The Delta Cultural Center will present the Second Annual Mother’s Best Music Fest on Saturday, June 16, in historic downtown Helena, Arkansas at the Cherry Street Pavilion and inside the DCC Visitors Center on Cherry Street.

Music begins at 10 a.m. and continues into the evening. Admission is free and the public is encouraged to attend. Events are to be held rain or shine.

Mother's Best Music Fest takes an eclectic view of the variety of music produced throughout the Delta, from its blues to its rockabilly, country, and Americana sounds. The festival’s name is inspired by a 1940s radio show on station KFFA 1360-AM that featured musical innovators from throughout the Delta region.

Among performers already booked to perform at the 2007 event are Jimbo Mathus, Sam Carr with Dave Riley, Spoonfed Blues featuring Bob “Mississippi Spoonman” Rowell and Carla Robinson, Terry “Big T” Williams and Wesley Jefferson, and acclaimed cigar box guitarist John Lowe of Memphis.

“We at the Delta Cultural Center are very excited about the performers who agreed already to perform at this year’s Mother’s Best – and we hope to announce several interesting additions to the line-up in coming days,” said DCC Assistant Director Terry Buckalew, who heads up the festival’s organization.

“It’s a fun day in the early summer; we’ll again utilize part of the covered pavilion area for the audience, as well as utilizing our inside visitors center staging, and do our best to beat the heat,” Buckalew said.

Mathus of Clarksdale, Mississippi, is an original and exciting voice in independent music. A singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Mathus has released a variety of solo discs including 1997’s “Jas. Mathus and His Knock-Down Society Play Songs For Rosetta,” a collection of pioneer bluesman Charley Patton’s songs benefiting Patton’s daughter; 2001’s swamp rock “National Antiseptic”; 2003’s electric “Stop and Let the Devil Ride”; and two projects in 2006, “Old Scool Hot Wings” and “Jimmy the Kid.”

Mathus is also a guitarist and founding member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, the band with the hot jazz sound which rose to prominence in the early 1990s with its surprise hits, “Hell” and “Put a Lid On It.” The band last appeared together on tour in support of its 2000 album, “Bedlam Ballroom,” but recently announced four shows along the East Coast in February that would reunite original members Mathis, Katherine Whalen, Chris Phillips, Je Widenhouse, and Stuart Cole.

Drummer Sam Carr, a founding member of the Jelly Roll Kings with Frank Frost and Big Jack Johnson, is a legendary instrumentalist among blues musicians and fans, playing and recording with luminaries including Buddy Guy, Lonnie Shields, Paul “Wine” Jones, Willie Lomax, T-Model Ford, Cedell Davis, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Eric Andersen, and Jimmy Duck Holmes. His performance at the 2007 Mother’s Best will pair him again with blues vocalist and guitarist Dave Riley, with whom Carr cut 2001’s “Whiskey, Money & Women” on the Fedora label.

Riley, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, began playing guitar at age 9, often playing in a gospel setting with his family. Moving to Chicago during his youth, Riley became increasingly aware of the blues and fellow Mississippi-born transplants like the great Howlin’ Wolf. Riley’s continuing musical plans were put on hold during his military service in Vietnam. After his return, he began developing his professional skills as a bluesman, but turned away from the career in 1973 to raise his son, working the next 25 years as a guard at Joiliet State Penitentiary. It was a time Riley describes as plagued by addictions to drink and drugs; but Riley also notes proudly he has maintained his sobriety since 1989.

Shortly after re-starting his blues career in 1996 – utilizing his son, Dave “Yahni” Riley Jr. as his bassist – Riley broke his neck in an auto accident with a drunken driver. For nine months, he was unable to play guitar, but gradually worked his way to recovery. His albums also include the autobiographical “Living on Borrowed Time” and “Blues Across America.”

A limited amount of concession and informational booth space at the Mother’s Best Music Fest on June 16 is available free of charge to interested parties who can seek an application from the DCC. For more information, interested persons can contact the Delta Cultural Center at (870) 338-4350 or (800) 358-0972.

The Delta Cultural Center shares the vision of all seven agencies of the Department of Arkansas Heritage – to preserve and promote Arkansas heritage as a source of pride and satisfaction. Other agencies within the department are the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Old State House Museum, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, the Arkansas Arts Council, and the Natural Heritage Commission.

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