Russell City Blues Festival
THE LEGACY of RUSSELL CITY: The Town That Lost The Blues … by Ronnie Stewart
Ronnie Stewart is impresario of the 17th Annual Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival, scheduled this year in City Hall Plaza on July 9 and 10.
The purpose of the Hayward Russell City Blues Festival is to perpetuate blues, jazz and gospel as an art form indigenous to America, particularly recognizing its roots in the little town of African Americans in Russell City, who migrated to the Hayward area from the deep south to one of the proving grounds for blues musicians during the post-war years from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. It is organized by The West Coast Blues Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the perpetuation of blues, jazz and gospel as an indigenous American art form.
Russell City was an unincorporated area of Hayward, a community of modest houses and small farms along the bay, and is now gone. In its heyday, Russell City known for its clubs with dirt floors, bootleg electricity and a steady stream of musicians playing a style of Delta Blues. During the early part of their careers, artists such as Big Joe Turner and Big Mama Thorton played Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana style blues in Russell City. West Coast Blues music eventually influenced the traditional sound when horns replaced the harmonica and West Coast Blues was born.
A mural celebrating Russell City, and its blues connections, is located in Hayward at the corner of Maple and A streets.