Tent City,’” Jordan says. “He and his fiancee, Bobbi, are getting married, and they plan to have a reception here Wednesday. Although the official opening is on Thursday, Michael and Anson will jam on the main stage Wednesday night. That will make for a nice treat for our local fans and anyone else who arrives a day early.”

Dallas-based Funderburgh plans to be around Wednesday through Saturday, doing his show on the Main Stage at 5:10 p.m. Saturday. He’ll possibly jam with other musicians and at least see all the friends he’s made in the past 25 years.

“It’s a really special place,” Funderburgh says, “like playing in my living room or putting on a good pair of shoes or jeans. I know so many folks there now, not just locals, but also people from around the world who make their plans around getting a big dose of the blues.

Bad weather has at times affected festival attendance, although Jordan scoffs at the idea that blues fans let a little moisture or wind, sun or high or low temperatures play a role in whether they show up or not.

“Last year we had straightline winds on Friday,” she says, “and they knocked down tents and the fencing, but by 11 a.m. that day, everything was put back up, then it was freezing cold, so attendance was around 25,000. One year it was raining, but no one left. Instead, they were out in the rain, dancing.”

Sullivan downplays any worries over consumer reluctance to pay for what was formerly all free.

“You can still walk down the street and hear what the musicians are playing,” he says. “You just can’t see their faces since the stage faces the levee. There are still the other four stages available at no charge. If someone can’t have a good time here, they don’t deserve to have a good time.”

New events this year include a kids’ stage in a newpark in front of the Phillips County Courthouse. At 5 p.m. Saturday, the kids’ stage becomes the gospel stage, with performances until 11 p.m.

“The kids’ stage, called the Bit-O-Blues Stage, will have some very talented kids,” Jordan notes, “such as Homemade Jamz, which is two brothers and their sister, who made their guitars out of tailpipes from old vehicles.”

As always, there’ll be a host of vendors along Cherry Street, with barbecue as one of the primary foods offered. There’ll be plenty of arts and crafts. Runners will have their choice of 5K or 10K competitions Saturday morning. Rhodes College from Memphis will present a free symposium on the blues in the renovated downtown Malco Theater, also on Saturday.

Jordan and Sullivan agree that the festival has been a positive influence for community spirit.

“This festival brings everybody together,” Jordan says. “We have about 400 volunteers, and the governor has been a great help to us. We want to work on coming up with ideas that will make the area more of a tourist destination throughout the year, such as the Wild Hog Festival in April that brings in some of the motorcycle riders.”

Sullivan is basking in the glow of excitement over the booking of King.

“He has traveled all over the world and he deserves a huge amount of the credit for keeping the blues alive,” Sullivan says. “You think back to when disco came in, and how B.B. stayed out there on the road and kept playing the blues.”Festival schedule

Tickets providing admission to Main Stage shows for all three days of the 25th Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival in Helena-West Helena are priced at $25. They may be ordered online at

bluesandheritagefest.com

. Children under 2 are admitted free.

Advance tickets also can be bought for $23 at Edwards’ Food Giant locations in Little Rock, Helena-West Helena, Forrest City, Marianna and Harrisburg. A $3 coupon, reducing the price to $20, can be found in the 2010 AT&T Yellow Pages. There’s no charge to take in performances on other stages.

Here is the Thursday through Saturday schedule, subject to change. More information is available at the festival website or by calling (870) 338-9144.

MAIN STAGE Thursday

11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.: 2009 Emerging Artist Winner Heather Cross 12:30-1:15: 2010 SBBS Battle of The Bands Winner Diddley Squat 1:30-2:15: 2010 IBC Winner Grady Champion 2:30-3:20: Willie Cobbs 3:40-4:35: Sterling Billingsley Band 5-6:05: James Harman 6:25-7:30: Reba Russell 7:55-9:05: Paul Thorn 9:30-11: B.B. King

Friday

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Sherrie Williams 12:45-1:45: Big Jack Johnson 2:00-3:05: Smokin’ Joe Kubek with Bnois King 3:35-4:40: Kentucky Headhunters 5:00-6:10: Hubert Sumlin & The Willie “Big Eyes” Smith Band6:35-7:50: Michael Burks 8:15-9:30: Marcia Ball 10:00-11:30: Dr. John

Saturday

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Preston Shannon 12:45-1:50: Larry McCray 2:05-3:20: Bobby Parker 3:35-4:50: Pinetop Perkins & Bob Margolin 5:10-6:25: Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets 6:50-8:05: Walter “Wolfman” Washington 8:25-9:40: Charlie Musselwhite 10:00-11:30: Taj Mahal

LOCKWOOD STACKHOUSE STAGE Friday

11-11:45 a.m.: U.S. Navy Band Noon-12:45 p.m.: Phillip Stackhouse 1-1:45: Andy Coats 2-2:45: Johnny Billington 3-3:45: Eden Brent 4-5: Bernie Pearl 5:30-6:40: Spoonfed Blues featuring The Mississippi Spoonman 7:00-8:10: Gwen White8:30-9:40: Mojo Buford 10-11:15: Bobby Rush

Saturday

Noon-1 p.m.: Jimmy “Duck” Holmes 1:20-2:20: Rev. Roberts 2:40-3:40: Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat 4-5: John Hammond 5:30-6:40: Lonnie Shields 7-8:10: Wampus Cats 8:30-9:40: Don McMinn 10-11:15: Earnest “Guitar” Roy

BIT-O-BLUES STAGE Saturday

Noon-12:45 p.m.: Johnny Billington 1-1:45: Matt Wigler 2-2:45: Homemade Jamz 3-3:45: Payton Clark Tribute Band