KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival is named in honor of Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, an East Tennessee native who became a renowned string band and country blues musician.
Armstrong grew up mostly in Campbell County, which is where the festival is held every last Saturday in September.
He was very interested in music at a very young age, but his family were really quite poor. So he found a way, and his dad helped him make instruments out of things that they could find around them.
In his early teens, Armstrong left school and went to Knoxville where he was taken in by Roland Martin, a fiddler known as “Blind Roland.” Howard’s first recording was at the St. James Hotel on Gay Street.
Not only was Armstrong talented, he was very intelligent. He understood and he realized that to appeal to a broader audience, he had to diversify his music. And that’s exactly what he did. He played gospel, country, blues, bluegrass, and he really relied heavily on European folk music. By the time he was a grown man, he actually mastered seven languages and played 22 instruments.