Mr. Sipp headlines Sunday's Reading Blues Fest Gospel Brunch

Nov. 17—On the last day of the Reading Blues Fest, audiences will be taken all the way back to the roots of the blues with Mr. Sipp and The True Believers, featuring the Fresh Wind Gospel Ensemble from Ferrun College (Ferrun, Va.), Sunday at 11:30 a.m. in the DoubleTree by Hilton Reading Grand Ballroom.

Mr. Sipp is the stage name of Castro Coleman, who spent more than 25 years as a recording artist and producer of gospel music before switching to the blues in 2012. Now he has one foot in each genre, touring as Mr. Sipp "The Mississippi Blues Child" for blues and, since 2019, as Mr. Sipp & The True Believers for gospel music.

Last week, Mr. Sipp earned a Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional Blues Album category for his "The Soul Side of Sipp" CD recording.

Born in Magnolia, Miss., in 1976 to a family of musicians, Coleman began learning guitar at 6. After seeing B.B. King performing on TV, he entered a school talent show in third grade and wowed the audience by playing King's "All I Want Is a Little More Love."

"People laughed when I told them I wanted to be B.B. King," Coleman said in a recent interview. So years later, when he had a chance to portray the young B.B. King in the 2017 CMT miniseries "Sun Records" (based on the musical "The Million Dollar Quartet"), he had the last laugh.

As a young man, he continued his musical journey in the gospel industry, where he was successful but, ultimately, unhappy.

"I'd been everywhere, did a lot of records and a lot of songs," he said. "But I got maxed out. The gospel industry was more hardcore than any industry I've ever been in, and it wasn't getting any better. You didn't expect church people to be so foul. It was miserable. It wasn't about the money — I could never make as much playing blues — but it was about the atmosphere, the people, the business part."

So in 2010 he stopped, took two years off, and started performing with his own blues band in 2012. He made his solo debut album as a singer/songwriter/guitarist with "It's My Guitar" in 2013, and the next year he won the International Blues Challenge.

Since then he has won the Gibson Best Guitarist Award, the 2016 BMA for Best New Artist Album ("The Mississippi Blues Child") and many other awards.

"I'm making less, but I'm happy," he said. "It's about the love of music and the love of people. And in the secular world, I haven't had a bad encounter yet."

Coleman's 2019 "Back to the Roots" album and DVD, recorded as Mr. Sipp and The True Believers, marked his return to the gospel music he loves. His career in both genres was burgeoning; 2020 was set to be one of his busiest concert years. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, shutting everything down in March of that year.

Fortunately, he said, he had managed his earnings from the gospel years wisely, so he was able to support his family and keep his musicians on the payroll. While he sympathized with artists who were dependent on touring for their living and suffered during the shutdown, Coleman said that for him, "it was the best thing that ever could have happened."

He spent hours and hours in his home studio, and by the end of the shutdowns he had three albums finished: the blues album "Sippnotized" (2021), the gospel "The Sounds We Grew Up On" (2021), and "The Soul Side of Sipp" (2023). He also had a cache of blues and gospel tracks, enough for at least two more albums.

"I'm a studio junkie," he said. "I could stay in the studio day and night. For every song on my albums there are maybe five or six more versions that I might release someday."

In addition to his more than 125 recording credits, Coleman has had parts in two films. He played James Brown's guitarist Les Buie in "Get On Up," starring the late Chadwick Boseman as Brown, in 2014.

"They put out a casting call for Mississippi musicians, and nobody believed it was real," he said. "People thought it was a scam. I went down there and found out this was real. Bruce Iglauer from Alligator Records recommended it to me, even though I wasn't on Alligator. I'm so grateful he did that. It was a great opportunity for me."

That led to his being cast as B.B. King for "Sun Records," in which he and Drake Milligan (as Elvis Presley) were the only actors who sang and played in real time for the series. Later he played and sang one of his original songs for the film "Texas Red" (2021).

Coleman said he met B.B. King when he was about 20, and they became friends.

"He talked to me a lot," said Sipp. "He would say, 'You have the blues in you.' I have many memories of him. He was the nicest guy in the world."

Having just returned from the eight-day Legendary R&B Cruise to the Mexican Riviera on Nov. 4, Coleman said he is enjoying a break, taking his grandchildren for rides in some of the 13 vintage cars he has collected as a hobby (including a pristine 1950 Dodge Wayfarer originally owned by his grandfather).

Sipp said he was looking forward to playing gospel for the Reading Blues Fest and meeting the singers of the Fresh Wind Gospel Ensemble.

If you go

Event: Reading Blues Fest Blues & Gospel Brunch with Mr. Sipp and The True Believers, featuring the Fresh Wind Gospel Ensemble

When: Brunch at 11:30 a.m. Sunday with concert to follow at 12:30 p.m.

Where: DoubleTree by Hilton Reading Grand Ballroom, downtown Reading

Tickets: $69 for a brunch and concert ticket

Web: For information on this concert and for a complete schedule, ticket purchase and artist bios, visit www.readingbluesfest.com.