Legendary Piedmont blues guitarist John Cephas dies at 78

John "Bowling Green" Cephas, the legendary Piedmont blues guitarist and baritone vocalist who was recently honored as a 2009 Library of Virginia African American Trailblazer, died Wednesday morning at home in Woodford in Caroline County.

The much-honored and widely traveled 78-year-old Washington native, who recently retired because of illness, had been unable to attend the library awards ceremony last week. He was breathing with the aid of oxygen in recorded remarks to the audience that said how touched he was by the honor.

Born into a deeply religious family, he took his nickname from the Virginia town of Bowling Green, where he was reared hearing gospel music. He grew up listening to his grandfather's stories of slave ancestors on the Eastern Shore and his mother's singing. He learned about the blues from a guitar-picking aunt. "Blues music is truth," Mr. Cephas once said.

He learned the alternating thumb-and-finger picking style that is the trademark of East Coast or Piedmont blues from his cousin, David Taleofero, a well-known Caroline County guitar player. Mr. Cephas began to imitate music he heard on records -- ragtime-era music and early Piedmont talents such as Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake, the Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Tampa Red influenced his style.

By the time he was 9, he entertained weekend gatherings of family and friends. As a young man he toured the gospel circuit as a member of the Capitol Harmonizers.

After a stint with the Army during the Korean War, he worked as a professional gospel singer, carpenter and Atlantic fisherman. By the 1960s he was beginning to make a living with his music.

In 1977, he teamed with harmonica wizard Phil Wiggins after the two met at the Smithsonian National Folklife Festival in Washington. By the early 1980s, Cephas & Wiggins were recognized by the international blues community as "the leading exponents of traditional Tidewater blues," according to the Alligator (Records) News.

In 1987 they were the W.C. Handy Blues Entertainers of the Year, the blues version of the Grammy. Two years later, Mr. Cephas, who had widely taught his art, received a National Heritage Fellowship Award. That recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts is sometimes called the Living Treasure Award because it honors those who preserve cultural legacies in music, dance and crafts.

"More than anything else," Mr. Cephas said, according to the Cephas & Wiggins Web site, "I would like to see a revival of country blues by more young people . . . more people going to concerts, learning to play the music. That's why I stay in the field of traditional music. I don't want it to die."

In 1981 Cephas & Wiggins recorded two albums, "Living Country Blues" and "Sweet Bitter Blues," for the German L&R label. In 1987 they recorded their first domestic album, "Dog Days of August," for Flying Fish Records in Mr. Cephas' living room. It won a Blues Music Award for Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year.

In 1996 they debuted on Alligator Records with "Cool Down." Their most recent album, "Richmond Blues," was recorded on the Smithsonian Folkways label.

The award-winning pair traveled the world, playing thousands of festivals and concerts as ambassadors for the blues. In 1988, they were among the first Americans to perform at the Russian Folk Festival in Moscow, according to Alligator News. They performed for President Bill Clinton in 1997.

"He talked a lot about his travels across the entire globe. He'd been on every continent except Antarctica," said Greg Kimball, president of the River City Blues Society. "Much of the time he traveled under the State Department aegis, spreading the influence of his guitar style across the world. It's a pretty amazing legacy."

In addition to performing, he portrayed a blind bluesman in the Kennedy Center production of "Blind Man Blues" and in a Washingtonian production of Zora Neal Hurston's play, "Polk County."

Mr. Cephas served on the Executive Committee of the National Council for the Traditional Arts and had testified before congressional committees. He was a founder of the Washington, D.C. Blues Society.

Survivors include a longtime partner, Lynn Volpe.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.