Press Release for 2026 Juneteenth Event

NATCHITOCHES – Louisiana Folklife Center to Present Blues Program with Grammy Winner Wayne “Blue” Burns

The Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University will present the program “A Life Spent Singing the Blues: A Music Informance with the Wayne ‘Blue’ Burns Band” at 2 PM on June 20 at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum at 800 Front Street in Natchitoches. The event is free and open to the general public.

Dr. Shane Rasmussen, professor of English and director of the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University, will interview the band about the cultural significance of blues music in Louisiana. Their discussion will include songs performed by the band. The band will also perform at the 46th annual Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Festival, to be held July 18 in air-conditioned Prather Coliseum on the NSU campus.

Grammy winner Wayne “Blue” Burns, guitarist, has been playing music all his life. Blue is a world-famous bassist, but the blues guitar is his thing. A native of Lafayette, Louisiana, Blue credits Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller as two of his favorite musical influences. Blue has performed with many artists but is most famous for nearly twenty years as bassist for Clifton Chenier, the King of Zydeco. He has also performed with Ernie K-Doe, The Larks, Betty Wright, Buckwheat and the Hitchhikers, Lil Buck Senegal, Jude Taylor, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas, Walter Junior, The RoadDoctor, and a decade with C.J. Chenier, Clifton Chenier’s son. In his lifelong career, Blue has performed in all 50 United States and around the world, including in South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and is one of the first African Americans to perform in East Berlin after the Wall came down. Blue’s proudest moment came in 1982 when he played bass on Clifton Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band’s Grammy-winning album, “I’m Here!” Blue is a living legend.

For more information, call the Louisiana Folklife Center at (318) 357-4332, email folklife@nsula.edu, or go to http://www.nsula.edu/folklife/.

The event is sponsored by the Louisiana Folklife Center, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and the Northwest History Museum, and is in partnership with the City of Natchitoches. Support for the Festival is provided by grants from the Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc., the Louisiana Division of the Arts Decentralized Arts Fund Program, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission, the Natchitoches Convention and Visitors Bureau, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council, and the State of Louisiana.

The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.