About The Eatonton messenger. (Eatonton, Ga.) 18??-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2025)
Community Thursday May 1, 2025 The Eatonton Messenger City Center Stage prepares for "Peg Leg" festival Ian Tocher ian@msgrnews.com After a long offseason, Eaton ton’s City Center Stage came back to life last Friday as John Dunn and the Jazzman Band entertained a small but enthu siastic crowd from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. In addition to free live music, concert goers enjoyed food and drinks from onsite food trucks, with several vendor tables set up nearby, too. The midday affair served as a nice tune-up for this weekend’s 3rd annual “Peg Leg” Howell BBQ & Blues Festival, honoring self-taught Bluesman Joshua “Peg Leg” Howell, who was born in 1888 in Eatonton and legend has it, taught himself to play the guitar in just one night at 21 years old. Howell earned his nickname after being shot in the right leg by his brother-in-law in 1916, forcing its amputation and the use of a “peg leg” prosthetic. He began concentrating on his music after moving to Atlanta in 1923, but a bootlegging convic tion not long after incarcerated Howell for about a year. He was discovered by Columbia Records in 1926 and cut his first record, a song named “New Prison Blues,” written while he was in prison, for Columbia in November that year. Howell recorded 14 records with 28 songs for Columbia from 1926 to 1929 before the Great Depression hit and dried up the Atlanta music scene. He performed only sporadically afterward and lost his left leg to diabetes in 1952, confining him to a wheelchair. After living an austere life in anonymity for many years, Howell was rediscovered in 1963 at age 75 and made his final recording, an album featuring several of his 1920s originals and a few new songs titled “The Legend of ‘Peg Leg’ Howell,” released the following year. Howell died at age 78 in August 1966 at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital. IAN TOCHER/Staff John Dunn and the Jazzman Band entertained last Friday at City Center Stage, the site of this Saturday's free "Peg Leg" Howell BBQ & Blues Festival, presented by Visit Eatonton and the City of Eatonton. The Eatonton blues festival named in “Peg Leg’s” honor is free to attend, with music fans encouraged to bring lawn chairs, coolers, hand held umbrellas, blankets, and well-behaved pets on leashes. Not permitted in the festival area are tents or canopies, large beach or patio umbrellas, any type of fireworks, laser pointers, golf carts, bicycles, skateboards, glass bottles, or grills. Live music will begin at 2 p.m. with five bands scheduled to perform — the Jay Morris Group, Blak Pearl, the Ray Howard Band, Atlanta Blues Grinders, and Roofdog — before a 10 p.m. finish. Food trucks featuring the region’s best BBQ and other options with several vendors will be onsite, too. City Center Stage is located directly behind Barrel 118 at 118 N. Jefferson Ave., in downtown Eatonton. PCHS band performs at GCSU Art & Jazz Fest Shadimon Smith The Eatonton Messenger Georgia College & State University’s Music Depart ment and Allied Arts hosted the 36th annual Art and Jazz Fest on April 26 at the university’s front campus. The event was also live streamed on the GCSU music department’s Facebook page. The Putnam County High School Jazz Ensemble was among three high school jazz bands to perform multiple selections during the evening. The others were the Baldwin High School Jazz Band and a band SHADIMON SMITH/Staff The Georgia College Alumni Band performs with world-renowned drummer Carl Allen on front campus. from Davidson Fine Arts. Putnam County students played a song titled “Moanin’,” by Bobby Timmons, as well as a swing piece entitled Fat Cat” that they had been practicing all year to perform. They also played “Bad Dog,” a Brazilian rhythm piece and closed their set with “Chame leon,” by Herbie Hancock. “I tell [the students] that if they are proficient on their instruments, they can go anywhere they want to go and play in anybody’s band,” Putnam County band director Thetheus White said. “I try to expose them to as many different styles of jazz as possible, so they’ll be well rounded.” GCSU’s Porter Combo opened the festival with a selection from Duke Ellington and played for around 25 minutes. The McComb Combo followed and played for another 25 minutes. The GCSU Alumni Band also performed with Carl Allen, a world-re nowned drummer, to close out the night with a few compositions written by Allen, ending with his piece, “Relativity.” Clifford Towner, director of band activ ities at GCSU, said he’s happy to see the festival continuing for more than three-and-a-half decades. “It brings jazz to Milled geville,” Towner said. “We have a lot of people that like jazz. We don’t have a jazz club. So, this is kind of one of the few oppor tunities there is outside of some of the jams we do over at Amici’s. This festival is kind of our big give back for our jazz program, to bring jazz to the community.” ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ captivates OPAS audience Downtown Greensboro was electric last Friday, when the Oconee Performing Arts Society (OPAS) presented an unforgettable tribute to one of America’s greatest composers with “Rhapsody in Blue and the Music of George Gershwin.” The evening featured a lineup of internationally acclaimed talent, led by Tony Award-winning conductor/ pianist Stuart Malina, as his virtuosic piano perfor mance and work as the emcee anchored the evening with musical brilliance, depth, and humor. Joining him on stage for a memorable “four hands” version of the iconic Rhapsody in Blue was his son, Zev Malina, a gifted young composer and pianist, whose intergenerational duet with his father added a layer of emotional resonance to capti vate the OPAS audience. The concert also showcased renowned trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, a jazz icon celebrated for his dynamic presence and breathtaking improvisation on the trombone and the rarely heard soprano trombone. Baritone Michael Preace- ly’s long association with the musical “Porgy and Bess” also was evident as he delivered rich, powerful interpretations with a commanding voice. Soprano Erica Gabriel added elegance and emotional depth to the stage with her soaring vocals, including a poignant and pure version of “Summer- time” while adding variety with her unexpected jazzy reading of The Man I Love. Adding to the variety of the evening was OPAS scholarship recipient and founding OPAS Youth Chorus member Helen Garcia-Carreras. Her solid vocals and confident stage presence added lightness and fun, and her tap dancing was met with cheers. “I have been so fortunate to have participated in numerous tributes to Gershwin, and this one truly rose to the top,” OPAS leader Doug LaBrecque declared. “Having Wycliffe and Stuart on the stage alongside performers of this caliber was a ‘pinch me’ OPAS moment.” Beyond the stage, OPAS champions arts education through meaningful initia tives that include scholarships, school outreach programs, and the OPAS Youth Chorus, creating live performance opportunities for the next generation. Next up for OPAS is its annual Memorial Day Weekend Concert featuring the music of Billy Joel, Elton John, and more. The concert will feature Michael Cava naugh, a man hand-picked by Joel to star in Broadway’s “Movin’ Out.” For tickets, event details, or explore the OPAS youth community initiatives and membership opportuni- ties, visit opas.org or call 706-467-6000. — Contributed CONTRIBUTED Performers pay tribute to America's greatest composers with "Rhapsody in Blue and the Music of George Gershwin." GWM Book Review: The Book Club for Troublesome Women In her new novel, The Book Clubfor Troublesome Women, Marie Bostwick masterfully shows us the lives of four women soon after reading Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique when it was published in 1963. These women are all Virginia suburbanites, trying to fulfil what is expected of them: to be good wives and mothers and conform to societies’ expectations. Each of them — Margaret, Bitsy, Viv, and Charlotte — do not know one another at first and are hesitant to read this some what controversial book. But their reading of the book changes each of their lives. They become friends and confidants, sharing their anxieties, disappoint ments, hopes, and dreams. Bostwick immediately grabs your attention and draws the reader in with vivid character develop ment and descriptions of everyday life. As soon as I started reading, I was caught up in the story and could not put it down. I readily identified with one of the characters who wanted to write. Margaret was a happily married mother but had a yearning to do something else with her life. Like so many women of that period, she did not understand what was happening. It was that thing that had no name that Betty Friedan She BOOK CLUB TROUBLESOME WOMEN MARIE BOSTWICK Near Yak Dimes Bestselling BQulhan described. The book lit the flame of questioning. After I read Friedan’s book, I went to graduate school, and pursued a Ph.D. My passion for women’s history had been awakened. The Book Club for Troublesome Women is historical fiction as its best. It tells a fascinating story while touching on events taking place in the world. Katharine Graham of Washington Post fame appears in the first chapter. Martin Luther King is in the news and President Kennedy is assassinated. And life among ordinary folks goes on. In the private lives of the women in this book there are limitations. Margaret can’t open a bank account without her husband’s signature, and Bitsy can’t get a letter of recommen dation to go to vet school, a profession thought to be for men only. Overall, women were still trying to find a way into that wider world. Hopefully, we better under stand the world today. That’s the genius of good historical fiction. It takes the reader to another time and place, and Bost wick does it with humor, sympathy, and a colorful imagination. We learn how women coped and over came obstacles in 1960s’ America to create happier lives for themselves and their families. Plus, on top of learning women’s history, it’s just a fun read. What could be better? Marie Bostwick will be Georgia Writers Museum’s Meet the Author presenter on May 6, beginning at 11:30 a.m. with doors open a half hour earlier. Tickets are $40 each or $35 each for two or more and include a book-themed lunch. Visit Georgia Writers Museum (109 S. Jefferson Ave., Eatonton) at georgiawrit- ersmuseum.org to register or call 706-991-5119. -Contributed by Carolyn Curry, the author of Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1834-1907, selected in 2015 as a Book All Georgians Should Read. Curry was named 2015 Georgia Author of the Year for biography and will be the GWM Meet the Author presenter in September. — Contributed
