Blues musicians “Poor Howard” Stith and Mike “Bullfrog” Rogers will share “A Walk through the Delta” with area residents at a community concert, sponsored by the Andover Public Libraries and held at the Highland Lake Grange Hall in East Andover on Thursday, February 26, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. All are welcome, free of charge.

Stith has been performing 12-string barrelhouse blues for over 40 years across the US, Europe, and Japan, entertaining audiences in coffeehouses, bars, and at festivals with his dazzling guitar, heartfelt voice, and seemingly endless supply of anecdotes, puns, and shaggy dog stories.

His blues style is drawn from the tradition of Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) and Blind Willy McTell, incorporating a powerful bass line along with flashy finger-picking. His passion and reverence for the country blues of the ’20s and ’30s is infectious, and he instills a new interest in this roots music wherever he performs, in a program that is both entertaining and educational. Joining Stith will be harmonica player Mike Rogers, a 40-year veteran whose styles range from folk to blues.

According to the Boston Globe’s principal folk music writer, Scott Alarik, Stith’s 12-string guitar “has the solid, propulsive groove of a steady-moving freight train; and he has the uncanny way of singing classic blues tunes as if their hard-luck stories were happening today. Somehow, he delivers it all – ancient blues, modern ballad, and wild-eyed pun – in a way that makes you think you’re just sitting around his kitchen table.”