Helena-West Helena stages its long-running King Biscuit Blues Festival with music, bike tours and food

Pass the biscuits and a big ol' helping of blues as the annual King Biscuit Blues Festival kicks off this week in downtown Helena-West Helena.

From the official kickoff on Thursday until the final notes ring out over Cherry Street late Saturday night, more than 70 acts will play on six stages during this year's edition of the long-running celebration of the blues and Helena-West Helena's unique association with the idiom.

"Oh, my word, it's just over-the-top fabulous," says Munnie Jordan, executive director of the festival, when asked about this year's lineup. "Tickets have been selling well and everything is on track. People are really excited."

Fans will be shaking their tail feathers at stages all over downtown and to Main Stage headliners Tab Benoit (8:30 p.m. Thursday), JJ Grey & Mofro (8:45 p.m. Friday) and Gov't Mule (8:40 p.m. Saturday).

At 1:10 p.m. Thursday, a special Main Stage performance by The Legendary Pacers will pay tribute to their leader, Newport native and rockabilly legend Sonny Burgess, who died Aug. 18.

Other downtown venues include the Bit O Blues Stage, the Gospel Stage, the Lockwood Stackhouse Stage, and the Front Porch Stage. For a complete lineup, check kingbiscuitfestival.com.

Along with all those musicians playing most every imaginable iteration of blues -- from full-tilt, electric, Chicago-style boogie, and greasy Southern soul to acoustic folk blues -- there are plenty of other activities throughout the festival for music fans and the people who love them.

BLUES, BIKES AND A RUN

The Tour da Delta, the annual Helena-West Helena-based bicycle tour that got started 11 years ago, has moved from its usual calendar spot of later in the fall to coincide with the festival. There's even a blues fest logo on the tour's official jersey.

"I'd always thought that the lure of the blues festival is such a draw," says first-year Tour da Delta director Chris Schaffhauser, a Helena-West Helena native who now lives in Little Rock, "what would happen if we had the ride then?"

This year's courses will feature a 65-mile route at 9 a.m., a 28.6-mile route at 9:30 a.m. and a seven-mile Family Fun Ride at 10 a.m., all starting and finishing at the American Legion Hut, 409 Porter St.

Staffed rest stops and refreshments will be available along the routes. Registration is $60 and includes a pass to the blues festival's Main Stage, $20 in Blues Bucks to spend at festival vendors and Tour da Delta socks. Children cycling the Fun Ride will ride for free. For information on the routes and to register, see tourdadelta.net.

The 65-mile route will send riders across the river bridge to loop around Moon Lake in Mississippi before they return to spin through Helena-West Helena, out to scenic Storm Creek Lake and then back downtown to the finish.

"That Moon Lake ride and then out to Storm Creek was a real favorite of a lot of people," says Schaffhauser, who has ridden all but one of the past tours. "It's a good route."

Rooms and camping spots book quickly during the festival, so cyclist-only accommodations have been arranged at the American Legion Hut and at St. John's Episcopal Church, 625 Pecan St. (about a block away), for riders wanting to spend the night before Saturday's spin. Cost is $20 at the church and $15 at the Legion Hut. Riders are asked to take their own air mattresses or cots, Schaffhauser says. See tourdadelta.net for details.

Another festival-related athletic event, the Flour Power 5K Run, begins with packet pickup at 6:30 a.m. in front of the Phillips County Courthouse, 620 Cherry St. The race, which is limited to 300 entrants, starts at 8 a.m.

The 5K is held in memory of former race director, runner and Helena native Kenneth Freemyer, who was killed in a car wreck in 2000. The run is also a fundraiser for the new Freeman Playground in Helena-West Helena. Registration is $25 in advance, $35 on race day. See kennethfreemyer.racesonline.com for more information.

A PAIR OF IRON MEN

Early-bird music fans can start their Biscuit experience with Warm Up Wednesday at the Main Stage.

The Michael Burks Memorial Blues Jam starts at 6 p.m. and, if past sessions are any indication, will stretch deep into the night. The free jam honors Arkansas bluesman and festival regular Michael "Iron Man" Burks, who died of a heart attack in 2012 at age 54.

And just before the music gets underway, festival organizers and fans will salute guitarist Anson Funderburgh, another kind of iron man who, with his band The Rockets, has performed at each King Biscuit festival since the first one in 1986.

Those with one-day, three-day or VIP passes can attend the Funderburgh appreciation festivities, which begin at 5:30 p.m. Otherwise, admission is $10.

Funderburgh & The Rockets will then get down to business again at a 5:35 p.m. Main Stage set on Friday.

Interested in a scholarly approach to the blues? Well, the music gets a good pondering on Saturday during the Seventh Annual Call and Response: Blues Symposium at the Malco Theater, 422 Cherry St.

Two sessions, beginning at 10:45 a.m. and again at noon, will feature festival performers like Robert "Bilbo" Walker, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Luscious Spiller, Libby Rae Watson and Sterling Billingsley in conversation about the blues.

Roger Stolle, owner of the store Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art Inc., in Clarksdale, Miss., and a columnist and author will moderate the early session. Journalist Don Wilcock will moderate the second session.

PASS THE BISCUITS!

There wouldn't be a King Biscuit Blues Festival without King Biscuit Time, the radio show that first went on the air on Helena radio station KFFA on Nov. 21, 1941, and featured Sonny Boy Williamson and the King Biscuit Entertainers each Monday-Friday playing their tunes, promoting their gigs and hawking King Biscuit Flour.

The show, which won the George Foster Peabody Award in 1992, still airs on KFFA each weekday from 12:15-12:45 p.m. with longtime host and Blues Foundation Hall of Fame member "Sunshine" Sonny Payne. Visitors can watch Payne, 91, broadcast King Biscuit Time on Friday from his studio at the Delta Sounds Gallery in the Delta Cultural Center's Visitor Center, 141 Cherry St.

Get there early, as the gallery fills up quickly. A special Saturday show is also scheduled for 12:15, but fans are advised to check with the cultural center for more details.

And speaking of Payne, James Yancey "Taildragger" Jones, who will headline the Lockwood-Stackhouse Stage on Friday at 7:30 p.m., is this year's recipient of the "Sunshine" Sonny Payne Award of Blues Excellence, given each year by the cultural center.

AND THE BARBECUE!

If all this talk of biscuits has made you hungry, don't fret. Cherry Street will be lined with food vendors selling everything from Cajun fare and tamales to funnel cakes and most everything in between.

Barbecue lovers may also want to participate in the People's Choice BBQ Contest from 2:15-4:15 p.m. Saturday at The Manchester, 350 Phillips St. For $10, barbecue connoisseurs get one beer or nonalcoholic drink and a chance to sample the handiwork and vote for their favorites from the over two dozen teams battling in the BBQ & Blues on the Levee competition.

Online advance ticket sales have ended, but there may still be passes available at The Manchester during the festival.

Style on 10/03/2017