Blind Willie McTell Music Festival Happens September 24, 2022
Tickets on sale now for this festive musical showcase in Thomson, Georgia.
Wear comfortable shoes for dancing and toe-tapping. Bring your appetite for an array of food vendors and flowing drinks. Get ready to mix and mingle with other blues fans and music enthusiasts. Come celebrate music with a range of acts both traditional and contemporary at this open-air festival. And feel free to bring an umbrella since this open-air festival is rain or shine.
The 28th annual Blind Willie McTell Music Festival—set for Saturday, September 24, 2022, in Thomson, Georgia—is celebration of music steeped in tradition. It routinely features American Music Award winners and Grammy nominees who bring the audience to its feet.
The music celebration is named for Georgia native Blind Willie McTell, a 12-string guitar pioneer and influential musician best known for writing Statesboro Blues. During this life, McTell performed everything from blues to ragtime to popular hits, spirituals to hillbilly yodels to sentimental tunes. “His influence touches multiple musical genres,” says Elizabeth Vance, executive director at Thomson-McDuffie County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “It’s fitting that variety of styles is staged here in McDuffie County where he was born.”
Jimmie Vaughan
Talent Lineup
This year’s McTell Fest showcases six acts. Headlining is Jimmie Vaughan, who has won four Grammys and was named Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year at the 2020 Blues Music Awards. He’ll play his modern electric blues at McTell Fest with a full band including horns. The Texas Gentlemen roll elements of funk, soul, country, R&B, Southern rock, and gospel into one. Joachim Cooder is a percussionist, drummer and pianist who also plays the electric mbira, a variation on the African thumb piano. Chatham County Line performs original material with a unique, hard-driving sound all its own. Cordovas embrace the sound of classic Americana and country-rock, with close harmonies and dueling guitar work. Parts and Labor is a six-piece band that plays original tunes influenced heavily by the sounds of the South.
Cordovas, Chatham County Line, Parts & Labor, Joachim Cooder, and The Texas Gentlemen
Free Kick-Off Concert
Blair Crimmins and the Hookers
A free concert showcasing Blair Crimmins and the Hookers will kick-off the festival in Historic Downtown Thomson the evening of Friday, September 23. Having previously performed at McTell Fest, Blair Crimmins looks forward to taking the Friday stage. “It’s a crowd with positive energy, fun yet laid-back,” he says. “There’s a great mix of people who are open to new bands and new music.” Crimmins is a vocalist who also plays guitar and four-string tenor banjo. Band members play saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and piano. During Friday’s concert, they’ll play “a majority of original tunes with some covers peppered in,” says Crimmins. The show will be held outside the Thomson Depot on Railroad Street from 7 to 10 p.m.
Tickets
Ticket sales begin July 1, 2022, and are available online at www.blindwillie.com. Prices on advance tickets are $40; tickets sold at the gate are $50. Children age 12 and younger who are accompanied by an adult can attend at no charge. Gates open at 11 a.m.; the first performance is set to begin at Noon.
Explore Thomson
Stay at a hotel in downtown Thomson and you can enjoy free shuttle service to/from the festival on Saturday. While in town, take time to explore Thomson-McDuffie County, which is located just outside of Augusta on the west side of Clarks Hill Lake. The area offers abundant natural beauty, local history, budget-friendly shopping, tasty cuisine, compelling agritourism stops, and so much more that we recommend you plan on a 48-hour getaway. Don’t miss McTell’s 12-String Strut, a collection of seven-foot tall, hand-painted Stella guitar replicas on display throughout downtown Thomson. Stop by the Thomson Depot to see one of the guitars and listen to an audio presentation about Blind Willie McTell. Also, be sure to look for the Blind Willie McTell Mural at the end of Central Avenue, or visit his grave at Jones Grove Baptist Church on Happy Valley Road.
Blind Willie McTell is buried at Jones Grove Baptist Church on Happy Valley Road