John Jackson festival returns Sept. 26

It’s the music of back porches.

So it makes perfect sense that a musician, who bills himself as the “Appalachian Soul Man,” should be a headliner at the John Jackson Piedmont Blues Festival on Saturday, Sept. 26 at Castleton Meadows.

“It’s the music of people who worked hard all day, and then they’d gather on back porches and make music,” said Aristotle Jones. Unlike John Jackson’s early life working in the fields of Rappahannock County, Jones’ roots go back to the coal fields of West Virginia — specifically to his grandfather who would come home and play after his shifts in the mines. 

“Their work ethic would translate into their music,” Jones noted. “But there was joy in the act of making music. It was meant to celebrate and build community.” 

On some of those back porches, it was bluegrass or country or folk music. On others, it was gospel or the blues. But no matter what style was played, the music was often about storytelling, said Jones.  

“When you listen to the stories, they’re not so much about tough times,” he added. “A lot of times, what they’re talking about, is how they got through them and what they did to get through them.”

Moving to Castleton

No question that that’s true to John Jackson’s story — how he was the seventh of 14 children in a Woodville family who dropped out of school as a young boy so he could help on his family’s tenant farm. How he taught himself how to play guitar and banjo. And how he was “discovered” in the backroom of a Fairfax gas station by Smithsonian music folklorist Chuck Perdue who had stopped for gas.

Jackson would go on to perform all over the world, including in Carnegie Hall and the White House, while never quitting his job as a cemetery caretaker.

That story resonated with Dietlinde Turban Maazel, the CEO and artistic director of the Castleton Festival, which she launched with her late husband, Lorin Maazel in 2009. She sees parallels between him and Jackson, both having come from what she described as “exceedingly modest”  backgrounds to achieve international fame — Jackson as a country blues artist, Maazel as a classical violinist, conductor and composer. 

“Both made their way through poverty with determination and hard work. And both cared deeply about music’s power to touch the human soul,” she said.

Maazel said she’s “thrilled” about the blues festival’s move to Castleton from its former home at Eldon Farms. She sees it as an opportunity to broaden the identity of the Castleton venue, which has long been associated with classical music and opera performances. Maazel said she had heard much about the Piedmont Blues Festival, and thought “it made perfect sense to do it here.”

It will, she said, offer a different type of musical storytelling at Castleton, but one that, like the operas featured there, is rooted in times past. Part of the goal is to provide a more intimate setting for those storytellers. “Much of it is acoustic,” she said. “We don’t need synthesizers or machines to tell us how it goes.”

Big lineup

This year’s lineup will include some familiar faces. Returning are the Erin Harpe Country Blues Duo — Harpe will again emcee — acoustic blues guitarist and singer Frank Fotusky and local favorite, Bobby G and the Heavies. New this year are country blues artists Mike Parker and Joe Hermann, along with the Piedmont blues band, the Piedmonsters. 

There also will be opportunities to learn more about African-American contributions to the county’s cultural heritage through displays and presentations from the Rappahannock Historical Society. And, as usual, there will be chances to jam with other local musicians. Food trucks will be on site.

Advance tickets are available for $20 at https://tinyurl.com/JJPBFest-tickets. 

Tickets at the gate will be $25. 

The event runs from 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. at Castleton Meadows, 7 Meadows Lane, Castleton.

To learn about John Jackson and the Piedmont blues beforehand, see his nephew, Jeffrey Scott, perform and tell stories at 12:30 p.m, Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Rappahannock County Public Library, 4 Library Road, Washington. Admission is free.