Another edition of “Jazz Fest Unplugged” takes place in Pascagoula on Thursday, Dec. 16th. The latest version of the popular on-going live music series features the return of hometown favorite Libby Rae Watson and her special guest, another Mississippi native, Cary Hudson.
The event is set for 7 p.m., at The Grand Magnolia Ballroom. Tickets are available now at Scranton’s Restaurant in Pascagoula, or at www.grandmagmusic.com. “Jazz Fest Unplugged” has an almost decade long history of presenting artists that have played the greatest music festival in the country in New Orleans over the years and placing them in an up close and personal setting.
Watson, a Pascagoula native, will be making her first appearance on the Gulf Coast in two years. She is a popular, in demand performer annually on the Mississippi Delta blues festival circuit, and has garnered awards in the annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis as well.
Watson was scheduled to play the 2020 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival before its cancellation. It would have been her second appearance at The Fairgrounds, after an initial performance there several years back.
She has also been featured at The Mighty Mississippi Music Festival, was named the 2016 Musician of the Year by the Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola as well as being featured at the 2019 Amal Blues Festival in Sweden and the King Biscuit Blues Festival.
“I didn’t plan to go ‘find’ the Blues. The Blues found me.” Watson, a finalist on several occasions at The National Women in Blues Showcase in Memphis, said. “I’ve been consumed by it for over 40 years! Like the late, great Sam Chatmon said, “The Blues is my daily occupation!”
Watson is fresh off of her performance at the 2021 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic, in which she shared the same stage on the same day as Hudson.
Hudson is a Pine Belt native who has become a favorite of many along the Gulf Coast over the past two decades. He was a founding member of the band Blue Mountain and has appeared at many festivals across the country including The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2016.
Hudson will be accompanied by fiddle player Katrina Miller, and the duo are fresh off their performance opening for the legendary Southern Rock band Wet Willie in Montgomery, Ala., in September.
He was also named one of the best in the Gibson magazine’s list of Top 10 Alt. Country Guitarists of all time several years back. Hudson has long been a favorite of Grand Magnolia Music supporters.
Upcoming shows at The Grand Magnolia include the legendary Bellamy Brothers in February and Marcia Ball in March.