Join us for a blues concert as well as an author discussion!

Peter Ward's blues-swing trio will be accompanying author-photographer Margo Cooper of Arlington, Mass., as she unveils her new book release, "Deep Inside the Blues" (University Press of Mississippi). 

About the Author:

Moved by a Buddy Guy and Junior Wells album she heard in high school, Margo started hanging out in the blues clubs around New England in the early nineties. She met and photographed many blues giants including, Jimmy Rogers, Hubert Sumlin, Jr. Wells, Pinetop Perkins, and other members of Muddy Waters bands over the decades, always wondering and exploring: what was life like for blues musicians and their families in Mississippi? What had it been like to grow up during the days of segregation and sharecropping?

Beginning in 1997, Margo began wandering the back roads of Mississippi, photographing and recording oral histories along the way. Margo is a contributing writer and photographer for Living Blues. Photographs from Margo’s project, Deep Inside the Blues, have been exhibited at the University of Connecticut and the National Heritage Museum.

Margo studied at The Maine Photography Workshops. She took a workshop with Jerry Berndt in 1994 and was lucky enough to have his support and encouragement through the years. She also took a workshop with the beloved Sylvia Plachy in 2013. Sylvia helped Margo edit and sequence the series, “Deep Inside the Blues”.

In addition to her photography, Margo has served as a New Hampshire Public Defender. She has been practicing as a lawyer and guardian ad litem in juvenile court since the early nineties.  For more info, please visit her website: https://www.margocooper.com/

About the musician, Peter Ward: 

Guitarist singer songwriter Peter Ward has been playing blues and swing guitar traditionally and unconventionally for 50 years.

Born and raised in Lewiston, Maine, Peter toured with the Legendary Blues Band — whose members such as Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith had backed the iconic Muddy Waters. He has worked with Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Joe Beard, Johnny Copeland, Lowell Fulson and Otis Rush among many.

In 2024 he was invited to join blues legend Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters. He and Ronnie became friends soon after Ronnie arrived in Boston in the 1970s to launch his stellar career, and he’s recorded with Earl several times. Peter recorded two CDs featuring his own original works, “Blues on My Shoulders” and “Train to Key Biscayne.” The guests included Ronnie, Sugar Ray Norcia, Luther Johnson, Johnny Nicholas, Monster Mike Welch, Michelle Willson and Anthony Geraci. In 2010 he recorded and produced “Goodbye Liza Jane: Hello Western Swing,” a CD featuring steel guitarist Herb Remington, an original member of Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys.

Peter is the younger brother of award-winning bassist Michael Mudcat Ward. He was married to the late Mai Cramer, host of Blues After Hours, a popular radio program that aired on WGBH-FM from 1978 to 2002.