T-Bone Walker Day is Oct. 19

Linden will be celebrating its annual T-Bone Walker Day on Oct. 19 this year. T-Bone Walker Day is an official local holiday that was started last year with the blessing of T-Bone’s granddaughter Bernita Walker. The purpose of the holiday is to honor Walker’s heritage as a Lindenite and his legacy as the “Grandfather of Blues.”

For those who remember the full-fledged T-Bone Walker Blues Festival, the T-Bone Walker Day serves as a fantastic reminder of the spectacular blues acts of previous years as well as a window into the future potentials to bring the festival back to its home in Linden.

The local holiday will kick off downtown with a Taste of the Town in the afternoon.

The event will be a free tasting of samples from local Linden restaurants. The tasting will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. downtown in front of Dark Horse Coffee and the County Seat Café.

Participating businesses will be The Gingerbread House, Uncle Juans, the County Seat Café, Dairy Queen, and Dark Horse Coffee among others. Additional entertainment is planned for the downtown event as well.

Following the tasting, eventgoers are encouraged to dine downtown before attending the T-Bone Walker Day concert being held at Music City Texas Theater beginning at 8 p.m. Returning again after last year’s concert, Whitey Johnson will be playing some of T-Bone’s greatest hits. Proceeds from the concert will go towards bringing back the T-Bone Walker Blues Fest to Linden.

T-Bone Walker Day is only one of the many initiatives taken by Linden’s public and private entities undertaken to preserve and celebrate the city’s rich musical heritage. In August, the County Seat Café held a “Legends of Linden” event designed to honor local celebrities such as Don Henley, Scott Joplin, Richard Bowden, and T-Bone Walker as well. Music City Texas Theater also holds bi-annual concerts featuring the popular local bluegrass band Hickory Hill.

For any additional information on the event or the concert, readers are encouraged to check out Music City Texas Theater’s website as well as the webpage Lindenmainstreet.org which hosts an extensive calendar of local events.