Bare Knuckle is the latest no-holds-barred musical statement from the incendiary, groundbreaking Guitar Shorty. Even though he's been playing since the 1950s, Shorty hasn't lost an ounce of his power, his emotional energy or his truly amazing guitar chops.

 

 Like his previous Alligator releases, Watch Your Back and We The People, Shorty has delivered another collection of raw, contemporary, hard-edged blues with gritty vocals and his signature wildly unpredictable, rocking guitar playing. Shorty sings not only about standard blues topics but also about themes like the economy and the plight of returning veterans. With songs like Slow Burn and Please Mr. President, Shorty speaks in both serious and humorous ways about today's issues with striking songs and musicianship. Elsewhere on the album, with Too Late, Bad Memory, Betrayed, Too Hard To Love You and Texas Women, he struts his stuff with tales of good and evil women, illicit sex and the age,·old tug between love and money.

 

 Bare Knuckle shows why Guitar Shorty has earned such a devoted following among blues and guitar fans everywhere. It's full of unvarnished, raw blues passion, energy and intensity.

 

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The Holmes Brothers' Feed My Soul represents the triumphant return of the iconic vocal/instrumental trio from Virginia, who have been creating their signature soul-stirring blend of blues, R&B, gospel, country and Americana for over 30 years.

 

 But even after nine previous albums, Feed My Soul represents their deepest musical statement ever. It was inspired by guitarist/pianist/vocalist Weridell Holmes' recent victory over cancer. His diagnosis was wrenching for his two brothers, his older brother bassist/vocalist Sherman and his longtime brother-in-spirit, drummer/vocalist Popsy Dixon. It drew them together as family, caused anxiety and a sense of helplessness, and inspired hope, prayer, and ultimately a flood of original songs--songs about mortality, love, friendship, the state of the world, and the human relationship with a higher power.

 

 Feed My Soul includes nine new Holmes Brothers originals, more than any previous album. They range from the rollicking, life-affirming Living Well Is The Best Revenge to the naked love of Feed lvfy Soui to the rumination on CUITent events, Dark Cloud, to the wryly cynical Fair Weather Friend. The album closes with Popsy's incredibly moving performance of the delicate Take Me Away, written for the band by their friend Paul Kahn. In Feed My Soul, you can feel the joy oflife melded with the recognition of how fragile we all are. As Sherman has said, "It's an album of legacy and an album of hope."

 

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They say that blues will make you feel. If this is true, then anyone sensitive to touch should steer clear of the Jason King Band.

 

Led by Jason King Roxas on lead guitar and vocals, the Jason King Band deals only in the heartiest of blues. Backed by the talents of Tommy Stiles (guitar, lap slide, pedal steel), Wilbert Banks (Bass) and Michael Patrick Moore (drums), the Jason King Band is a focused, power-packed blues quartet determined to make you move.

 

Jimi Hendrix once said “Blues is easy to play but hard to feel.” Comprised of members that were born for this genre, the Jason King Band make what they do look easy. But, what sets the Jason King Band apart from other blues bands is the amount of heart in their songs. Their lyrics help set the mood while their instruments tell the story.

 

The Jason King Band has performed all over Northern Nevada. Their eclectic mix of sounds has earned them a spot on some of the area’s biggest stages, including the Big Easy Festival, the Nugget’s Best in the West Rib Cook-off, and the El Dorado’s BBQ, Brews, & Blues Festival.

 

The band’s power and determination shines through on their first full-length album, Blue Skies and Black Shoes;A soulful and passion-infused compilation of original songs that showcase the band’s blend of Modern Blues-Rock and Americana.

 

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This year's festival features Robert Randolph & the Family Band, a top act in the sacred steel tradition led by Robert Randolph. RRFB has toured with the likes of Eric Clapton and collaborated on recording projects with world-renowned talents such as John Medeski and T-Bone Burnett, and Robert Randolph is listed as one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". They tore up the 2nd Annual Congressional Blues Festival stage with a blistering performance and return to headline once again.

 

 "It's great to be a part of the Congressional Blues Festival again in 2010," said Jay Sieleman, Executive Director of The Blues Foundation. "This event brings top blues acts like Robert who has received a number of Blues Music Awards this past decade to Capitol Hill and allows The Blues Foundation another national platform to discuss its mission of promoting and preserving blues music."

 

Now in its seventh year, the Congressional Blues Festival is an effort to keep the great American tradition of Blues music alive by raising money and awareness to honor and assist those who helped to create it. "We are dedicated to giving back to American Roots Music by raising money and awareness for organizations that directly support artists in need. We are delighted to have The Blues Foundation back again as our recipient charity and partner for this festival." said festival founder Ryan Costello. Over the last six years, the Congressional Blues Festival has raised over $1 million to support this mission.

 

The event will be held for the first time at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC on Wednesday, May 26th. Washington, DC based powerhouse Sol and Funk Root are also on the bill and will be joined by additional artists to be announced at a later date. As in past years, the congressional host committee will be made up of over 50 representatives and senators from all over the country from both sides of the aisle.

 

Tickets will be $20 each and available to the public exclusively via the Congressional Blues Festival's website. In keeping with tradition, every ticket includes all you can eat and drink, all night. Tickets will go on sale in March. To be notified of the official release, individuals must join the CBF mailing list at the above website.

 

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Delta Groove Music is teaming up with Simi Valley’s Cajun Creole Music Festival to present the 5^th Annual Delta Groove All Star Blues Review.

 

For the past 20 years, Simi Valley has honored a fundraiser founded in 1988 to benefit the charities supported by the Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise.  The festival features multiple stages, over 150 food, beverage, craft and sponsor booths, hosts around 15,000 attendees and donates one hundred percent of all profits to charitable, educational and humanitarian causes.  Last year, the Cajun Creole Music Festival introduced a blues stage and this year turned to veteran blues promoter, Randy Chortkoff, to supply the blues acts.

 

Entertainment chair, Gary Stewart, makes it a point to go out into the crowd every year and speak to the patrons about how they can improve the festival for the upcoming year.  Last year he noticed a new face in the crowd and after speaking with him briefly, learned he was there for the blues music.  The gentleman also suggested to Stewart that they call Delta Groove Music if they wanted some really great acts.

 

“When I spoke to Randy Chortkoff, you could tell in his voice he had some enthusiasm and had a game plan,” said Stewart about the initial conversation with label owner, Chortkoff.

 

Every year, for the past four years, Chortkoff has held his Annual Delta Groove All-Star Blues Review in conjunction with the Blues Music Awards in May.  The stage has been set in Memphis, Tennessee at the New Daisy Theatre, The Gibson Theatre and Clarksdale, Mississippi’s Ground Zero Blues Club.  The audience has grown year after year and the annual review has become something blues fans from all over the world permanently mark on their calendars. 

 

For the fifth anniversary, Chortkoff wanted to do something really special to make a huge splash.  When he got the call from Stewart, not only was he honored to supply the blues stage with the best of his artists; he knew right away what would make his 5^th Annual Blues Review something to celebrate.  It was then Chortkoff decided to bring his show back home to Southern California, where Delta Groove Music began.

 

“I’m extremely honored to be able to feature my labels’ artists on a stage with such a well seasoned crew.  After 20 years of experience, these guys know how to put on a festival.  I’ve always wanted to be hands on with a blues festival and I’m really excited to be involved with Gary Stewart and the rest of the crew in Simi Valley,” said Chortkoff about the association with the Cajun Creole Music Festival.

 

This year the blues stage will feature six acts from the Delta and Eclecto Groove labels each day.  The tentative lineup will include soul blues sensation Jackie Payne Steve Edmonson Band, Arthur Adams, Lynwood Slim with the Igor Prado Band, The Insomniacs, the Kirk Fletcher Band, Los Fabulocos featuring Kid Ramos, The Soul of John Black, The Hollywood Blue Flames, Mike Zito, Candye Kane, the legendary Elvin Bishop and a very rare Southern California appearance by The Mannish Boys! 

 

The Cajun Creole performers include Acadiana, Theo & the Aydeco Patrol, T-Lou & His Super Hot Zydeco Band, Bonne Musique Zydeco, Rosie Ledet & the Zydeco Playboys, Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole, and Lisa Haley & the Zydecats.

 

 The schedule will be confirmed in the coming months and, as usual, there are sure to be several surprise guests joining the lineup.

 

Simi Valley’s Cajun Creole Music Festival, now with a Blues Infusion, is put on every year by the Rotary Club, with one hundred percent of the profits going to charity. 

 

The festival will be held Memorial Day weekend, Saturday May 29^th and Sunday, May 30th.  For more information, please visit the Delta Groove website at www.deltagroovemusic.com/ or the festival’s website at www.simicajun.org/.

 

Martin Guigui will headline at the House Of Blues on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles this coming Friday March 12^th at 8 PM as part of the ‘Unity For Peace Tour’ sponsored by the ‘Unity For Foundation’.  Doors open at 7 pm with Hollywood celebrity red carpet arrivals.  The ‘Unity For Peace Jam” invited special guests include among others Shyan Selah, Billy Gibbons, Steve Lukather, Mos Def and surprise special guests.  As part of the charity event, Gibson will be auctioning vintage guitars!  The Martin Guigui All-Star show kicks off a ‘Unity For Peace’ world tour to include San Francisco, Seatle, Chicago, Boston, New York, Nashville, New Orleans and San Antonio. International dates include Paris, London and China with the ‘Road to Peace’ culminating in a star studded show in the Middle East.

 

 For ticket info go to www.houseofblues.com and for more information on the ‘Unity For Foundation’ and the ‘Unity For Peace Tour’ go to www.unityfor.org

 

Martin Guigui is an accomplished Pianist and Hammond B-3 player, award winning Songwriter Composer, Music Producer and is an award winning Filmmaker as well, who has worked with among others James Cotton, Bo Didley, John Lee Hooker, Smokey Robinson and Joan Osborne. The current tour supports Guigui’s newest release "A Moment In Time".  Guigui's fourth effort, now available everywhere CD’s are sold is on the Old School Records label.

 

 Guigui’s new album is a collection of Soulful eclectic songwriting, funky jams and poppin' blues featuring some of his favorite musicians including Jon Fishman (Phish), Chad Hollister (Ben Harper, Blues Traveler), Russ Lawton (Trey Anastasio, Santana) and Aaron Hersey (Pork Tornado). The current tour features an All-Star line up including among others Call Bennett, Jonathan Mover, Scott Page and Ched Tolliver.

 

For info on upcoming shows and events check out www.martinguigui.com

 

Click to hear "That's The Way It's Got To Be"

 

Jackson, Miss. - Mississippi's blues artists have won worldwide fame for their soulful music born out of the hardships of the state's old plantation system, but many of them end up broke and hungry.

The Mississippi Legislature has passed a bill lawmakers hope will lead to financial help for the performers who established the state's legacy as the "birthplace of the blues."

 

The bill allows the Mississippi Blues Commission to raise private funding for struggling musicians. It amends the law that created the commission, which is charged with promoting the state's blues heritage. The bill will allow the commission to "raise and expend grant funds to provide assistance to any blues musician in need."

The bill passed the House earlier in the session and passed Senate this week, but was held on a motion to reconsider. The bill would become effective July 1.

 

The change was sorely needed, said Luther Brown, a member of the commission. Brown said he often hears of musicians who died broke or need help with medical costs or other expenses. "I just had an e-mail this morning about Willie King, who is from Prairie Point, Miss. He died about a year ago and his grave is unmarked," Brown said. "He's a legitimate performer who has performed all over the world and has had albums out, but there's no money to put up a grave stone."

 

Last month, blues guitarist Lil' Dave Thompson died in a van accident in South Carolina. Thompson, of Greenville, Miss., left a wife and five children, Brown said.

 

He said guitarist Mickey Rogers was robbed and beaten after a gig last year. The commission couldn't give him money, but helped get him another guitar through the Mississippi Development Authority.

"Basically everything he owned was taken, even his guitar was stolen. In his case, he was potentially facing a loss of income because he didn't have an instrument," Brown said.

 

Sen. Billy Hewes, R-Gulfport, said he asked the bill be held for more debate because wanted clarity on who would receive the money and how it would be managed. He said he's since learned the commission would handle all the funds and it would only go to Mississippi performers. "We don't just want some guy who goes out and buys a harmonica to say, 'I'm a bluesman. Give me some money,'" Hewes said. "We want it to go to true artists."

 

Mississippi has focused its tourism marketing on blues history for several years. The state's blues trail has more than 100 markers identifying significant or historic spots related to the music.

 

Tourists spent $1.1 billion in a 14-county region in the Delta in 2009, according to the Mississippi Development Authority's most recent figures. Most of it -- $915 million -- was spent in Tunica County, a major casino destination. Many say blues enthusiasts, on the trail of Mississippi's musical originators, make up the rest of the tourism numbers.

 

"They're the state's biggest draw for international tourism to the Mississippi Delta," said Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood. "The least we can do is help them in their senior years."

 

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SAN DIEGO, CA, -  Metatron Inc. today announced that it has signed a distribution agreement for one of the largest and most popular collections of classic soul and popular music with Darryl Payne Productions, a Chicago-based music production company.

The music, much of which has been marketed on television and at major retail stores for over forty years, is comprised of 30,000 audio and video masters and 1,000 DVD titles. It features a diverse range of legendary artists, spanning all genres including: Judy Garland, The Chi-Lites, Little Richard, Jose Feliciano, Kenny Rogers, The Four Tops, Temptations, Alice Cooper, Sly and The Family Stone, Hall and Oates, Tina Turner, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Sister Sledge, 5th Dimension, The Dramatics, The Four Tops, Cuba Gooding Sr. & the Main Ingredient, The Whispers, The Dells, The Delfonics, Enchantment, The Floaters, Edwin Starr, Melba Moore with Special Guest Freddie Jackson, Harold Melvin's Blue Notes, Ray, Goodman & Brown, The Temptations Feat. Dennis Edwards & Ali Woodson, Blue Magic. Slave Featuring Drac, Confunkshun, The Barkays, The Manhattans feat. Gerald Alston & Blue Lovett and hundreds more artists.

 

One of the most popular collections of its kind in the industry, total 2009 television sales for the collection was approximately $4 million, and sales from large retailers such as Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, FYE, K-Mart, Walgreens, CVS and Target averaged between $4 million and $7 million per year over the past several years.

 

Darryl Payne, CEO of Darryl Payne Productions, said, "We see mobile device sales as being the hottest growth market in the music industry today. We spoke with a number of other mobile marketing companies before we decided to go with i-Mobilize, but the decision was an easy one to make. Their proprietary technology is able to bring our titles to the market faster than any other company with which we met. We have also been most impressed with Joe and his team's knowledge of this new and exciting industry."

 

Joe Riehl, CEO of Metatron Inc., said, "This classic collection of timeless songs and performances has been a strong seller for forty years and we all expect a great response from the mobile market. We are so pleased to be working closely with Darryl and his team and look forward to building on this strong relationship into the future."

 

 

Buffalonews.com - The Washington Street mainstay has hosted local and national music acts for roughly three decades. Dick Manke, one of the Tap Room’s owners, said the legendary blues room has suffered since the street was closed for construction back in December. Manke expressed frustrations in doing business within the city limits as a small operator.

 

“In December they told us it would be two weeks. All I’ve done is bang my head against the wall trying to get answers,” said Manke. “I rely on downtown traffic. It’s a drive-by destination, not a walk-by destination.” The Lafayette Tap Room tried offering valet parking to get around access problems, but it never took off.

“And nobody is going to drop his wife off a block away at night in this neighborhood,” Manke said. “The street lights don’t even come on. It looks like there’s nothing going on down here.”

 

Manke said he has lost all of the traffic he used to get from post-Sabres game revelers and folks leaving other events at HSBC Arena. He estimates the street’s closure has cost him more than $100,000 in business.

 

The Tap Room is located in the Hotel Lafayette complex, which is facing its own challenges. Renovation plans there are in jeopardy as developer Rocco Termini battles Albany over delays.

 

In the meantime, owners of the Tap Room are scouring the suburbs for a new place to do business and a temporary kitchen in which to continue offering its catering services. They have been busy talking to agents and musicians from more than 100 bands to reschedule performances, which are booked six to eight months in advance. Each has committed to return to the new venue, wherever it may be.

 

“We’re saddened and frustrated because it was a beautiful room,” said Manke. “But we’re in the poorest city in the highest- taxed state on a closed street. And that’s just not working.”

 

 

NEW YORK, March 4, 2010: The National GUITAR Museum – the first museum in the United States dedicated to the history, evolution, and cultural impact of the guitar – announced that David “Honeyboy” Edwards, the last of the original Delta blues guitarists,

will receive its “Lifetime Achievement” Award. The award will be presented to Edwards in aceremony at B.B. King’s Blues Club in Manhattan on March 11, 2010.

 

Born in Shaw, Mississippi in 1915, Edwards was one of the first traveling bluesmen, sharing a life on the road with notables who have long since passed on, including Robert Johnson,

Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Howlin’ Wolf. Over the course of eight decades, Edwards has performed his brand of original blues for people all over the United States and Europe – and he shows no signs of slowing down. As far back as 1942, Honeyboy’s guitar playing was recorded for the Library of Congress, and more than 60 years later he received a 2008 Grammy award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

 

“The guitar is the most enduring icon in American history,” says HP Newquist, the executive director of The National GUITAR Museum. “It’s been around longer than baseball, basketball, soft drinks, and sports cars. And Honeyboy Edwards is the one guitarist today who has been part of the guitar’s history longer than anyone else. He is a guitarist who was present at the birth of the blues. We’re honored to be able to recognize his contribution to the guitar with this award.”

 

After the presentation, the 94-year old Edwards will perform a concert at B.B. King’s, located in the heart of New York’s fabled Times Square.

 

About The National GUITAR Museum: The National GUITAR Museum is the first museum in the United States dedicated to the

history, evolution, and cultural impact of the guitar. Its Touring Exhibition, “GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked The World” will travel to 15 cities over the next several years before becoming the basis of The National Guitar Museum in its permanent home. The

Touring Exhibition will consist of engaging, entertaining, and educational displays specific to the guitar, including historical artifacts, video screens, and computer interactives designed to appeal to visitors of all ages.

 

The Museum’s Board of Advisors includes guitar greats Steve Vai, Ritchie Blackmore, Johnny Winter, Steve Howe, Liona Boyd, and Pat Kirtley.

 

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Toledoblade.com - It seems almost too idyllic to be real.

 

Imagine a single place where African-Americans could gather and listen to music, have hayrides for the kids, play baseball, eat good barbecue, dance to some of the greatest blues musicians of all time, race motorcycles, ride horses, enjoy a cold beer or smooth whiskey, catch up on gossip, get out of the dirty old city, and reacquaint themselves with a simpler, more rural lifestyle.

 

And imagine a place where white people and Mexican-Americans were very much welcome in a laid-back country club atmosphere that didn't include the shameful bigotry that marked so many clubs in the 1940s and '50s.

 

John Lee Hooker played at the Hines Farm, as did other musical greats such as B.B. King, Count Basie, Bobby 'Blue' Bland, and countless others.

 

This was the Hines Blues Farm on South Berkey Southern Road in Swanton Township. Beginning in the late 1940s and carrying through to the late '70s, the farm run by Frank and Sarah Hines was a one-of-a-kind, down-to-earth slice of rural utopia.

 

"That was a happening place," said longtime Toledo musician Roman Griswold. "We did a lot of playing out there during the '60s. We really enjoyed it. B.B. King came through, John Lee Hooker was there.

 

"It was a chance to get out of town and holler. And you could ride horses or race horses. It was a fun place."

 

In terms of Lucas County's black history, Hines served as a crucial social signpost for many blacks who migrated here from the south in the mid-20th century looking for jobs and a better way of life. Situated on about 40 acres off what is now Airport Highway, the farm evolved into an important social entertainment hub.

 

Guitarist Jimmy Burns brought Delta Blues, R&B, and soul to the club, which started out with live music, a jukebox, and good times in the Hineses' basement. There were a few rooms above the club for the artists.

 

Frank "Sonny" Hines was born in Kentucky in 1903, and he moved to Toledo from Kentucky. His wife, Sarah, was born in 1911 in Memphis and the two of them moved out of Toledo to the farm in 1937.

 

The Swanton and Spencer Sharples Township area was a magnet for African-Americans looking to move out of the city and Realtor Lawrence Hallet had purchased a large chunk of land in the area along State Rts. 2 and 295.

 

Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was willing to sell land to blacks.

 

"Juke joints" started popping up in the area, which also was known as "Moonshine Valley" because of the large number of bootleggers - both black and white - who lived in the area. Frank and Sarah became popular for the house parties they'd hold in their basement, featuring live music, a jukebox, and plenty of good times.

 

Matt Donahue, a pop culture instructor at Bowling Green State University, did a significant paper on the farm called "I'll Take You There ... An Oral and Photographic History of the Hines Farm Blues Club" and in it he described the scene in those early years.

"The early days in the basement was crowded and lively, those girls would be cooking fish, man, and they'd be having chicken sandwiches and hamburgers and the guys would be playing music," blues guitarist Bobby Smith told Mr. Donahue.

 

"It was everybody talking at the same time, you know, passing the bottle around and having fun. … Sometimes Hines would be saying 'Everybody get out of here' so he could go to bed, but sometimes it stayed open until 3 or 3:30 a.m." Frank Hines, a farmer, was described as a "direct" man, according to those who knew him. Sarah was a licensed cosmetologist who booked the artists who played there and worked tirelessly to keep the place hopping.

"They were good people, real good people," said Henry Griffin, who frequently visited the farm when he was younger and who now owns the property. "They were just hard workers."

 

 

Over time, the basement became too crowded, so the Hineses built a bar and began to expand their operations, eventually including an outdoor performance area. During the '50s and '60s the place became a top draw for major black entertainers, and among the luminaries to play there were B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Count Basie, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and countless others.

 

There were numerous clubs in Toledo along Dorr Street that featured the blues, but the location of Hines along what was known as the "Chicago Pike" was perfect for musicians traveling to Detroit, New York, Chicago, or Toledo.

 

"They were going from Chicago to Detroit and they'd hit Hines," said John Rockwood, a Toledo photographer and musician who has played numerous times at the club. "It's a blues joint, you just know it. It's sacred ground."

 

The Hineses included a few rooms over the club so that the artists would have someplace to sleep after their shows. But, while the farm became known nationally for music, it was also an important gathering place for local African-Americans. With good food, exhibition baseball games featuring Negro League baseball players, hayrides, horse riding, picnic areas, and a lot of good country space, it reminded many of the transplants from the South of home.

 

"It was a fun place to go. There were a lot of clubs in the Toledo area, but going out there … if you liked to fish they had a pond where you could fish, if you liked baseball you could play baseball. There was stuff to do," Mr. Griswold said.

 

Martha Sloan, a longtime Toledo resident, said she loved to visit Hines farm on the weekends. People from Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, and other southern states would find people who had news about back home and they could reminisce, she said.

 

"It was [popular] for those who first came up here from the South because it would give them that feeling of being home," she said. "If they were lonesome they had some place to go because it had that atmosphere of the old South."

 

Mr. Donahue, who also filmed a documentary on the farm called The Hines Farm Blues Club that aired on Public Broadcasting System stations, concurred with Mrs. Sloan.

 

"Hines is kind of a rural environment so it kind of plays into the mystique of being in the rural South, and I think that's why the place resonated for people back in the day, based on the interviews I did with folks in the African-American community," he said. "It gave folks a chance to get out of the city and into the country."

 

The farm is still there, but the deaths of Frank and Sarah Hines in the late '70s and early '80s, a dramatic change in traffic patterns and the social upheavals of the '60s and '70s significantly reduced its popularity.

 

When Toledo Express Airport was expanded, State Rt. 295 was rerouted and the farm became much harder to find. Mr. Griffin, who runs a trucking and excavating business, said that later generations of African-Americans weren't as interested in driving 15 miles out of the city to a club, and little things like increased insurance liability make it tough to stage events like dune buggy races or hayrides.

 

He still books occasional blues shows at the club, but it's expensive and a lot of hard work getting the place ready for several hundred people to show up and drink and eat. "I did the best that I could do with what I've had out here," he said. Mr. Donahue praised Mr. Griffin for his efforts to keep the club active. "I think that Henry has done a really amazing job of refurbishing the place but keeping it really the same as it was back in the day and not making a huge tourist trap out of it," he said. Mrs. Sloan said she likes to take a drive out by the farm, which can be a bittersweet reminder of what has been lost.

 

"I still kind of miss it and I do ride past it quite often," she said. "It doesn't seem the same because no one's walking around."

 

New recordings by performing songwriters Peter Karp and Sue Foley and blues/rock guitarist Popa Chubby will be released by American roots music label Blind Pig Records on Tuesday, March 16th.

 

A brilliant collection of original songs that grew out of a series of letters between U.S. singer/songwriter Peter Karp and Canadian Juno award winner Sue Foley over a two year period. The letters started as a casual exchange but as time went on, they became more poignant, more revealing and more intimate. The acclaimed songwriters eventually came to recognize that they provided a wellspring of inspiration for these songs. The compositions reveal a meeting of hearts and minds, an interplay of shared artistic purpose and spiritual kinship. Their live show based on the album, featuring elements of folk, jazz, flamenco, Americana and blues, was praised by Blues Revue as "a unique, daring idea beautifully executed by two talented, inspired artists."

 

Popa Chubby has had a prolific career spanning several decades. From the breakout early 90's hit "Sweet Goddess of Love and Beer" from the Tom Dowd produced Booty And The Beast to his inspired interpretations of Jimi Hendrix on Electric Chubbyland, Popa continues to output a steady stream of fire and brimstone. On this new release he presents an electrifying selection of hard-charging, guitar-driven anthems in tribute to the classic rock he grew up with. From Zep-style arena rock to ZZ Top boogie by way of Buddy Guy and Freddy King, this album is one of his rowdiest yet. The Fight Is On also features a very special live recording of his take on Motorhead's "Ace of Spades." This is Popa's first release in two years, following the success of Deliveries After Dark, and the gloves are off on this one!

 

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Clarksdale, Mississippi -- On the heels of his 2009 "Best Guitar Player of the Year" award from the Bay Area Blues Society, Mississippi bluesman Terry "Big T" Williams is slated to release a brand-new album on a brand-new label in late March. Entitled "Jump Back, Big T's in the House," the CD will signal a new phase in Williams' storied musical career. 

 

"Big T is a phenomenal musician and unforgettable performer," says Matt Blumert, founder of Matt The Scat Records and executive producer of the upcoming CD. "I met him during a visit to Clarksdale last year, and from the first note I heard him play at Ground Zero Blues Club, I knew I just had to get him into the studio. He is a living link to the rich history of Delta blues, but he's managed to update the sound for 21st Century ears. He really has to be seen and heard to be believed." 

 

More information about the new album as well as photos from the recording session can be found at www.terrybigtwilliams.com. A bit of his personal and professional history can also be found on the new web site. 

 

 

 

 

The long-awaited studio recording of Jimi Hendrix’ “Valleys of Neptune” has been released on an album of the same name. The CD features 12 previously unavailable tracks, including never-before-heard versions of classics like ”Stone Free,” “Fire,” and “Red House.” Elwood will share this CD with you. And, this week only, Sony Legacy has passed along copies for five of you to win. Elwood is joined by Jimi’s sister, Janie Hendrix, who co-produced the record. Also, learn about the all star Hendrix tour which may be coming to a city near you. Plus: new music from roots player Eric Bibb.

 

 

 

RBA Publishing Inc is based in Reno, NV with a satellite office in Beverly Hills, Florida. We produce the annual Blues Festival Guide magazine (now in its 7th year), the top-ranking website: www.BluesFestivalGuide.com, and this weekly blues newsletter: The Blues Festival E-Guide with approximately 20,000 weekly subscribers. We look forward to your suggestions, critiques, questions, etc.

Reach the E-Guide editor, Gordon Bulcock, gordon@bluesfestivalguide.com

or contact our home office at 775-337-8626, eguide@bluesfestivalguide.com
 

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