Hal Reed - photo by Glenn Cotabish

Through storytelling, discussions, and musical demonstration, Hal and Donald will trace blues music’s history and culture from its African roots through today’s era, showing how and where the blues originated and threaded its way through all cultures in our society. The goal is that students today continue to appreciate, understand and carry their fathers’ and mothers’ music into the next generation.

Blues harpist, guitarist, singer and educator Hal Reed was born in Mississippi just a few miles from the Delta, where he grew up influenced by his grandfather, a talented southern folk-blues artist who in addition to inspiring young Hal’s love for the blues taught Hal the need to pass it on from generation to generation.

TJ Wheeler

T. J. Wheeler was born in Bremerton, Washington, on April 16, 1952. He began playing the guitar at the age of 12 after being inspired by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and a local band by the name of the Sonics. At 15 and 16 T. J. was playing his guitar as a single and in all types of groups such as jug bands and organ trios at all types of venues such as coffeehouses and bars in towns and cities on the Pacific Coast between Seattle and San Francisco. He then spent a year on Bainbridge Island, Washington, running his own coffeehouse which featured live acoustic music on weekends. Afterwards, he spent two years in Seattle, where he performed in different groups and was able to hear in person and be influenced by visiting blues legends such as Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotton, and Son House.

Beginning in 1972, when he reached the age of 20, T.J. did a lot of traveling, spending time in the Deep South, where he heard, played and even lived with blues legends such as Bukka White, Furry Lewis, and Sleepy John Estes. He also spent time in Colorado, performing and hanging out with blues musicians Jerry Ricks, Mary Flower, Tim O’Brien and others from the Denver Folklife Center scene.

Billy Branch

Billy was born at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital just north of Chicago on October 31, 1951, and grew up in Los Angles where he learned how to play the harmonica, but no blues. Billy didn’t become interested in blues until he returned to Chicago to attend the University of Illinois where he earned a degree in political science. It was when he attended a festival at Grant Park, produced by Willie Dixon and featuring such blues legends at Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Big Mama Thornton and many others, that changed Billy’s life forever.