Died On This Date (March 4, 2009) John Cephas / Blues Guitarist
themusicsover John Cephas
1930 – March 4, 2009
John Cephas was a blues guitarist and singer who, with his musical partner and harmonica player, Phil Wiggins helped keep the Piedmont style of blues alive well into the 21st century. Cephas began playing with Wiggins after meeting each other at a folk festival in the mid ’70s. Over the course of their career together, they released over a dozen albums for such respected blues labels and Flying Fish and Alligator. 1987’s Dog Days Of August earned them a W.C. Handy award for Best Blues Album, while their 2002 Somebody Told The Truth shot to #8 on the Billboard Blues Chart. John Cephas, age 78, died of pulmonary fibrosis on March 4, 2009.
What You Should Own
Robbie Basho was a folk guitarist who is best remembered for his skills on the steel string guitar. Unlike similar contemporaries like 
Ray Kane was one of Hawaii’s most revered slack-key guitarists. After learning to play the ukulele as a child, Kane switched over to the slack-key guitar. By the early ’60s, Kane was performing in front of amazed audiences and recording albums that would eventually total more than a dozen. In 1987, he was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts. Kane died of respiratory failure at the age of 82.
John Fahey was an influential folk and blues guitarist who is revered for his minimalistic steel string finger-picking style of play. Fahey bought his first guitar at the age of 13, and by the time he was 20, he was making his own recordings. Besides his amazing guitar skill, what separated Fahey from most other musicians at the time, was that he started his own record label, Takoma Records through which to release while he was still just a teenager. Through all this, Fahey continued his education, eventually earning a Master’s degree in folklore from UCLA. As a musicologist, Fahey tracked down the long forgotten blues great, 
