Son House Tribute Festival
MAY 28 - 30, 2026
CLARKSDALE, MS
CHECK BACK SOON FOR TICKETS!
The second annual Son House Tribute Festival is happening from May 28 thru May 30, 2026 in Clarksdale, MS. As many of you know, Son House was a Delta Blues Legend, whose music still resonates and influences today. He was born in the Clarksdale area in 1903 and was a musical star in the Delta in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He influenced and mentored such Blues icons as Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. He was recorded by Alan Lomax and Paramount records in the 1930s. He was a complicated man with a complicated life. He was torn between the life of a Preacher and the life of an alcoholic musician, who spent time in jail for murder.
For unknown reasons, he quit music in the 1940s, and in 1964 he was located in Rochester, New York after being tracked down by Blues enthusiasts, including Dick Waterman. Waterman became his manager and his career was revitalized for about 10 years after he learned to play again. The remarkable documentary “Two Trains Runnin” chronicles this rediscovery. It was shown at the first festival and will be shown again this year.
The first festival featured Joe Beard and John Mooney, both of whom knew Son House when he lived in Rochester. It also featured the movie mentioned previously, a video of a House’s performance, and a panel discussion with Joe and John. Tammy Turner, author of the biography of Dick Waterman, also participated.
This year we are going in a different direction, but still will honor Mr. House. We will feature younger musicians who are continuing the Blues tradition along with a local, somewhat older legend. Those featured will be Jontavious Willis from Georgia, who has been nominated for a Grammy, Erin Harpe from Boston, who has just been nominated for a 2026 Blues Music Award by the Blues Music Foundation, Angel “ Cash” Ocasio”, also from Georgia, and local legend Watermelon Slim, the elder statesman. They are all highly talented, all with different styles, but in many ways still direct descendents of Son House and the music of Mississippi. We will also have a performance featuring many of the great local musical talent.
Lineup
Jontavious was born and raised in rural Georgia, an environment with deep cultural roots that provides the inspiration he has continuously drawn upon to create his unique sound. He spent much of his childhood singing Gospel music at the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church with his grandfather, which provided him his first setting to perform for an audience. An early phenom, his passion for the Blues was sparked at age 14 when he came across a YouTube video of Muddy Waters playing “Hoochie Coochie Man.” He achieved widespread acclaim when living legend Taj Mahal invited Jontavious to accompany him onstage in 2015, with Taj describing him as his “Wonderboy.” Jontavious was invited to open for Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ during their joint TajMo tour in 2018, giving him an opportunity to present his work on a national stage.
Blue Metamorphosis, his acoustic debut album released in 2016, garnered rave reviews in Living Blues and Blues & Rhythm and won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge 2018 Award for Best Self-Produced CD. His Grammy-nominated sophomore album, Spectacular Class, sees Jontavious survey an array of Blues styles with lively ensemble performances. Jontavious features prominently in solo shows and festivals across the world, sharing his unique blend of time-honored yet modern, intellectual yet danceable Blues with all.
Jontavious Willis
“This album was a real labor of love. I’ve always loved Mississippi John Hurt’s music, since I was a little girl listening to my dad play his songs around the house,” award-winning blues artist and educator Erin Harpe shares about her latest recording. She credits Hurt’s guitar style as being a big influence on her playing, with its alternating bass thumb-picking and syncopated melodic runs. Erin pays homage to the legendary bluesman with Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me: A Tribute To Mississippi John Hurt, a stripped-down album that she recorded with partner Jim Countryman in their home studio in Boston. The 10-song album is OUT NOW on Erin Harpe Music through the VizzTone Label Group!
The Boston-based multi-band leader, producer, indie label owner, singer-songwriter, and guitarist leads the electric blues quartet Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers with her husband and label co-owner, bass player Jim Countryman. This outfit has released three well-received albums. The couple also founded the neo-new wave-y Afro-pop group, Lovewhip, which has released four critically-acclaimed albums. Erin has issued a pair of acoustic blues albums, and maintains an acoustic blues duo with Jim playfully nicknamed “CBD,” Country Blues Duo. In addition, Erin is also an in-demand fingerstyle blues educator who in 2016 released the DVD Women of the Country Blues Guitar through the esteemed Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop.
Select collective career highlights include rave press in LA Weekly, Boston’s Weekly Dig, Boston Herald, DownBeat Magazine, and Living Blues Magazine, among other outlets. She’s a Boston Music Award Winner and a five-time BMA nominee, and she is a New England Music Award winner and an International Blues Challenge Semifinalist. Erin has had songs featured on Showtime’s Shameless, MTV’s Veronica Mars, Paris Hilton’s BFF, Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, and many other shows.
Erin Harpe
A premier musician from the Macon Music scene, Angel “Cash” Ocasio, Jr. is the founder and leader of Cash's Juke Joint. Although versatile in many genres, #CJJ brings a heavy sound that is a groovy mixture of Blues, Sacred Steel, Soul, Funk, & Rock that is sure to get your body jukin’! Founded in the historical music city of Macon, GA, Cash’s Juke Joint is a band of musical veterans with a vast variety of experience, having played nightclubs, venues, corporate & private events, festivals, concerts, and produced original music. Cash and his juke joint have opened for major acts to include Patti LaBelle, Mother’s Finest, Jill Scott, The Legendary Wailers, Swamp Dogg, Mannie Fresh, & more!
Cash’s Juke Joint
Bill “Watermelon Slim” Homans has built a remarkable reputation with his raw, impassioned intensity. HARP Magazine wrote “From sizzling slide guitar…to nitty-gritty harp blowing…to a gruff, resonating Okie twang, Slim delivers acutely personal workingman blues with both hands on the wheel of life, a bottle of hooch in his pocket, and the Bible on the passenger seat.” Paste Magazine writes “He’s one hell of a bottleneck guitarist, and he’s got that cry in his voice that only the greatest singers in the genre have had before him.”
The industry agrees on all fronts. Watermelon Slim & The Workers have garnered 17 Blues Music Award nominations in four years including a record-tying six in both 2007 & 2008. Only the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray have landed six in a year and Slim is the only blues artist in history with twelve in two consecutive years. In Spring 2009 he was the cover story of Blues Revue magazine. .
Two of Slim’s records were ranked #1 in MOJO Magazine’s annual Top Blues CD rankings. Industry awards include The Independent Music Award for Blues Album of the Year, The Blues Critic Award and Canada’s Maple Blues Award for International Artist of the Year among others. Slim has hit #1 on the Living Blues Charts, top five on the Roots Music Report and debuted in the top ten in Billboard. One of Slim’s most impressive industry accolades may be the liner notes of The Wheel Man eagerly written by the late legendary Jerry Wexler who called him a “one-of-a-kind pickin’ n singing Okie dynamo.” Slim has been embraced for his music, performances, backstory and persona. He has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, The BBC’s World Service and has been featured in publications like Harp, Relix, Paste, MOJO, Oklahoma Magazine and Truckers News as well as newspapers like The London Times, Toronto Star, Chicago Sun-Times, The Village Voice, Kansas City Star, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Michelle Shocked’s JAMS Magazine.
Watermelon Slim
Schedule
Schedule TBD! Included will be nighttime performance with local Clarksdale musicians.
Thursday
May 28
3 pm: “Two Trains Runnin” documentary screening, Son House performance screening, and panel discussion. Location: The Blue Room (216 3rd St.) FREE.
Friday
May 29
8 pm: Live performance by Cash’s Juke Joint and Watermelon Slim
Location: Hambone Art Gallery (111 E 2nd St.) Admission $20.
8 pm: Live performance by Jontavious Willis and Erin Harpe
Location: The Holy Moly (218 3rd St.) Admission $25.
Saturday
May 30
$40 ALL ACCESS PASS
COVERS ADMISSION TO THURSDAY NIGHT, FRIDAY NIGHT, AND SATURDAY NIGHT PERFORMANCES
