Great Lakes Folk Festival -2013

Mike Espy grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, just a few miles from the original Gibson guitar factory (now in Nashville, TN). He took guitar lessons when he was ten years old, and soon became a student of the blues.  In 1989, he moved to Tennessee to attend University of Memphis to... Read More →

William "Yak" Smith grew up, as many of the traditional blues players in the south did, picking cotton and listening to the soul and blues AM radio stations of Memphis (WDIA) and Nashville. He taught himself to play harmonica by studying blues that he heard on radio and records. His... Read More →