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All Music Guide:
The duo of acoustic guitarist John Cephas and harpist Phil Wiggins enjoyed a partnership spanning across several decades, during which time they emerged among contemporary music's most visible exponents of the Piedmont blues tradition. Both were born in Washington, D.C., although Wiggins was a quarter century younger than his partner; they met at a jam session in 1977, and both performed as regular members of Wilbert "Big Chief" Ellis' Barrelhouse Rockers for a time prior to Ellis' death. Their music, rooted in the rural African-American dance music of Virginia and North Carolina, showed the influence of Blind Boy Fuller, Gary Davis, and Sonny Terry, with a broad repertoire consisting of Piedmont blues standards as well as an eclectic sampling of Delta stylings, R&B, ballads, ragtime, gospel, and country & western; onward from their 1984 debut, Sweet Bitter Blues, Cephas & Wiggins' sound applied sophisticated traditional instrumentation and modern gospel-edged vocals to both traditional standards and their own hard-hitting compositions, offering a soulful acoustic option to electric blues. A popular festival act, they also issued LPs including 1986's W.C. Handy Award-winning Dog Days of August, 1988's Walking Blues, 1992's Flip, Flop and Fly, and 1996's Cool Down. They kept going strong and in 1999 released their ninth album, Homemade, on the legendary Alligator label. In 2000, Bullseye Blues issued From Richmond to Atlanta, a compilation of tracks from Cephas & Wiggins' three Flying Fish albums recorded between 1984 and 1992. The duo continued to tour and play festivals, helping to keep the Piedmont sound alive. In the summer of 2002, they released Somebody Told the Truth, a mixture of old and new tracks that reintroduced them to the next generation of blues fans. Shoulder to Shoulder appeared in 2006 from Alligator Records. Richmond Blues followed in 2008 from Smithsonian Folkways.
Wikipedia:
Cephas & Wiggins was an American acoustic blues duo, composed of guitarist John Cephas (September 4, 1930 – March 4, 2009) and harmonica player Phil Wiggins (born May 8, 1954). They were known for playing Piedmont blues.
History
Both musicians were born in Washington D.C., although Cephas was older by some 25 years. They first met at a jam session at the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife in 1975 or 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 German archivists Siegfried Christmann and Axel Kustner. These recordings were their first as a duo and they were released the following year on as a part of Living Country Blues USA series on 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.
In 1986, Cephas & Wiggins released Dog Days of August, their first U.S. release on Flying Fish Records. In 1989, Cephas was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship.
Two more albums followed from Flying Fish. After they left the label, they released one album from New York-based Chesky Records, and four from Alligator Records.
Cephas died of natural causes on March 4, 2009. He was 78. The duo had released Richmond Blues on Folkways Records in 2008.
