To Perform At one time, back in the 1950s, rockabilly music was shunned by respectable people. It was the music of unruly youth, and it was music that crossed racial boundaries, as Southern white teenagers raised on country music began to adopt the sounds and rhythms of black blues and boogie-woogie. So it's quite fitting, and not surprising, that the Delta Cultural Center, a museum run by the Department of Arkansas Heritage, is presenting authentic rockabilly music as part of its efforts to preserve and present the heritage of the Arkansas Delta. The concert will be held at the Delta Cultural Center's Reception Hall, located at 223 Cherry Street in downtown Helena.
Admission is free and open to the public.
No tickets are necessary. Gatlin, a Helena native, epitomizes the story of Delta rockabilly. His family mostly listened to country music, but in the late 1950s, when he was a teenager, CW Gatlin performing at Blues Fest 97 he met up with legendary Delta bluesmen Robert Nighthawk and Houston Stackhouse in Helena. I was very lucky. Fest Around that same time, Gatlin started playing rockabilly music with another Arkansas native, Mack Self, who did some recording for Sun Records.