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PAUL:
Most musicians work their whole lives to hone their craft and share their talent. After all, music is the soundtrack of our lives. So how can you give back to an artist who has enriched your life so much? Hey, it's Paul Wolf with the front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places and events that make the City With Soul shine.

Today, Keith Ferguson is here to talk about WellsFest CARES, an organization that's helping musicians with their life needs, from medical to housing, as a way of giving back for all the joy they bring to us. And to have that sort of passion must mean Keith, you're a big music fan.

KEITH:
I grew up in the 70s, Paul. I love music. A really good friend of mine really got me into the blues back in the late 70s. And one of the first albums I heard at a friend's house, the first BB King album I heard was Live at Ole Miss. And that song, “Never Make Your Move Too Soon.” And I became in love with BB King almost immediately. I am very passionate about BB King and trying to share the importance of BB King in Mississippi and really around the world.

PAUL:
Oh, I love that. That's great. So part of the reason we're here today, or I guess the big reason we're here, is to talk about a new organization, WellsFest Cares. Maybe you can give me some background on how that organization came about.

KEITH:
WellsFest CARES is an outgrowth of the WellsFest music festival, which has been sponsored by Wells Church for 40 years. I've been a member of Wells Church for 40 years. I've been going there for probably about 45. And, we started Wells Fest - Malcolm White came up with an idea to do something to help support the renovation project that we had going on at Wells Church at the time. He came up with this idea of Wells Fest. We started it and had it there on Millsaps’ campus, right there at the corner of West Street. After that, Keith Tonkel said in typical Keith Tonkel fashion, “Hey, let's do this and do something for somebody else. Let's give the money away to some other organization.” And so that's where that started. And the thing of it is, we've given over a million and a half dollars to organizations in the neighborhood, in the city, to help all kinds of different causes.

The one thing that's made it possible for us to do that is the music. And for those 40 years, every one of those musicians has given their time freely without charge to make this thing a better place to help support the festival and the organization and to give back.

PAUL:
Yeah. This is world-class music at Wells Fest to some of the best in the area, even some regional bands that come in here just out of the goodness of their heart to share their talent.

KEITH:
Absolutely. I've been looking back recently, Greg “Fingers” Taylor passed away. Greg was our first headliner at WellsFest and he played a number of years, but he was really hot back then and playing with Buffett. And it was a big, big deal for us to have that kind of talent. Once we had fingers, then a lot of other people said, oh yeah, I'll do that. And it just had a lot of great talent come show through the years. We've had Mac McAnally, we've had just tons of musicians. They all just buy into the whole spirit of what we're doing there.

PAUL:
And so then WellsFest CARES comes along. This is a brand-new organization that, if I understand the mission correctly, you are trying to assist older and ailing blues musicians with the needs of their life, be it health or home or whatever they might need to survive. Kind of a way to thank them for all that they've given to us over the years.

KEITH:
So musicians are great at providing entertainment and giving us a lot of things to be joyful about. Sometimes they're not really equipped with a safety net and will run into trouble spots. And, and, so we want to be there for those musicians who hit those times. It may be an instrument needs repair. It may be a car that needs repair. It may be dental, could be utilities. It could be funeral expenses. And so we want to be there for those musicians that have a little extra need and just need some extra helping hand there.

PAUL:
So why is this such a passion project for you, Keith? What makes this a cause that you want to get behind?

KEITH:
You know, to him who has been given much, much is required. And Wells Church is a place that has brought great significance and meaning to my life. WellsFest has been a huge part of that. And I want us to be able to share that with other people. We love sharing WellsFest. We love sharing Wells Church. And it's time that we do something to give back to these musicians that have made all of this possible. It's just really fun to be a part of something that's so exciting because everybody's jumping on board and joining us in this.

PAUL:
You've got a fundraiser coming up in February to really kind of help kick start your, your fundraising efforts for the organization. Can you tell me more about that?

KEITH:We have the Steve Chester tribute. Steve is another one of those outstanding musicians that has given back so much to this community. Steve has played with a number of bands. He played every single WellsFest, except the last one when he was in bad health, but he had played every WellsFest we've ever had. He played with Jean and Kelly Pates. He played with the DLo Trio. He played with the Vernon Brothers. Played with Big House. These are all different bands that he played with and he was a huge supporter. And we lost Steve last year and we are just want to celebrate his life and remember him. And we're also helping his family to pay off some end of life expenses, about $10,000 worth of hospice care and other expenses. And we're working with others to try to pay this off and so far we're about over halfway there. And so it'll be not only a time to celebrate Steve, but it'll be a time for people to reach out and help us in a tangible way.

PAUL:
What a great idea. So where is this concert being held and what is the date?

KEITH:All the WellsFest CARES concert series - and we're doing them quarterly, this is our third one - they're all at Wells Church. That's 2019 Bailey Avenue. That's two blocks south of the Jackson Medical Mall. It'll be on Sunday, February the 4 at 4 pm. And encourage people to get there early because we really are expecting a packed house. We have 14 musicians that are already committed to playing and this is going to be a huge musical event in Jackson.

PAUL:
All right. You can't tease us like that and not tell us who's on the bill.

KEITH:
Okay. So we're going to have the DLo Trio, which is Hal and Connie Jeans and Bill Ellison. We have the Big House, which is Barry Leach and Mike Piter, and then we have Andrew Pates, Don Patterson, Chris Gill, Timmy Avalon, Chris Derrick, Scott Albert Johnson, Chalmers Davis, Travis Brawley, and Raphael Semmes.

PAUL:
That's a powerhouse lineup.

KEITH:Some of the finest musicians in this whole state, they all had a great love for Steve Chester. There was so many other people that really want to come and play. We just, we'd have to have a four or five hour concert to include everybody that wanted to play. But it's going to be a huge event. Just encourage people to check us out on Facebook under WellsFest CARES, like, and follow our page. This is where we'll be posting the events that we have coming up. Invite you to come out and be a part of it. It's a lot of fun. You'll really enjoy yourself. The church is a great acoustical setting for the music. It’ll be really great.

PAUL:
My thanks to Keith Ferguson for giving us a scoop on WellsFest CARES. My thanks also to the Director of Communications and Data at the Community Foundation for Mississippi, Sophie McNeil Wolf, who introduced us to Keith. Sophie says you can donate to the WellsFest CARES fund at the Community Foundation if you want to support this amazing cause. I'll put links to the upcoming Steve Chester event and the fund in the show notes.

Soul Sessions is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Rickey Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. You can learn more about our mission and what we do at visitjackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf, and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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