News

GUITARIST POP FERGUSON WILL TAKE BLUES TO GTCC

JAMESTOWN - Legendary guitarist Clyde (Pop) Ferguson Sr. will present a blues program at noon on Monday (Feb. 20) in the auditorium of the Sears Applied Technologies Center.

The event, which is part of GTCC's celebration of African American History Month, will be free and open to the public.  Sponsors are GTCC Student Life, Diversity Committee, International Student Office and Organizational Development.
Ferguson, 84, who has been playing the guitar for 70 years, will be accompanied by his son, bass player Clyde Ferguson Jr., and other musicians. Most of the music is blues from 1900 to 1950, but a couple pieces range back to 1850.

Pop Ferguson is one of the last practitioners of traditional blues in the North Carolina foothills. He was born in Wilkes County, the son of a guitar-playing Holiness preacher. His family moved to Lenoir when Ferguson was 13. It was there that he met guitar legend Max Moore, a blues musician.  Moore taught Ferguson the chords on the guitar, and the youngster was soon playing with groups and on the street.

Through the years he has played mainly along the East Coast but also has done programs in Japan. He also served in the Army where he played for special events.

Ferguson's music and some of his many stories were selected last year for inclusion in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington.


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Contact: ROBurchette@gtcc.edu (Released 2/9/12)