McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK

Local News

May 8, 2008

D.C. Minner knew the Blues is life

By James Beaty

“The blues ain’t nothin’ but a good man feelin’ bad.” — Leon Redbone

Oklahoma music legend D.C. Minner has died, following a long career making people happy by playing and singing the blues.

Minner, 73, died on Tuesday. The cause of death was not released.

Minner, and his wife, Selby, have hosted the annual Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival in Rentiesville, near Checotah, for the past 17 years.

Locally, they brought their Blues in the Schools educational program to McAlester and once served as the featured concert act at Hard Times Day Festival in Hartshorne. During his career, he and Selby toured and played at hundreds of concerts and festivals across the U.S.

McAlester News-Capital Editor Matt Lane has some personal memories of Minner.

“For the Lane family, D.C. was not only a great bluesman, but a great and dear friend,” Lane said.

“His house of blues was less than a mile from my family’s old home place on Pumpkin Ridge.

“D.C. was good friends with my grandpa, Virgil Lane, and especially good friends with my uncle, Curtis Lane.

“Our family, like many families, held get-togethers during the summer. D.C. and Selby would often come and perform,” Lane said.

“At one particular occasion, I thought I might sit in on keyboards with D.C. and Selby.

“After playing about one measure of a familiar blues tune, D.C. turned around and shot me a withering glance that drove me from the stage,” Lane said.

After that, Lane just looked on and enjoyed the music of one of the country’s best bluesmen.

John Peters, who hosts Jammin’ John’s Boogie Down Blues Show on McAlester Radio’s 105.1 FM station from 6-8 p.m. each Tuesday and Thursday, said Minner will be missed by the blues family.

“He was the blues when it came to Oklahoma,” Peters said today, citing Minner’s work with the schools and with his blues festival.

“He taught us all. He brought so many young musicians and he gave people a place to play.”

“He was Mr. Blues. We’ll miss him.”

D.C. and Selby Minner were honored with numerous awards, including the Handy People Award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tenn. for their Blues in the Schools music education program.

D.C. Minner is also a member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. The street outside the Down Home Blues Club has been renamed in his honor.

Born on Jan. 28, 1935, and brought up by his grandmother, Lura Drennan, Minner grew up hearing acoustic blues played at her juke joint in Rentiesville.

He later moved to Oklahoma City and played bass guitar with a band known as Larry Johnson and the New Breed.

With that band, Minner played behind such future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, as well as the great Texas-Oklahoma bluesman Freddie King and soul singer Eddie Floyd.

After moving to California, he started playing lead guitar and met Selby in a club in the Bay area, where she played acoustic blues.

They toured together for 12 years, with Selby now playing bass guitar, before D.C. moved back to Rentiesville in 1988 and reopened his grandmother’s old place as the Down Home Blues Club

In 1991, he and Selby started the Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival, which has become a Labor Day weekend tradition for many lovers of blues music.

Funeral services are pending with Ragsdale Funeral Center in Muskogee.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.

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