To raise awareness for the importance of continuing the fight to save old Maxwell Street, Mr. H (known as Baron of the Blues) will be hosting a 48 Blues Marathon on old Maxwell Street during the Chicago Blues Festival, starting on Friday night, June 8 at 9PM and going continuously straight through to Sunday June 10, ending at 9PM on Sunday. This will be at Maxwell and Halsted Streets, across from Original Jim's Hot Dog Stand, about a mile and half south and west of the Grant Park Chicago Blues Festival.

This event is hosted by Mr. H., Bobby 'Top Hat' Davis, Jimmie Lee Robinson (The Lonely Traveler), Lill Scotty, Lajune, James Washington, M.K. McGee, Al Harris, Charles Earwin, JM, Ruby Harris (King of Blues Violin), Neil Rose, Bobby Too Tough, Joe Patterson and the Cut Rate Band, Dancin Perkins, Piano C. Red, Mandanz Wolf, Harmonica George, Sugar Baby Minzie, and Frank 'Little Sonny' Scott Jr. (Supreme Mayor of Maxwell Street). These folks are well-connected in Blues circles and they often bring surprise guests. Last year, in addition to the regulars, Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith, Johnnie Mae Dunson, Corky Siegel, and Bilbo Walker, among others, stopped by to play.

This Blues happening is an extension and elaboration of Blues jams which occur on old Maxwell Street very Sunday afternoon, weather permitting. The jams are a Chicago tradition over 80 years old. They started again this year on April 29 and they will be continuing Sundays until November or December (when the weather turns cold), hoping to keep Blues culture alive and increase people's consciousness for Blues and neighborhood preservation.

Mr. H has been part of the Maxwell Street scene since the 1950s, learning Blues harmonica from the musicians on the street, as an immigrant kid from Germany. Says Mr. H., "Blues Fans and musicians from the official Chicago Blues Festival are invited to come and join us. Maxwell Street is Blues in, by, and for the community. We are all one. Anyone can come and jam with us. We need to raise awareness all over the world and join forces. This needless destruction has got to stop. Maxwell Street is needed to pass this music from one generation to the next. I'll be playing harp till my lips bleed."

74 year old Frank Little Sonny Scott Jr. will be playing his home made percussive house keys and acting as Blues DJ between sets. He played on Maxwell Street in the 1950s with Freddie King and then later on also with Jimmie Lee Robinson to form The Every Hour Blues Boys. Says Scott, "This place is very important to me. People know it all over the world. For the sake of my grandchildren and your grandchildren we can't let them destroy this place. This is where it began. There would be no Chicago Blues Festival without Maxwell Street. Maxwell Street deserves respect for the struggles here people had to go through."

Bobby 'Top Hat' Davis came to Chicago with Baby Face Willette. Davis started playing in the Maxwell Street neighborhood in the 1960s by the Marathon gas station on 14th Street. He was Jimmy Roger's drummer and fishin buddy and played with Little Walter, Mighty Joe Young, Earl Hooker, Matt Murphy, and many other Chicago Blues greats. He will be playing organ and guitar and singing his new Blues song, "Maxwell Street, Juketown, Chicago." He introduced that song on his award winning cable TV Bobby Davis Show on the Public Access Channel. Says Davis, "You know I'll be here and I'll be telling all the musicians I know to come down to be part of this historical event. I hope this will not be our last year here."

Jimmie Lee Robinson will be playing his Maxwell St. Teardown Blues. He played on Maxwell Street in the 1940s with most of the legends. His uncle was a Blues musician down here too, One Leg Sam Norwood. Says Robinson, "As Long as I live, I shall fight with the Coalition to preserve Maxwell Street. We will not go away. We will continue to fight to save those remaining 36 whole buildings and we expect that more will join our battle. We owe it to the Bluesmen and Women whose memories inspire us and give me strength. They lived in the day's troubles and they died from the troubles of this world. We can't let them be forgotten. We can't let the traditions die."

Come down, support the cause, grab a Polish, listen to some Blues, and jam, clap your hands, or dance.

For more information, visit the website <www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html> or <www.maxwelstreet.org>.

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