Photos from the Crescent City Blues Festival

The last set of photos from our US trip, mostly covering the Crescent Ciry Blues and BBQ Festival in New Orleans. Here's the star of the first day, who attracted a big crowd, Samantha Fish.

Also appearing on the first day, the ever colourful Little Freddie King.

The first act we saw on day two was Mem Shannon.

This is John 'Papa' Gros.

Next up was some excellent gospel/blues from the Rev John Wilkins and his three daughters.

This is Shemekia Copeland, who brought Irma Thomas on stage to congratulate her on her Americana award. Thanks to Dave Carroll for the photo of Irma.

Here is a regular on every trip to New Orleans, Walter 'Wolfman' Washington.

Headliner on day two was Jimmie Vaughan.

Day three kicked off for me with bluesman Kenny Brown.

This is Papa Mali.

And here is Keeshea Pratt.

Henry Gray, now aged 93, was performing with Terrance Simian among others.

Here is Cookie McGee.

Headlining the final day was Don Bryant, along with Percy Wiggins and the Bo-Keys.

Finally, here are some of the bands we saw in the evenings in New Orleans: Rev Peyton's Big Damn Band, the Fleurtations, and Ernie Vincent and Marilyn Barbarin.

Photos from Memphis to New Orleans

We are up to the Memphis part of our trip and here are some more photos taken along the way. We visited the house where Aretha Franklin was born. It's rumoured that it will become a tourist attraction but at the moment it's pretty much derelict.

We went to Beale Street where the best blues on offer was that of Earl the Pearl at the Blues City Cafe.

Two recent additions to the Memphis landscape are statues of Bobby Bland and Little Milton. Here's me next to Milton outside another recent addition, the Blues Foundation centre.

Here are Lee and Dave at the Blues Foundation centre.

While in Memphis we sought out some music graves at a few of the cemeteries there. Here are the markers for Rufus Thomas and Johnny Ace (Alexander).

From Memphis we visited Jerry Lee Lewis's ranch just across the border in Nesbit, MS, where we were shown round by his son, Jerry Lee Lewis III.

We went back to Baton Rouge where we stopped off at Kenny Neal's Juke Joint. There wasn't a live band playing but Kenny's brother Fred, keyboard player in his band, played some blues for us and made us very welcome, as did a young lady called Vernicia who was there.

Moving on to New Orleans, we went to the Rock 'n' Bowl where Geno Delafose was playing. More photos from New Orleans next time.

More photos from the US trip

This is the third set of photos from our US road trip mostly featuring pictures from music events in Mississippi and Arkansas. One of the best concerts we went to was at the Horseshoe Casino in Robinsonville starring Carla Thomas and Latimore.

We stayed in Clarksdale for a few days and saw Luscious Spiller at Red's juke joint.

We also went to the Ground Zero blues club where there was a jam session featuring Big A.

Whilst there we took a trip to the little town of Sumner where the murderers of Emmett Till were tried, and acquitted. We also visited the river bank where his body was found. The signs commemorating this have recently been damaged by bullet holes.

We spent a day at the King Biscuit Festival in Helena, Arkansas, where Bobby Rush did an indoor set on the Front Porch Stage.

Also appearing was Pat Thomas, son of Son Ford Thomas.

There's a mural there for Conway Twitty, who was born not far away at Friars Point.

Another of the acts there was Johnie B and Iretta Sanders. Here's Iretta.

Here's Earl the Pearl Banks, a regular performer on Beale Street.

Also performing was the excellent Johnny Rawls.

After Clarksdale we went south to a street festival in Yazoo City. Here's one of the stars, southern soul singer Ms Jody.

Headlining there was another southern soul artist Sir Charles Jones.

This is Gary 'Lil G' Jenkins who brought a couple of ladies from the audience on stage.

Johnny Rawls also made another excellent appearance.

As did a young singer called DanL. More photos soon.