Author Biographies

World-renowned blues harmonica virtuoso Phil Wiggins, a 2017 NEA National Heritage Fellow, is the primary informational source, expert advisor and guiding force of this book project. For 40 years, the musician and teacher has been an integral member of the Washington, DC area acoustic blues scene and in the center of the east coast acoustic blues. He has personally known, performed with and befriended almost all players of the period between 1975-2015, in the region and beyond. He lived the history, was part of it, and he continues the legacy of this musical tradition to this day, as performer and educator and a proponent of the Piedmont blues, the rural folk tradition of the mid-Atlantic region. Among his many activities, he was the former president of the Washington, DC blues society.

He was a partner in the legendary blues duo Cephas & Wiggins, with “Bowling Green” John Cephas, for 33 years since they first connected at the Smithsonian Folklife festival in 1976. Cephas & Wiggins were Alligator Records artists and W.C. Handy award winners. They were fixtures on the festival and workshop circuit as minstrels, teachers, folklorists, storytellers and proponents of the rich African-American folk tradition. Widely considered as one of the world’s top harmonica players, Phil Wiggins has befriended and performed with a wide range of traditional acoustic blues personalities nationwide and internationally. Cephas & Wiggins performed worldwide as cultural ambassadors for the U.S. State Department to Europe, Africa, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. The Kennedy Center sent Cephas & Wiggins to China and Australia. In 1988, they even performed at the Russian Folk Festival in Moscow. In Washington, they took the high honor and performed at the White House for President Bill Clinton and his family. Cephas & Wiggins produced three albums on the Flying Fish label and three on Alligator, plus a few on smaller labels, such as Chesky. They enjoyed a fruitful career that lasted until John’s death in 2009. After the death of John Cephas, Phil Wiggins partnered with West Virginia bluesman Nat Reese, another pillar of the local acoustic blues scene, until Nat Reese’s death in 2012.

Phil Wiggins is now in his 24th year as teacher at the Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. He was participatory in getting Blues Week at Augusta started at a time when there was no comparable program in the US. He also teaches at the Fort Townsend Acoustic Blues Workshop in Washington State, where he was the artistic director for five years. Plus, he continues to play an active role in the National Council for Traditional Arts.

He actively performs with key acoustic blues players on major world stages. He has played with BB King, Corey Harris, Taj Mahal, Chuck Brown, Guy Davis, Samuel James, and many more.

Music journalist Frank Matheis is the writer for the project, writing the story as told by Phil Wiggins and adding supporting essays. For over 40 years, Frank has been a serious listener and student of the roots & blues, as well as a DJ, radio producer and music journalist. As regular contributing writer to Living Blues magazine, and formerly to Blues Access magazine, he is also the publisher of a website dedicated to the acoustic blues: thecountryblues.com. Frank has had direct connection to the acoustic blues scene in and around Washington, DC since his studies at the University of Maryland in the late 1970s.

He has published over 500 music articles and spent a decade on the radio in New York & Connecticut hosting blues & roots shows on WKZE FM and WVKR FM. As radio producer, his roots & blues documentaries have aired on Deutschlandradio, and numerous stations in the USA and Australia. He is recipient of the New York Festivals 2003 – Best International Documentary award for “American Folk Music from Hawaii to Quebec,” produced in German for the German NPR Deutschlandradio. He was also awarded two Communicator Awards of Excellence – Best Documentary 1999“I Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down” a documentary about the Mississippi Blues and Best Documentary 2001for “Hey, where is Django Playing?” a biographical documentary about Gypsy Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.