Reverend Raven
Watertown Riverfest Appearance
Saturday, August 1
6:00 p.m.
By Greg
Ylvisaker of the Watertown Daily Times
staff
Reverend Raven,
the 2008 Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) Blues Artist of the Year, will be
singing the blues at Watertown's Riverfest this year. Raven won WAMI awards for
best blues artist in 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2008 and a People's Choice Award
in 2006. A band with this type of resume is sure to be a treat to Watertown
blues lovers as Raven takes the stage at Riverfest on Aug. 1 at 6 p.m.
Raven grew up on
the south side of Chicago. He first saw Freddy King play the blues at the
Kinetic Theater in 1971, and has been playing ever since. He moved to Milwaukee
after a 15 year tour in the Navy, which ended at the Navy's Recruit Training
Command in Great Lakes, Ill. as a chief petty officer.
"I had been
exposed to the blues since I was a kid," Raven said. "My brother had
a band, and he gave me guitar lessons. My mother gave me a guitar and an amp.
When I saw Freddy King at the Kinetic, he stole the show. That was it, I was
hooked."
He gave up his
guitar for 13 of the 15 years he was in the service, however, picking it up again
when he got his discharge from the Navy.
This will be the
Raven's first performance at Riverfest, but not his first performance in
Watertown. He said he used to play at RJ Water's Pub frequently about 10 years
ago. He will be playing mostly original songs at Riverfest, with some
"more obscure covers thrown in."