Blues, bluegrass fills Greenbo Lake for Col. Bill Williams Heritage Music Festival

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• If you go: Col. Bill Willams Greenup Heritage Music Festival

GREENUP, Ky. -- Live music flowing in the outdoors goes together like melting marshmallows and chocolate on a graham cracker.

Next weekend, Greenbo Lake State Resort Park gets that musical s'more on the proverbial campfire with two days of national-act country, bluegrass and blues outside in its new amphitheater.

The $650,000 amphitheater, which opened last year, will host the Col. Bill Williams Heritage Music Festival that runs Friday and Saturday, Aug. 15-16.

The festival honors the late, great Greenup, Ky.-based bluesman "Col." Bill Williams, who was known for such songs as "Low And Lonesome" and "When The Roses Bloom Again."

Friday, Aug. 15, will be an evening of blues starting at 6 p.m. Larry Whitt, the Blues Cruisers and da Mud Cats will warm up the crowd for the headline act, Teeny Tucker, who will take the stage at 8:30 p.m.

Based out of Columbus, Ohio, Teeny is the daughter of Ohio blues and R&B legend Tommy Tucker, who among other things wrote "High Heel Sneakers," a song that's been cut by more than 200 artists including Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Janis Joplin, John Lee Hooker and The Grateful Dead.

Raised in Dayton, Ohio, Teeny has been a staple at blues festivals around the world since a 1994 performance at the Apollo Theatre earned her a standing ovation.

Tucker, whose latest CD pays tribute to Big Mama Thornton and Big Maybelle, is a two-time, top-three finalist in the International Blues Challenge that takes place annually in Memphis, Tenn. She has shared the stage with BB King, KoKo Taylor, Etta James, Buddy Guy, The Holmes Brothers, Calvin Owens, Robert Cray and many others.

Like her father, Teeny's also a songwriter. She wrote eight of the 11 songs on her second CD, titled "First Class Woman," which can be heard in rotation on XM Satellite, Music Choice and Blues radio stations all over the country. Her song-writing abilities earned Teeny a place as a top-10 finalist in the International Songwriting Competition.

Admission is $8 per person ($5 for seniors) and free for children 12 and under. There is no reserved seating; bring lawn chairs and/or blankets.

Saturday, Aug. 16, the Heritage Music Jubilee will roll on from 1 to 11 p.m., with a two-hour dinner break from 5 to 7 p.m. Afternoon performers will include Sasha Collette and Gospel Tide, while evening performances will feature the Gospel Enforcers and Ken Mellons with the America's Bluegrass Band.

Saturday admission is $10 per person ($5 for seniors) and free for children 12 and under.

Mellons, a country star known for a string of hits including "Jukebox Junkie," has collaborated before with America's Bluegrass Band founder, Don Rigsby.

Rigsby, who is also the executive director of the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State University, is an internationally-recognized bluegrass musician and singer. He has released a number of critically-acclaimed solo CDs as well as projects with Longview, J. D. Crowe and the New South and Lonesome River Band.

Risgby has shared two IBMA awards while performing with Longview and also sang on a Grammy-winning album by rocker John Fogerty.

Cary Lyle, park superintendent, said the two nights of live blues, gospel and bluegrass is a great way to honor Williams, whose photo hangs in the Jesse Stuart Lodge lobby.

"We're very excited to again honor a blues legend and an African-American legend because it is honoring our heritage," Lyle said. "He lived in Greenup County and has passed on, but all the old bluegrass and blues folks remember him. He had several blues albums out and had played with Bill Monroe. He was just a legend here that hasn't really been honored."

Lyle said the festival really came together as the amphitheater was being built and when Greenup County became one of the first counties in the United States to get an extension service agent who was dedicated to the arts. That agent, Cora Hughes, along with Paul Hitchcock, host of Morehead State University's blues program on WMKY-FM, and others in the Greenup County Growing with the Arts Advisory Council, really got the festival idea boiling about three years ago.

Lyle said the festival really took off after getting Williams' children and grandchildren involved.

This year, Greenbo's chef is fixing up a BBQ buffet set out at the amphitheater. Saturday night, the Jesse Stuart Lodge will have the almost-famous Seafood Night buffet that happens every Saturday.

Also Saturday, the amphitheater, which has fixed seating for about 400 people and a second tier of lawn seating, will have regional arts and crafts vendors.

"We want to focus on the entire aspects of the cultural arts and want to highlight our artists of all types," Lyle said. "We have quite a few folks coming out already and have room for more to come out and showcase their art and give them a chance to sell something and display their art."

Although only in its second year, the amphitheater has already hosted two weekends of live theater this summer and more is scheduled for the fall, including the world premiere of an original musical adapting the beloved Jesse Stuart story "A Penny's Worth of Character," in mid-September, during the annual Jesse Stuart Weekend.

"The amphitheater is exactly the way we envisioned it," Lyle said. "We're giving our local region an outdoors venue for folks to come and see quality entertainment at a reasonable price and to give local artists a platform and a stage to showcase their artistic ability. Maybe one day somebody who was on the stage will be on a sign on The Country Music Highway."

Courtesy of Teeny Tucker

Blues singer Teeny Tucker will perform at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, as part of the Col. Bill Williams Greenup Heritage Music Festival at Greenbo Lake State Resort Park.