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This Week's Featured Marker:

Fred McDowell

Bonnie Raitt, whose distinctive slide guitar style borrows heavily from Fred McDowell, was a special guest at the ceremony. Raitt has supported various blues efforts in Mississippi including paying for proper headstones for deceased blues musiciansDick Waterman, veteran blues manager and photographer, with Bonnie Raitt in front of the marker. In the ‘60s and ‘70s Waterman managed many older blues artists including Son House, John Hurt and Skip James. He also managed Raitt, whom he introduced to McDMany members of McDowell’s family attended the ceremony. The cover of the program featured the lyrics from one of McDowell's songs, Special guest Hubert Sumlin, the longtime guitarist for blues legend Howlin’ Wolf, bows after being introduced to the crowd. Sumlin was honored with his own Mississippi Blues Trail marker in his hometown of Greenwood in May of 2008.Dawn Barham, the Performing Arts Director at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus, joined her students in a performance at what was a part of a multi-day school outing along the Blues Trail.

On May 7, 2009 the 71st Mississippi Blues Trail marker was dedicated in downtown Como, the longtime home of honoree Mississippi Fred McDowell.  The weather was unseasonably hot, but that didn’t stop hundreds of blues fans from attending. Many were out-of-towners who were visiting Memphis for the Blues Music Awards—Como is just forty-five minutes south of the Bluff City—while others were undoubtedly drawn by the presence on the program of Bonnie Raitt, who arranged her touring schedule in order to pay tribute to her primary mentor in the blues.

Unveiling ceremonies for Blues Trail markers are all organized by local authorities, and officials in Como arranged for an elaborate program. Musicians who paid tribute to McDowell’s legacy during the service included a band from the Mississippi School For Mathematics and Science; the local a capella gospel group the Como Mamas, who appeared on the compilation album Como Now; solo performer Nathaniel Warren. Following the program there was a performance by local blues artists Mary Ann “Action” Jackson and R.L. Boyce, a guitarist/vocalist who also played drums with local fife and drum corps leader Otha Turner. In August 2009 a marker was placed in Como directly across the McDowell honoring Turner, who was a close friend and musical associate of McDowell.

The ceremony itself included tributes by Raitt, McDowell’s former manager Dick Waterman, who resides in Oxford, Mississippi, and various members of the McDowell family. Attendees at the festival included Memphis bluesman Daddy Mack Orr, a native of Como whose image appears on the marker.

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