World’s Happiest Blues Man Comes to the North Dakota Museum of Art

“The world’s happiest blues man” will soon perform in the elegant galleries of the North Dakota Museum of Art. Making his way from North Carolina to North Dakota, Big Ron Hunter will bring his electric and acoustic guitar and fill the Museum on Saturday, April 14, and Sunday April 15.

Big Ron Hunter
Ron Hunter was born in Winston-Salem, NC.  His father, who was a sharecropper, taught Ron how to sing and play the guitar at a young age.  Mentored by the legendary Guitar Gabriel and versed in R&B, Rock, and the Blues of BB King, Ron plays both electric and acoustic guitars in dramatically different styles.  From Gabe’s advice, Hunter developed his unique sound all while raising a family and working a day job. As a maintenance man, you could find Ron locked up in his closet-sized office, plucking away at his guitar and pouring out the blues. Recently, the Music Maker Relief Foundation added Hunter to its roster of southern blues musicians.

Music Marker Relief Foundation
Hunter is a beneficiary of the Music Maker Relief Foundation out of Hillsborough, North Carolina. The foundation started in 1994 as a result of the close relationship between its founders Tim and Denise Duffy and many elderly African-American musicians in and around Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Realizing major record labels would only concentrate on the next new thing, coupled with the fact that many Southern Blues musicians barely broke even on gigs alone, the Duffys began soliciting friends of the family for financial and needed in-kind donations. Knowing little opportunity existed for artists who were too old to tour, the Duffys worked quickly to preserve the area’s music by producing numerous field recordings while the musicians were still alive. Within the first two years, the Duffys aimed to assist Southern Blues, Gospel, Appalachian, and American Roots musicians who were 55 years or older through programs such as Life Maintenance, Emergency Relief, Tour Support, and Instrument Acquisition. According to the foundation, “We started helping the blues artists in the Winston-Salem area like Guitar Gabriel, The Snake Lady, Captain Luke, and Macavine Hayes. One of our first contributions was a pallet of Ensure (a nutritional drink) donated by Humana Inc. We bought shoes for artists, paid heating oil bills, and bought groceries. The rest of our time was spent doing intensive fieldwork to meet artists throughout the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. We followed the cold trails of folklife fieldworkers that had located artists 25 years earlier and were surprised both at how many we found, and saddened by how many had passed on. Everywhere we went we heard the same requests: they needed gigs, their own CDs, instruments, and any assistance to reduce the strain of their poverty.”

Big Ron Hunter will play Saturday, April 14, 7 pm; and during brunch on Sunday, April 15, 11 – 1 pm. Saturday night ticket: $10 for adults, children twelve and under admitted free of charge. Sunday brunch tickets: $25 for adults, $10 for students, children twelve and under admitted free of charge. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Museum at 701-777-4195. Limited seating available for the Sunday brunch concert. Priority seating for advance ticket holders for the Sunday brunch concert.