Today and tonight signify Friday, July 31.
PORT TOWNSEND — The last Centrum extravaganza of the summer, the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, wraps up tonight and Saturday with club gigs, two free concerts and the main-stage showcase at Fort Worden State Park.
In its 23rd year, the country-blues celebration, a week of workshops, jams and shows, brings together a flock of players: Sherman Holmes, Michael Jerome Browne, Gene Taylor, Sunpie Barnes, Alice Stuart, Pat Donohue, Samuel James, Rich DelGrosso, Terry “Harmonica” Bean among them. Singer-pianist-violinist-guitarist-banjo man Jerron Paxton is the artistic director of it all.
Here’s the schedule of performances.
■ Today, noon: Free Friday at the Fort concert with songsters Ben Hunter and Joe Seamons on the Commons at Fort Worden State Park, 200 Battery Way. Free admission.
■ Saturday, 11 a.m.: Gospel blues concert featuring the Sherman Holmes Project and gospel workshop participants at the Fort Worden State Park chapel. Free admission.
■ Tonight and Saturday, 8 p.m. to midnight: Blues in the Clubs performances by Beareather Reddy, Cyd Smith, Daryl Davis, Dean Mueller, Jay Summerour, Jerie Choi, Lauren Sheehan, Leroy Etienne, Lightnin’ Wells, Mark Puryear, Mary Flower, Micah Kesselring, Paul Asbell, Steve James, Terry Waldo, Tom Feldmann, Valerie Turner and many others fill six venues on and near Water Street.
The spots are The Public House, the Cotton Building, the Cellar Door, the Boiler Room, the American Legion Hall and the Key City Playhouse, and a $25 wristband each night covers every one of them.
■ Saturday, 1:30 p.m.: The Acoustic Blues Showcase happens at Fort Worden’s McCurdy Pavilion, and gathers many of the Blues in the Clubs players plus the Sherman Holmes Project with Brooks Long and Cora Harvey Armstrong. Tickets range from $23 to $43 for this big festival show.
The Acoustic Blues performance package is also available, and includes reserved seating at the Acoustic Blues Showcase at McCurdy Pavilion and general admission to Blues in the Clubs. This package is $80 for section A seating at McCurdy; $70 for section B and $60 for section C.
To buy single or package tickets, see Centrum.org or phone 800-746-1982; tickets to the McCurdy Pavilion concert will also be available at the Fort Worden box office an hour before show time.
