Lisa Denton and Barry Courter
BARRY COURTER: Lisa, every year about this time for the last three and half decades or so, I can’t help breaking out into the Elvin Bishop classic “I’m Struttin’ My Stuff Y’all. It’s the perfect blend of Southern charm, funk and attitude, and it just gets stuck in my head every time I hear the words Bessie Smith Strut.
LISA DENTON: As strutting songs go, that one would be hard to beat. And you’ll have plenty of company on M.L. King Boulevard. I’ve seen folks strutting at the Strut that you never see strutting anywhere else. Something about the music, I guess. This year’s headliner is Chicago bluesman Toronzo Cannon.
BARRY: And we are going to have someone who is playing the festival into the studio every day this week for special episodes of Music Wednesdays, the weekly Facebook Live segment Lesley Dale and I do at noon. The times this week are sort of fluid because of the musicians’ schedules, so if people want to watch, check our facebook.com/timesfreepress page. Coming in today is Selwyn Birchwood. He’s playing the Strut tonight at 7:30 on the Trestle Stage.
LISA: He’s getting a lot of notice for his new album, “Pick Your Poison,” which is the phrase that always comes to mind when I put food on the table for company. “Pick Your Poison” follows “Don’t Call No Ambulance,” which won Birchwood a Blues Music Award for Best New Artist Album. You’d think “Don’t Call No Ambulance” would follow “Pick Your Poison.”
BARRY: It’s so weird he has songs named after signs hanging in your kitchen.