Cephas & Wiggins were an American acoustic

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

duo, composed of the guitarist John Cephas (September 4, 1930 – March 4, 2009) and the harmonica player Phil Wiggins (born May 8, 1954). They were known for playing

Piedmont blues Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melo ...

History

Both musicians were born in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

Cephas, who was 24 years older than Wiggins, grew up in

Bowling Green, Virginia Bowling Green is an incorporated town in Caroline County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,111 at the 2010 census. The county seat of Caroline County since 1803, Bowling Green is best known as the "cradle of American horse racing" ...

. They first met at a

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without exte ...

at the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife in 1976 and played together in Wilbert "Big Chief" Ellis's band. When Ellis died, they decided to continue as a duo. In 1980, Cephas & Wiggins were recorded by the German archivists Siegfried Christmann and Axel Küstner. These recordings, their first as a duo, were released the following year as a part of the ''Living Country Blues USA'' series on the German label L+R. They also appeared around Washington, D.C., with the Travelling Blues Workshop, which included

John Jackson John or Johnny Jackson may refer to: Entertainment Art * John Baptist Jackson (1701–1780), British artist * John Jackson (painter) (1778–1831), British painter * John Jackson (engraver) (1801–1848), English wood engraver * John Richardson ...

Archie Edwards Archie L. Edwards (September 4, 1918 – June 18, 1998) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, who in a sporadic career spanning several decades worked with Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, and John Jackson. His best-known recordings are ...

Flora Molton Flora E. Molton (née Rollins; March 12, 1908 – May 31, 1990) was a street singer and slide guitar player who performed gospel and blues music in Washington, D.C., from the 1940s to shortly before her death. She played slide guitar in the "b ...

, and Mother Scott. Their first U.S. release, the album ''Dog Days of August'', was issued by

Flying Fish Records Flying Fish Records was a record label founded in Chicago in 1974 that specialized in folk, blues, and country music. In the 1990s the label was sold to Rounder Records. Bruce Kaplan, the label's founder, was a native of Chicago and the son of ...

in 1986. Two more albums followed from Flying Fish. After they left the label, they released one album for the New York–based

Chesky Records Chesky Records is a record company and label founded in 1978 by brothers David and Norman Chesky. The company produces high-definition recordings of music in a variety of genres, including jazz, classical, pop, R&B, folk and world/ethnic. Che ...

and four albums for

Alligator Records Alligator Records is an American, Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the ''Living Blues'' magazine in Chicago in 1970. History Iglauer started the label using hi ...

. They released the album ''Richmond Blues'' on

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service ...

in 2008. Until the late 1980s, Cephas made his primary living as a carpenter at the D.C. National Armory, playing music on the side. In the 1990s, he became a professional musician, sometimes earning money by teaching classes and workshops. As a duo, they toured extensively, primarily courtesy of the sponsorship of the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

. They performed together across the USA, as well as in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and the Soviet Union. Cephas was a recipient of a 1989

National Heritage Fellowship The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's h ...

awarded by the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. In 2017, Wiggins received a National Heritage Fellowship as well. Wiggins received the State of Maryland Heritage Award in 2021. Cephas died of natural causes (

pulmonary fibrosis Pulmonary fibrosis is a condition in which the lungs become scarred over time. Symptoms include shortness of breath, a dry cough, feeling tired, weight loss, and nail clubbing. Complications may include pulmonary hypertension, respiratory failu ...

) on March 4, 2009. He was 78. He is buried at Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia.

Awards and honors

*1987

Blues Music Award The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy, " ...

s, Entertainer of the Year Award winners *1988 Washington DC Mayor's Arts Award for Cephas *1989

for Cephas *1990 Blues Music Awards, Traditional Blues Album (''Guitar Man'') winners *Between 1995 and 2007, eleven Blues Music Award/W.C. Handy Blues Award nominations for Cephas & Wiggins in the Acoustic Album, Acoustic Artist, and Traditional Blues Album categories *2017 National Heritage Fellowship for Wiggins

Discography

Albums

* ''Living Country Blues USA'', vol. 1, (L+R, 1981) * ''Sweet Bitter Blues'', (L+R, 1984, reissued by

Evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

, 1994) * ''Let It Roll: Bowling Green'', ( Marimac, 1985) * ''Dog Days of August'', (

Flying Fish The Exocoetidae are a family of marine fish in the order Beloniformes class Actinopterygii, known colloquially as flying fish or flying cod. About 64 species are grouped in seven to nine genera. While they cannot fly in the same way a bird do ...

, 1986) * ''Guitar Man'', (Flying Fish, 1987) * ''Walking Blues'', (Marimac, 1988) * ''Flip, Flop & Fly'', (Flying Fish, 1992) * ''Bluesmen'', ( Chesky, 1993) * ''Cool Down'', (

Alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

, 1996) * ''Homemade'', (Alligator, 1999) * ''Somebody Told the Truth'', (Alligator, 2002) * ''Shoulder to Shoulder'', (Alligator, 2006) * ''Richmond Blues'', (

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

, 2008)

Compilation albums

*''Goin' down the Road Feelin' Bad'', 1998 (Evidence), compilation of L+R material *''From Richmond to Atlanta'', 2000 (

Rounder Rounder(s) or The Rounder(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''The Rounders'' (1914 film), a comedy short * ''The Rounder'' (1930 film), a comedy short * ''The Rounders'' (1965 film), a western comedy * ''Rounders'' (film), a 1998 poker f ...

), compilation of Flying Fish material

References

External links

* *
Discography at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cephas and Wiggins American blues musical groups National Heritage Fellowship winners American musical duos Piedmont blues musicians Contemporary blues musicians Burials at Quantico National Cemetery 20th-century American musicians Musicians from Washington, D.C. Musicians from Virginia 21st-century American musicians Chesky Records artists Alligator Records artists Flying Fish Records artists