Page 74 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2025 Digital Edition

Dustin Arbuckle (harmonica) and group. Photo by Patrick Joseph O’Connor

Dustin Arbuckle blues scene. From what I’ve read, Wichita was sort of a sleepy
Dustin Arbuckle is a current performer, formerly with musical town until the 1940s when the aircraft factories started
Moreland & Arbuckle, Alligator Records. “Berry Harris was revving up – and a lot of Blacks from Oklahoma, Arkansas
always very kind to me in a somewhat curmudgeonly way. and Texas moved to Wichita to start working. Having musical
He was pretty cool and pretty encouraging. I remember being places like The Mambo Club, which featured a lot of touring
around Jesse Anderson a little bit, but I never got to know Jesse blues and R&B acts, certainly helped, too.”
very much. I came along at a time when a lot of the older Black
performers in town were dying out or weren’t really playing Blues in Wichita Today
around much anymore. Berry was probably the one I was the Since 1983, the Wichita Blues Society (the author is a
closest to, and the one that I jammed with the most. And maybe founding member) has sponsored Blues in the Schools and
you’d go to see him play and he’d say, ‘Come on up.’” blues performances. In 2000, WBS won the Blues Foundation’s
“Being central here, we are subjected to a lot of different Keeping the Blues Alive Award. Patti Parker has been on the
regional influences. And so, if there is a Wichita blues style, I board for 14 years and is currently president. Parker says, “It is
feel it’s something that’s sort of in the middle of Texas style. I feel rewarding working with others where we come together with a
like Berry seemed to gravitate toward a Texas influence with shared love and appreciation for the blues; also meeting local
maybe a little bit of Memphis vibe. You get a little more of that and touring artists who perform at our events.”
Kansas City influence from guys like Basie and Big Joe Turner.”
Patrick Joseph O’Connor is a blues musician (barrelhouse
Wesley Race III piano) and historian (regional). His latest publication, Wichita
Wesley Race III is not a musician but a blues theorist, poet, Blues, Music in the African American Community (American
raconteur and promoter. He left Wichita in 1970 for the South Made Music Series), was published by University Press of
Side of Chicago to experience “the source.” Returning to Mississippi in 2024. His inspirations include Leadbelly, Robert
Wichita years later, he brought back what he had discovered Johnson, Big Maceo Merriweather, Cow Cow Davenport, David
and also brought top blues performers like Walter “Shakey” Evans, Paul Oliver and Sam Charters. O’Connor gives thanks to
Horton, Homesick James and John Hammond Jr. to the city. African Americans for giving us the blues, and the written word
“I’d say that the Southwest blues/jazz centers like Kansas City for helping us understand and enjoy it. To connect on Facebook,
and Dallas certainly played a role in shaping the Wichita search “Outlaws of Blues.”

72 Blues Festival Guide 2025