13TH ANNUAL PINETOP PERKINS HOMECOMING CELEBRATION DEDICATED TO MICHAEL "IRON MAN" BURKS

13TH ANNUAL PINETOP PERKINS HOMECOMING CELEBRATION DEDICATED TO MICHAEL "IRON MAN" BURKS

The 13th Annual Pinetop Perkins Homecoming Celebration, held on October 7th in Clarksdale, Mississippi, will be dedicated to the late blues master Michael "Iron Man" Burks. The event attracts over 1000 fans to three stages of music, with proceeds going directly to scholarships for youth to attend the Pinetop Perkins Master class workshops in June. Burks, whose new CD Iron Man was completed just prior to his passing in May 2012, was recently highlighted by USA Today.

http://mailman.305spin.com/users/alligator/images/Burks USA1.jpg


Burks was a modern-day blues hero. His "Iron Man" moniker was born from his hours-long, intensely physical performances, his fearsome guitar attack and his tough, smoky vocals. It also came from the thousands of miles a year he personally logged behind the wheel of his touring van. His fiery music was driven by an intense, blue collar work ethic that won him a rabid worldwide fan base. Between his blistering guitar sound -- which could at any moment become sweetly melodic -- and his live charisma, Burks earned four Blues Music Award nominations, including, most recently, the 2012 nomination for Guitarist Of The Year. He won the 2004 Living Blues magazine Critics' Award for Best Guitarist. GuitarOne named his Alligator Records debut album, Make It Rain, one of the Top 200 greatest guitar recordings of all time. According to Living Blues, "Burks burns his own signature onto almost everything he touches...he has the ability and the imagination to fuse the best of the old and the new."