John Cephas, Piedmont Blues Musician: Introduction
Regional Background | Music Sample | Teaching Tools | Interview

In 1997-98 CARTS piloted a virtual artist residency with the eminent blues musician John Cephas. Piedmont Blues guitarist John Cephas talked with CARTS about his life, art, and community in this, our first Featured Artist profile.

John Cephas grew up in Washington, DC. As a boy he sang with church a cappella quartets. He often visited family in rural Virginia, where his aunt, a noted guitar player in Caroline County, taught him Piedmont blues guitar. Recordings made by earlier bluesmen—Blind Boy Fuller, Reverend Gary Davis, and Blind Blake—provided further inspiration.

Throughout his life John Cephas performed with friends at houseparties, while working by day as a carpentry foreman. Only after retirement did he record and become a fulltime musician. In 1989 he received a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

His nominating letter read: "Abroad, he serves as a goodwill ambassador for American music, but (at home) in workshops, he is always learning as well as teaching. As he puts it, he never stops learning.

"John Cephas' music partner is harmonica player Phil Wiggins, who grew up in Washington, DC a few decades after John. Growing up, Wiggins listened to singing in the streets of D.C. and the recordings of country Piedmont blues musician John Jackson.

He also attended church with his grandparents in Alabama where he heard lined-out hymns. Wiggins has two young daughters. During school residencies and after-school programs, Cephas and Wiggins pass on their knowledge of the blues to lots of young people.