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Blues legends Beverly "Guitar" Watkins and Albert White will pick some of the baddest blues around when they present Blues Bash III at The Clayton Center on Friday, Feb. 29 at 8 p.m.

{mosimage}Georgia-based guitarist, singer and songwriter Beverly "Guitar" Watkins is one part soul singer, one part rockin' roadhouse mama and one part gifted songwriter. A guitar slinger since birth, Watkins' searing, ballistic attacks on the guitar have become legendary in the blues community. A pyrotechnic maven, she is one of the few who can play a guitar behind her head like the legendary Jimi Hendrix.

Hailed by Music Maker Relief Foundation founder Timothy Duffy as "...the finest female blues guitarist of her generation," Watkins has been chronically under-recorded for a woman with her resume. Watkins spent the early 1960's playing rhythm guitar with Piano Red & The Interns. She recorded with Piano Red from 1959 until the mid-1960's, and can be heard on his popular singles, "Doctor Feelgood" and "Right String But the Wrong Yo Yo." Watkins later joined Eddie Tigner and the Ink Spots and continued an extensive touring career performing with such luminary artists as Taj Mahal, James Brown, B.B. King and Ray Charles .
 
{mosimage}Albert White began playing guitar at an early age. His uncle, Piano Red, noticed that White was actually playing self-made chords on a ukulele at the age of nine. Red sent White to take lessons from his guitarist, Wesley Jackson. In early 1962, Albert became the bandleader for Piano Red's "Dr. Feelgood and the Interns" where he became a lifelong friend to Watkins. When Red disbanded, White joined the "Tams" from the late 60's to the early 70's, and by the mid 70's, joined Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. Albert White is currently touring the globe with the Music Maker Revue.

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins and Albert White are both artists on the Music Maker Relief Foundation roster. The Foundation was created to help the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs.  It is the goal of Music Maker to present musical traditions to the world so American culture will flourish and be preserved for future generations.
 
Blues Bash III is presented as part of The Clayton Center's 2007-08 Palladian Series. The season will close with the Punch Brothers featuring former Nickel Creek mandolin player Chris Thile on March 29.
 
Tickets for Blues Bash III are $15. Individual tickets may be purchased online at www.theclaytoncenter.com, by phone at 919.553.1737 or at The Clayton Center Box Office at 111 E. Second St. in downtown Clayton from 10 a.m. until noon and from 1 until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.