The Pocahontas County Opera House welcomes the return of slide guitarist and blues singer Austin Walkin’ Cane Charanghat Saturday, August 9, at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10. Youth 17 and younger are admitted free of charge.
Walkin’ Cane has been singing the blues for more than 25 years, performing more than 300 shows a year, recording numerous albums and telling the stories of blues legends to a younger generation.
Walkin’ Cane says it has become a mission in his life to sonically paint different shades of the blues.
“I don’t need to re-invent the wheel, he said. “I just want to keep it rolling.”
Walkin’ Cane has traveled all over the world to Australia, Nepal, France, Germany, England, Wales and the U.S. from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Juneau, Alaska. Over the years he has acquired numerous blues and instrumentalist awards.
His latest album, “One Heart Walkin,’” was released earlier this year. It was recorded in two days during the summer of 2013 at the historic Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Peninsula, Ohio—a former schoolhouse and Civil War Veterans’ hangout. The album cover image was created here in West Virginia, on the steps of the Pocahontas County Opera House during his last appearance in Marlinton.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer describes “One Heart Walkin’”as “a Whitman’s Sampler of blues styles and influences. But each one has the original stamp of Charanghat’s unmistakable guitar playing and powerful swamp-stomp vocals.”
Listening to “One Heart Walkin’” is like being a passenger on the old Illinois Central Railroad as Walkin’ Cane takes the listener from the south side of Chicago, through the deep south of the Mississippi Delta, with stops in Memphis, Clarksdale, Bentonia, then to the end of the line in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Pocahontas County Opera House is located at 818 Third Avenue in Marlinton. Performances at the Opera House are infor-mal, family-friendly and open to all. The entrance and main seating are accessible to persons with disabilities. Persons with disabil- ities are encouraged to attend; special accommodations can be arranged upon request by calling 304-799-6645.
The Opera House Performance Series is presented with financial assistance through a grant from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts. Support is also provided by Pocahontas County Drama, Fairs and Festivals, the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Pendleton Community Bank, the Law Office of Roger D. Forman and Brightside Acres.