BLUES HARMONICA PLAYER TO PERFORM AT FESTIVAL

Seven-year-old James Edward Pryor picked pecans and sold them to buy his first harmonica, but he couldn't practice at home because his father, a Mississippi minister, said the blues was "devil music."

The young boy who would become Snooky Pryor sneaked out to practice by kerosene lamplight at his older brother's house. He got good at it.

"The devil's music has been pretty nice to me throughout my life," the 78-year-old Pryor growled mirthfully.

Pryor, one of the Main Stage headliners in this weekend's City of Roses Music Festival, will perform at 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

The festival kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Friday, with music at 15 different venues in downtown Cape Girardeau. Headlining on the Main Stage across from Hutson's Furniture Store will be The Brown Baggers, Lady Z & and Earl Skee Pryor, Daddy Cool, Neon Nights, Burlap to Cashmere and Papa Aborigine.

Saturday will find music especially designed for children at the River Campus on the grounds of Old St. Vincent's Seminary. Among the performers will be the Clippard Elementary School Choir and Liesl Schoenberger, a Notre Dame freshman who is the state junior fiddle champion.

Headlining on the main stage Saturday will be Freelance October, Bruce Zimmerman & the Shysters, Steve Pecoro & the Tone Kings, Snooky Pryor and El Buho.

Pryor played with Sonny Boy Williamson and Homesick James while stationed with the Army outside Chicago in 1940. After returning from his tour of duty in the South Pacific, he recorded "Telephone Blues," considered one of the best Chicago postwar blues recordings. He also worked as a session musician with the likes of Sunnyland Slim.

Pryor says he was the first harp player to mike his instrument. He won't say how he got his nickname. "That's a secret."

His recordings included "Someone to Love Me, "Snooky and Moody's Boogie" and "Judgement Day."

But in the 1960s, Pryor couldn't make enough money in music to support his seven children, so he took up carpentry. He's as proud of that decision as he is his music.

"I ain't the person to take handouts," he said. "I ain't never had a penny of government money in my life ... I always took care of myself and my family."

Pryor moved to Southern Illinois in the late 1960s. That was about the time requests for him to tour began coming in from overseas.

He has been to Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, often taking along his son, bassist Earl Skee Pryor. Pryor's son and daughter, Lady Z, also will perform at the City of Roses Music Festival.

Pryor says Mick Jagger tried to get him to come to England to perform at his birthday party but he declined. "I don't like to take long trips anymore," he said.

This year he played the Pocono Fest in Pennsylvania and also played in Long Beach, Calif.

His newest recordings are "Shake My Hand" and the award-winning "I Can't Stop Blowing."

Even after hearing Snooky's recordings and being supported by him later in life, his father continued to insist the blues was devil music.

Pryor laughs. "It wasn't no devil's music then and it's no devil's music now," he said.