Big Muddy Folk Festival, Boonville, Missouri, April 6-7, 2001

Before the blues met the big city lights it stayed down home in the country and grew on the acoustic guitar. Catfish Keith stands as one of the finest acoustic bluesmen in America. A 20-year veteran with two W. C. Handy Award nominations for best acoustic blues album, Keith has packed houses from coast-to-coast and toured the U.K. and Europe more than a dozen times. He has appeared with the likes of John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Koko Taylor, Taj Mahal, Leo Kottke and Jessie Mae Hemphill.

While he is one of the finest and most exciting guitarists to appear at our festival, Keith's singing style demonstrates how his pilgrimages to the Delta country have left him deep, deep in the country blues with a great, foot-stomping groove. His interpretations of the classic numbers of Bo Carter and Skip James are rich and deeply personal. The ways he makes his guitar sing and plays his voice make you think he's a duet by himself.

Visit the Catfish Keith web site.