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Tri-Cities Kiwanis to sponsor blues concert
Published 12:00am Wednesday, January 2, 2013
The blues are coming to Florala with a Jan. 5 performance by Little Jimmy Reed.
Reed, who currently resides in Enterprise with his wife of 35 years, is touted as a one-man band. The eldest of five siblings reared in Hardwood, La., Reed “at an early age, to escape the depressions which many of the blacks experienced in the poverty stricken South, adopted a love for music,” his biography said. “He favored the guitar and the harmonica immediately, and often dreamed of some day becoming a famous guitar player and travel far beyond the hatred of Southern Louisiana.”
- Touted as a one-man-band, tickets to the Reed concert are $5 each. | Courtesy photo
He received his first guitar – made out of a cigar box – at 6, and “it sparked the beginnings of a lifelong relationship between a man and his guitar.”
The show, sponsored by the Lake House Bed and Breakfast, will benefit the Tri-Cities Kiwanis Club, said Ann Shields’, Lake House owner and Kiwanis member.
Shields said locals may be familiar with Reed.
“He did concert in Opp last year for their arts council, so he was recommended to us,” Shields said. “He sounds like a fun entertainer, and we thought that he’d be a great show. We’ll have dancing and concessions. So, it’s going to be a neat event.”
Money raised will be put back into community projects in the Paxton, Fla., Lockhart and Florala areas, and a portion will be donated to the club’s “Eliminate Program,” which is working to eradicate tetanus in third-world countries, Shields said.
The concert will be held in the Paxton, Fla., agricultural center, on Saturday from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. Tickets are $5 per person. Concessions will be available.
