(John Cephas & Phil Wiggins)
DISCOGRAPHY 1980-2008 (15CD/DVD)
DISCOGRAPHY 1980-2008 (15CD/DVD)
BIOGRAPHY
Cephas & Wiggins were an American acoustic blues 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.
Both musicians were born in Washington D.C. Cephas, who was 24 years
older than Wiggins, grew up in Bowling Green, Virginia. They first met
at a jam session 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 Kustner. 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, Archie Edwards, Flora Molton, and Mother Scott.
Their first U.S. release, the album Dog Days of August, was issued by
Flying Fish Records 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 and four albums for Alligator Records. They
released the album Richmond Blues on Folkways Records in 2008.
Until the late 1980s, Cephas made his primary living from carpentry,
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. 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 awarded
by the National Endowment for the Arts, 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.
Cephas died of natural causes (pulmonary fibrosis) on March 4, 2009. He
was 78. He is buried at Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia.
(Wikipedia)