C. Michael Byrne

Next week I’m driving 1,500 miles (round-trip) to celebrate the big family that grew up with me in my hometown of Henderson, Kentucky – eight brothers and sisters with spouses, children and grandchildren, along with cousins and their young’uns from the equally large branches of the Byrne and Mills trees. Plus two of my daughters, their spouses and my four grandchildren. There will be stories galore, with music and barbecue throughout the week.

Setting the mood for the gathering of our gang: the 35^th anniversary of Henderson’s home-grown W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival, which celebrates Mississippi Delta Blues and Louisiana Zydeco music with sides of the best barbecue in the world. (Shut up, Texas and North Carolina! You’ve got to try the mutton here.) The festival is named after the self-proclaimed “King of the Blues,” W.C. Handy, who spent several years of his young life playing music in the area in the late 1800s. He met his wife, the former Elizabeth Price, in 1896, while playing at a barbecue in Henderson, appropriately.

They didn’t have a Handy Fest when I was growing up, but there was a W.C. Handy Municipal Pool, built specifically for the black community in 1956. Handy performed at benefit concerts to help raise money for the construction, even at 79. He died in 1954 at 80. While the pool drew huge crowds early on, it became obsolete in 1964, when the Civil Rights Act ended segregated facilities. It was filled in 1981 and replaced with a basketball court.

When I’m able to attend the Handy Fest – about seven times, based on the commemorative T-shirts I can still wear – I’m struck by how much this African-American and Afro-Caribbean roots music speaks to me, and how much it reflects the culture here in the United States, and around the world. It makes me proud to see the commingling of young and old, black and white, well-to-do and ne’er-do-well as they toe-tap and foot-stomp, laughing and absorbing the best of life. Good music, good vibes, good times.

Like most of the best things in life, it’s free – except for the barbecue and memorabilia, and they’re well worth the price (and pay for the entertainment). Come on down to the river!