HELENA-WEST HELENA – Colorado-based bluesman John-Alex Mason, a finalist in the 2008 International Blues Challenge, will perform a free concert on Friday, Feb. 22, at the Delta Cultural Center in historic downtown Helena-West Helena.

The performance begins at 2 p.m. in the “Main Street of the Blues” Gallery at the DCC Visitors Center at 141 Cherry Street. No admission is charged; the public is urged to attend.

Mason is no stranger to Helena, having made three appearances at the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival, formerly the King Biscuit Blues Festival, where he took the “Most Promising Emerging Artist” title in 2004.

“I first heard John-Alex Mason in the distance when he played at the King Biscuit festival in Helena a few years ago,” Bob Margolin, former guitarist for Muddy Waters, recalled in an interview. “His Delta blues sounded so right and appropriate in the land where the music was born, mixed with the echoes of the blues from the past, by the Mississippi. John-Alex was whuppin’ it with the fire, passion, and understanding of the language of blues music. I had to find out who was playing, and I met him and thanked him when he came off the stage.”

Mason became interested in the blues as a teen, and concerts he saw during that time by Johnny Winter and James Cotton has a large impact on him, as did Columbia Records’ release of the “Complete Robert Johnson” when he was 15. His passion grew into performance during his college years, and he won the Telluride Acoustic Blues Competition in 2001.

In 2002, he released the Mason & Hundt CD with multi-instrumentalist Gerry Hundt. Two years later came his “Time Will Come” disc, followed by “Live Fire” and “Walking Tracks” in 2005, and the “Barefoot” EP in 2006.

Margolin is far from alone in praising the young bluesman, and Mason’s latest CD release, Town and Country,” in 2007 has earned him further acclaim. “An important new voice in the blues,” critic Scott Yanow wrote of Mason and “Town and Country” at allmusic.com.

“John-Alex Mason has a powerful and eerie voice and a quiet but emotional guitar style that is a throwback to the country blues greats of the 1930s … Lovers of the country blues will certainly love this impressive effort,” Yanow wrote. Many others have agreed. “Even though Mason hails from Colorado, he sounds as if he was born and raised on the Stovall Plantation spring full grown from the soul of Charley Patton,” said Brett Fleming, host of “Soul Stew” on Memphis public radio station WEVL.

Mason will kick off his latest visit to Helena-West Helena with a 1 p.m. appearance on the “Delta Sounds” radio program on KFFA-AM. The show is broadcast from the Delta Cultural Center Visitor’s Center at 141 Cherry Street and hosted by “Sunshine” Sonny Payne and DCC Assistant Director Terry Buckalew. The public is welcome to attend.

Gallery hours at the DCC Visitors Center at 141 Cherry Street and the nearby DCC Depot at 95 Missouri Street are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. “King Biscuit Time,” the nation’s longest-running blues radio program, is hosted each weekday at the DCC Visitor’s Center by Payne, from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. “Delta Sounds,” hosted by Buckalew and Payne, is broadcast each Friday from 1 to 1:30 p.m.

For more information, interested persons can call the Delta Cultural Center at (870)-338-4350 or toll free at (800)-358-0972 or visit the DCC online at www.deltaculturalcenter.com.

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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