Biography
Piedmont blues specialists John Cephas on guitar and Phil Wiggins on harmonica rank among the few acoustic performers who have gained from the recent revival of interest in unamplified music. The New York Times and other major outlets have singled out Cephas as "one of the outstanding exponents of the Piedmont style guitar."
Although both musicians entered the world in Washington, D.C., Wiggins arrived twenty-five years after his guitar-playing colleague. Each possesses a strong voice, and their recorded work blends well-known traditional blues numbers with self-penned material. Alongside Virginia’s John Jackson, the pair regularly surfaces whenever Piedmont blues comes to mind. The term Piedmont, a geological label for the foothills lying between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Coastal Plain, stretches from northern Virginia down to Florida. Piedmont blues denotes the subgenre historically associated with artists from Virginia, the Carolinas, Florida, and Georgia; its notable exponents include Peg Leg Howell, Pink Anderson, Jackson, Blind Blake, and Willie Walker.
Cephas, nicknamed “Bowling Green” John Cephas because he spent his childhood in Bowling Green, Virginia after his birth in Washington on September 4, 1930, first encountered blues through an aunt whose boyfriend also played guitar. Once she introduced him to blues chords at age eight or nine, he quickly developed his own approach, later shaped by the playing of Blind Boy Fuller and Rev. Gary Davis.
Self-taught harmonica player “Harmonica Phil” Wiggins, born May 8, 1954, lists Sonny Terry, Little Walter, Hammie Nixon, Big Walter, Junior Wells, and Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) among his primary influences. He began performing while still in high school and appeared at the 1976 Washington, D.C. Street Fair alongside gospel singer Flora Molton.
The two musicians first crossed paths at a 1977 jam session in a Washington residence and soon joined Wilbert “Big Chief” Ellis’ Barrelhouse Rockers as regular members; Ellis’s death later that year led to the group’s dissolution. Since launching their professional touring partnership in 1978, Cephas and Wiggins have participated in U.S. State Department-sponsored tours that reached Europe, Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and the Soviet Union.
Their discography encompasses several highly regarded albums issued by Marimac Recordings and Flying Fish Records, followed by the Alligator Records release Cool Down from the Chicago label. The Flying Fish titles from the 1980s—Dog Days of August, Guitar Man, and Flip, Flop and Fly—stand as prime illustrations of contemporary acoustic Piedmont blues. They continue to draw festival audiences and appear at numerous blues events across the United States each summer.
Although both musicians entered the world in Washington, D.C., Wiggins arrived twenty-five years after his guitar-playing colleague. Each possesses a strong voice, and their recorded work blends well-known traditional blues numbers with self-penned material. Alongside Virginia’s John Jackson, the pair regularly surfaces whenever Piedmont blues comes to mind. The term Piedmont, a geological label for the foothills lying between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Coastal Plain, stretches from northern Virginia down to Florida. Piedmont blues denotes the subgenre historically associated with artists from Virginia, the Carolinas, Florida, and Georgia; its notable exponents include Peg Leg Howell, Pink Anderson, Jackson, Blind Blake, and Willie Walker.
Cephas, nicknamed “Bowling Green” John Cephas because he spent his childhood in Bowling Green, Virginia after his birth in Washington on September 4, 1930, first encountered blues through an aunt whose boyfriend also played guitar. Once she introduced him to blues chords at age eight or nine, he quickly developed his own approach, later shaped by the playing of Blind Boy Fuller and Rev. Gary Davis.
Self-taught harmonica player “Harmonica Phil” Wiggins, born May 8, 1954, lists Sonny Terry, Little Walter, Hammie Nixon, Big Walter, Junior Wells, and Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) among his primary influences. He began performing while still in high school and appeared at the 1976 Washington, D.C. Street Fair alongside gospel singer Flora Molton.
The two musicians first crossed paths at a 1977 jam session in a Washington residence and soon joined Wilbert “Big Chief” Ellis’ Barrelhouse Rockers as regular members; Ellis’s death later that year led to the group’s dissolution. Since launching their professional touring partnership in 1978, Cephas and Wiggins have participated in U.S. State Department-sponsored tours that reached Europe, Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and the Soviet Union.
Their discography encompasses several highly regarded albums issued by Marimac Recordings and Flying Fish Records, followed by the Alligator Records release Cool Down from the Chicago label. The Flying Fish titles from the 1980s—Dog Days of August, Guitar Man, and Flip, Flop and Fly—stand as prime illustrations of contemporary acoustic Piedmont blues. They continue to draw festival audiences and appear at numerous blues events across the United States each summer.
Albums
