Apollonia Kotero Morris, lead vocalist of Mystic Blue, performs at Brews & Blues, the bimonthly River City Blues Society event at The Camel. (Photo by Joey Wharton)
Play the record, and you can hear the Delta blues anchoring Muddy Waters’ distinct sound as he moans, “I’m a man, a full grown man. I’m a rollin’ stone,” on his 1955 Chess Records single “Mannish Boy.”
In death as in life, Waters remains a legend of the musical art form known as the blues. The genre inhabits many derivatives — the Delta blues Waters was born to and the Chicago blues he perfected, B.B. King’s style of Memphis blues, the country twang of Piedmont blues and many others — all of them like streams flowing to a river. The River City Blues Society of Virginia (RCBS) is committed to preserving blues music in its truest form and teaching it to a new generation of musicians and blues music lovers.
“A lot of people are familiar with Chicago Blues, Memphis Blues, Texas Blues, Piedmont blues,” says Forrest McDonald, a veteran blues guitarist, songwriter and president of RCBS. “Then there’s the ‘down-home blues,’ or ‘cry-in-your-beer’ blues. Our group, we support all kinds of blues.”
Forrest McDonald (Photo courtesy Forrest McDonald)
McDonald knows the blues. He met Muddy Waters in New York City around 1964, and the master bluesman’s sound influenced the young musician. Over the span of his 50-plus-year career, McDonald has recorded 13 critically acclaimed albums and jammed with a slew of famous artists. McDonald’s guitar solo flavors the 1976 classic “Old Time Rock and Roll,” sung by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Bob Seger and featured in the movie “Risky Business.” As a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section in the late 1970s, McDonald also lent his talent to Bobby Womack’s album “Roads of Life.” McDonald says simply, “The blues is part of me, my core.” These days, he leads the Forrest McDonald Band in regular live performances around the region while serving at the helm of RCBS.
“We have about 300 members across the state,” McDonald says of the society, which is one of hundreds of affiliate groups stemming from parent organization the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee. McDonald says RCBS “supports and promotes local blues talent” with its bimonthly Blues & Brews event. Held at The Camel every other Friday, 5 to 8 p.m., Blues & Brews spotlights a different up-and-coming Richmond-area blues group each month.
“We also sponsor a Blues Challenge every year,” says McDonald. Bands who win the challenge earn the right to represent RCBS in the International Blues Challenge competition, the Blues Foundation’s annual search for the best blues band in the world, held each spring in Memphis. Williamsburg-based group In Layman’s Terms was the 2018 RCBS Blues Challenge champ. RCBS maintains a calendar of area live performances and events for those seeking a blues fix at rivercityblues.org.
There’s the “down-home blues,” or “cry-in-your-beer” blues. Our group, we support all kinds of blues. —Forrest McDonald, President of RCBS
“Honestly, I think that Richmond is very receptive to the blues. We have lots of places [including] Emilio’s, Capital Ale House, and The Camel [that] encourage blues bands to come and perform. Holding space like that is important,” says Apollonia Kotero Morris, lead vocalist of Richmond blues-rock band Mystic Blue, which performed Jan. 11 at the River City Blues Society Presents series at The Camel.
Morris’ name is a tribute to her mother’s musical idol. “My mama loved Prince,” says the Southwest Virginia native, her Appalachian drawl coating each syllable like warm honey. Actress and singer Patricia “Apollonia” Kotero co-starred with Prince in his 1984 film “Purple Rain.”
When she sings the blues, Morris always aims “to take people home,” she says. “There’s a lot of pain in the blues, but there’s a lot of good, familiar, loving stuff in there, too.”
Beyond its work with local musicians, McDonald says RCBS educates young people in Central Virginia about the artistic and cultural value of the blues through its Blues in the Schools program.
“If an interested school wants us to come and perform ... at an assembly or presentation, we go,” explains McDonald. “We love to introduce young children to the blues, and give them a background of what blues is, what it sounds like and what it feels like.” In 2006, RCBS applied for and received a grant from the Blues Foundation to jump start its Blues in the Schools programming in Virginia schools. Open to elementary, middle and high school students, Blues in the Schools programs “engage in multidisciplinary, whole-language learning using the study of music, math, language arts, history, anthropology and sociology in a hands-on approach celebrating creative self-expression,” reads the Blues Foundation’s website. RCBS, and other Blues Foundation affiliate groups participating in the initiative, may offer students performances, workshops and artist-in-residence programs.
Like jazz, blues music is powerful yet nostalgic; its golden age, many say, is in the past. McDonald believes the blues can evolve.
“There are some people that, if it’s not traditional blues, they don’t want to hear about it. There are other people that say if it feels like blues, even if it’s not standard, typical blues, it’s good. I am of that attitude, because [it] allows new players to come into the mix, new music to be created,” says McDonald. People still love the blues.”
Vell Sims, the bassist for Mystic Blue, has been playing for more than 20 years. (Photo by Joey Wharton)
