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MORE ABOUT THE MUSIC IN SEVEN GUITARS
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Lance Reddick, Kevin Carroll
and Stephen McKinley Henderson in
August Wilson's Seven Guitars.
Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg
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In 1948, the time of the play, southern African-Americans continued to migrate to northern cities like Chicago during the Great Migration, and the musical heritages of northern and southern African-Americans combined to generate the blues. In Seven Guitars, blues guitarist Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton leaves Chicago but longs to return to record an album with a newfound electric guitar. Blues composer and guitarist Bill Sims Jr. will arrange music for the production that communicates the growth Floyd experiences as a blues musician. Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson explained: "I want to show Floyd's growth as a musician, where he was going and what he was doing musically. I want to give you insight into where Floyd came from-from slide guitar, Mississippi/on-the-porch/country style, to when he got introduced to the electric guitar."
Santiago-Hudson spoke about the significance of blues music to African-American expression: "Blues was birthed from our joy, our celebration, and our pain. A lot of what the blues is, even though it sounds sad, is a joyful celebration. As sad as it may sound, you know, when you hear it-that whine of that guitar-it's a celebration, because when you look at those guys when they close their eyes and furrow their brows, it's like they're saying, 'I'm that deeply connected to the story you have to hear. I'm playing my life.'"
Sims founded Bill Sims and the Cold Blooded Blues Band in 1988 and serves as lead guitarist and lead vocalist. He released his first album, Blues Before Sunrise, in 1992, and his much-awaited album, Bill Sims, was released in 1998 by Warner Brothers Records to coincide with "An American Love Story," the 10-hour PBS documentary about him. Sims and Santiago-Hudson last collaborated on Gem of the Ocean at McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey, and Lackawanna Blues at the Public Theater.
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