Rocky Jackson’s NEW Album Release – Testify!

 

Rocky Jackson’s second release on High Life Records hit the street on April 20^th and is bound to get attention.  Testify! includes eight new originals from Rocky, as well as powerful renditions of five blues covers.  Rocky truly testifies in his vocal delivery and stinging guitar work on track after track.  Known for his storytelling ability and vivid lyrical images, as demonstrated on his 2006 release, Squeeze Here, Rocky again serves up songs with unique and interesting content.  Testify! is a hard-hitting, soulful album which uses core instrumentation, relying primarily on guitar, bass, and drums, but also features some fine harmonica work on several tunes.

 

Below are excerpts from the bio and album notes written by Dave Rubin, staff writer for Guitar Edge Magazine.  The entire piece is available at the following link: Click 

 

Though a proud son of the Lone Star state that has produced an extraordinary number of blazing guitar slingers, Rocky Jackson goes to the heart of the blues where the seductive groove and emotional expression meet like “the Southern crossing the dog.” On his new album, Testify!, he digs into the deep mojo of the southwest as well as Chicago and the Delta, and the result is a rare treat for the body and soul. Of course, “T” for Texas also stands for “tone” and Jackson has it pouring out of his guitar like boiling molasses.

 

B.B. King once said, “The blues are simple, anyone can play them, but would you want to hear anyone play them?” It should be added that it is not simple to come up with a recognizable signature sound and delivery, but Rocky Jackson is well on his way. Anyone who has caught his explosive live show or hears this record will certainly “testify” to that fact.

 

Bruce Iglaur, Alligator Records, had this to say after listening to Testify!, “. . . an album I enjoyed quite a lot for the tasteful playing and the unpretentious, straightforward vocals.”

 

Hi, it’s Michael from Stormcellar,

 

                I have three hundred words in which to convince you to listen to our new CD ‘Nuevo Retro’ and maybe even buy it, so stick with me here, it’s worth it.

 

A little about the folks producing the music - Stormcellar is a five piece band in the traditions of Canned Heat and Allman Brothers, featuring Slide Guitar and Harmonica, that was founded amidst the Blues Jams of the Inner West in Sydney, Down Under.

 

We’re a working band, with a solid gig schedule and a commitment to original music. Nuevo Retro is our third release since 2008 and we’re gearing up for our next recording. Our new album allowed us to take all the vibes and feels from the spectrum of blues influences from the past 100 years, from colonial folk roots, Celtic, boogie, blues, jazz, big band – you name it - to tell the stories of our time.

 

I’ve been told that Nuevo Retro is like listening to a recording from an old favourite you haven’t heard in a while, only to realise that it’s a new song.

 

 

In an age where the distance between us is only from my screen to yours, you can make a direct impact on supporting the styles of music you love.

 

Click on the link to listen to our CD ‘Nuevo Retro’ and if it’s your kind of thing, support us by buying a copy. We’re proud of this album and we think that you’ll find something to like about it as well.

 

                                                    Kind Regards,

                                                    Michael ‘MJEB’ Barry

 

Click here sound bites

 

Click for Video of "Don't get around much"

 

For more visit : www.stormcellar.com.au/

 

Click to hear "That Smile's Not For Me"

 

Toni Dodd & Southbound Blues are a dynamic group of musicians who have created a very unique and original Blues sound that they can definitely call their own. They play a well blended mix from time tested Blues, R&B. Swing, Jump Blues, Texas Boogie, and Second Line to their own brand of well-crafted original material.

 

They have performed nationally and internationally and are presently performing throughout Southern California and abroad. Southbound Blues plays at various nightclubs and major events. They have played on the great stages of B.B. Kings and the House Of Blues. They have also appeared on various local television shows as well as live Broadcasts and internet broadcasts.

 

Toni Dodd & Southbound Blues are members of the Santa Clarita Valley Blues Society and were chosen to compete in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis Tennessee, 2004. They were also named one of the top ten Blues bands by LA Rock Wars in 2000.

 

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From the Blues Foundation - We mailed tickets on April 19 and April 26 to purchasers in the United States. The rest will be held at Will Call, in the host Marriot hotel and then at the Cook Convention Center. See event schedule for times and locations.

 

The Presenting Sponsor for the 31st Blues Music Awards will once again be The Gibson Foundation. BMI is the Blues Music Awards Sustaining Sponsor.

 

Major funding is provided by ArtsMemphis and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

 

The 31st Blues Music Awards are also sponsored by Casey Family Programs, Eagle Rock Entertainment, FedEx, I 55 Productions, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.

For the fourth consecutive year, The Blues Music Awards will be broadcast live in their entirety on Sirius XM's B.B. King's Bluesville. The next best thing to being there.

 

The 2010 show will follow the format of the critically-acclaimed shows of recent years. More than 65 nominees attend and the night is filled with their appearances and performances in a dinner table setting in the Convention Center's ballroom.

 

 

The event brings together Blues performers, industry representatives and fans from all over the world to celebrate the best in Blues recordings and performances from the previous year. Each year, the Foundation present The Blues Music Awards to the artists selected by its members. They are universally recognized as the highest honor given to Blues artists. As always, a pre-party will immediately precede the Awards.

 

The Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Charter Members' Dinner will be held the night before on Wednesday, May 5. Contact The Blues Foundation about becoming a Charter Member in order to attend this star-studded event.

 

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  Robert D. Stolorow/Author of "Trauma and Human Existence"

(This blog was coauthored with my son, Ben Stolorow, who is a working jazz pianist performing in the San Francisco Bay Area, both as a solo artist and together with his sister Stephanie under the name Stoli Rose.

"I can't stand living, but I'm scared of dying, but Old Man River, he just keeps rolling along."--Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II

With roots in African music, the blues was born in the Mississippi delta as a distinctively African American musical genre in response to the de-humanizing traumas of slavery and its aftermath. It has origins in spirituals, work songs, field hollers, etc., all of which are types of music associated with enslaved people attempting to deal with their painful situation. Although blues is a uniquely African American music, it has a uniquely universal appeal. There is something in the blues, and in music with qualities that derive from the blues, that people can relate to. What are these qualities? Irrespective of whether people who relate to the blues are truly able to relate to the collective historical trauma of African Americans, there seems to be something expressed in the music that strikes an emotional chord in people from a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. What is this something? And why is the blues universally compelling? That is the mystery--that people of many different cultures respond to the blues and to the "bluesy feeling" prevalent in other music.

 

In this blog, we try to show that there is something about the blues that allows us to come face to face with universally traumatizing dimensions of human existence. Indeed, the music itself may be seen as a process of working through such trauma (musicians use the phrase "working it out"). How does the blues put us in touch with the universally traumatizing aspects of the human condition? We will look for answers both in the blues' lyric aspects (such as themes of irony and the absurdity of existence) and musical qualities (such as pitch-bending and the bluesy sound produced by shifts and ambiguities between major and minor keys). First, however, we must explore the nature of emotional trauma itself.

 

Emotional Trauma
Emotional trauma is an experience of unendurable emotional pain. In his book Trauma and Human Existence (link: http://www.psychoanalysisarena.com/trauma-and-human-existence-9780881634679 ), Robert Stolorow has claimed that the unbearability of emotional suffering cannot be explained solely, or even primarily, on the basis of the intensity of the painful feelings evoked by an injurious event. Emotional pain is not pathology--it is inherent to the human condition (we will have more to say about this later). Painful emotional states become unbearable when they cannot find a "relational home"--that is, a context of human understanding--in which they can be shared and held. Severe emotional pain that has to be experienced alone becomes lastingly traumatic and usually succumbs to some form of emotional numbing. In contrast, painful feelings that are held in a context of human understanding gradually become more bearable and can eventually be woven seamlessly into the fabric of whom one experiences oneself as being.

 

Trauma's Existential Significance
Having discussed emotional trauma in terms of its context-embeddedness, we turn now to its existential significance--how it is implicated in the human condition in general. Robert Stolorow has proposed that the existential meaning of emotional trauma lies in the shattering of what he calls the "absolutisms of everyday life"--the system of illusory beliefs that allow us to function in the world, experienced as stable, predictable, and safe. Such shattering is a massive loss of innocence exposing the inescapable dependence of our existence on a universe that is unstable and unpredictable and in which no safety or continuity of being can be assured. Emotional trauma brings us face-to-face with our existential vulnerability--our vulnerability to suffering, injury, illness, death, and loss--possibilities that define our existence and that loom as constant threats. Because we are limited, finite, mortal beings, trauma is a necessary and universal feature of our all-too-human condition.

 

The Therapeutic Power of the Blues
The working through of painful emotional states requires a context of human understanding in which they can be held. Central to this process of helping us to bear and live in our emotional pain is the bringing of the visceral, bodily aspect of emotional experience into language. Such visceral-linguistic unities--unities of bodily sensations with words, of "gut" feelings with names--are achieved in a dialogue of emotional understanding, and it is in such dialogue that experiences of emotional trauma can be transformed into endurable and namable painful feelings. The blues are a wonderful example of such dialogue. The lyrics, of course, provide the words that name the particular experience of trauma. The more formal aspects of the music seem universally to evoke the visceral dimension of emotional pain. In the unifying experience of the blues, songwriter, performers, and listeners are joined in a visceral-linguistic conversation in which universally traumatizing aspects of human existence can be communally held and borne. In experiencing the blues, we are joined together in an experience of our existential kinship-in-the-same-darkness.

 

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PHOENIX - One man's dream to build a museum dedicated to musical instruments from around the world becomes a reality Saturday as a $250 million global musical instrument museum rises out of the Sonoran desert in north Phoenix.

 

From bagpipes to bongos, the World's First Global Musical Instrument Museum, or MIM, features sax appeal and more than 12,000 instruments and objects collected by the museum.

 

Former Target stores chairman Bob Ulrich founded the MIM, inspired by a visit to a musical instrument museum in Brussels, Belgium.

 

"There is nothing that really covers the world in music and yet day in and day out what has more impact on people's lives than music?" Ulrich said. "It really did intrigue me to do something that had not been done before in the world. That's what really made it quite exciting."

 

The two-story, 190,000 square-foot museum sits on 20 acres at Tatum Boulevard, south of the Loop 101 near the Mayo Clinic Hospital.

 

The entrance features soft, cream colors, big picture windows that let light in and a grand staircase that creates a symphony hall feel. The windows in the staircase will look like piano keys when the building is lighted at night.

 

A restaurant and gift shop are on the first floor along with an auditorium for guest concerts and gatherings, and children on field trips will have their own special entrance and gathering place.

 

Crews have been busy installing, mounting, cleaning and preparing for the grand opening.

 

"We've got about 280-some exhibits that relate to every country in the world, relate to some of the famous celebrity and artist instruments that we have," said Bill DeWalt, president and director of the Musical Instrument Museum.

 

Headsets and video will let visitors see and hear people playing instruments in their traditional costumes and settings.

 

One of the high notes is the special exhibit area.

 

The actual Steinway piano on which John Lennon wrote the song "Imagine" is on display. Lennon bought the piano on Dec. 15, 1970, soon after the breakup of the Beatles.

 

"This instrument really represents the launch of his solo career, his emergence as a spokesperson for peace and world harmony," said Alan di Perna, development associate for the MIM.

 

The piano has toured the world in the name of peace. It's been to the sites of the Kennedy and King assassinations as a way to turn the vibe around in places associated with violence, di Perna said.

 

The piano is encased in plastic, but visitors can get up close. It will be at the Musical Instrument Museum for one year on loan from singer George Michael.

 

The Steinway Corp. has loaned the MIM the first Steinway piano, made in 1836 and brought to the U.S. from Germany.

 

It lacks some of the features of contemporary pianos.

 

"It doesn't have the standard 88 keys and only has two foot pedals instead of three. It's an early instrument. It's not in that playable shape," di Perna said.

 

Other instruments on loan include two guitars from Eric Clapton. One is the Fender Stratocaster "Brownie" that Clapton used for the songs "Layla" and "Bell Bottom Blues," and a Gibson guitar that Clapton played with the band Cream.

 

A set of drums from the Black Eyed Peas, a surf board from the "King of the Surf Guitar" Dick Dale and guitars from George Benson round out the collection.

 

Fender Guitars is a corporate sponsor of the MIM. Its display depicts the evolution of Fender guitars and the electric guitar.

 

Fender Guitars' presence is a natural for the museum given the role and scope of the brand in popular music of the 20th century, company spokesman Jason Farrell said.

 

Ulrich said he wants visitors to have fun, enjoy the exotic instruments and appreciate the music. "They can hit a 5-foot gong from Indonesia, they can play an African Samba piano," he said.

 

Ulrich provided the seed money for the museum and though it was built during a recession, real estate was more affordable along with building supplies and labor.

 

He said Phoenix is a good location for the museum because of the climate, the proximity to Los Angeles and other tourist destinations.

 

"It's a magnet for a variety of reasons for convention and tourism," Ulrich said. "We're very interested in attracting international visitors, and it's only a few hours from the Grand Canyon."

 

Admission for adults is $15 and $13 for seniors.

 

 

 In the second week of May, Blues musician Gary Allegretto will take his nonprofit organization Harmonikids on a music therapy mission to aid children in Port Au Prince, Haiti who are not only earthquake survivors but who are also �restaveks� � a Creole word used for those who are victims of child slavery.

 

No one smells more like an ashtray than Ian Kettle.

 

So few people working Michigan’s music scene welcome the state’s upcoming smoking ban more than the 36-year-old sound technician for Grand Rapids’ Intersection nightclub.

 

Oh, plenty of others out there - rock cover bands, singer-songwriters playing open-mic nights, all those bartenders and servers - nightly endure the all-permeating haze of cigarette smoke.

 

But as the principal sound guy at downtown’s principal live-music hot spot, I’m betting Kettle absorbs more of these acrid-smelling, chemical-laced fumes than anyone else listening to rock, hip-hop, country and electronica at full-throttle volumes.

 

That makes the smoking ban in bars and restaurants - which takes effect Saturday - worth celebrating, he says.

 

“I can’t wait. It’s going to be so great ... from just a body point of view and my eyes and my sinuses,” says Kettle, who’s handled sound duties at the nightclub for eight years.

 

“Smelling like that, you’ve got to change your clothes before you can touch your kid. It’s just horrible.”

 

Kettle, who used to smoke, jokes that he “quit four or five years ago and it was real easy: I was getting so much nicotine on a regular basis anyway four or five nights a week. It was even cheaper than buying cigarettes.”

 

Veteran Grand Rapids drummer Randy Marsh, who plays in several bands, including Organissimo and Claudia Schmidt’s Funtet, also is “jumping for joy” about the ban.

 

“I have absolutely no tolerance anymore for cigarette smoke,” he fumes. “After May 1, I’ll be able to go to places like Billy’s (Lounge) again. I think it is going to be a boon to the live music-with-alcohol venues. I know a lot of people who quit going to bars to hear music because they just couldn’t take the smoke.”

 

As a nightclub-going live music follower myself, I’m with Marsh on this one: I long to kick the habit of stripping down in the laundry room after gigs and taking a quick shower to escape the smokehouse stench.

 

Granted, this ban isn’t embraced by all bar owners, musicians and smoke-’em-if-you’ve-got-’em types, which seems obvious considering it took years for the bill to finally make its way through Michigan’s politically charged Legislature.

 

Some bands and bars count large numbers of smokers among their regular clientele. Others just believe it’s another infringement on personal liberties.

 

“I’m torn because I believe people should be able to do whatever they want whenever they want unless it affects the well-being of others,” reasons Grand Rapids singer-songwriter Nathan Kalish. “Smoking is very unhealthy and shouldn’t be forced on people. However, the government shouldn’t have the right to tell some establishments they can or can’t allow this or any activity.”

 

One of those establishments, Jukes Bar, 506 Leonard St. NW, attracts a young, cigarette-smoking crowd for weekend rock shows. While he opposes the ban, owner Dave Eder speculates he can now book more groups into the club as “some bands won’t play Jukes now because it is so smoky.” And while the new law may upset smokers for a few weeks, he’s guessing they’ll return to the club scene after getting bored at home.

 

Billy’s manager Lyndi Charles concedes the ban may annoy some regulars and force the bar to stamp the hands of those who go outside to puff so they can re-enter without paying another cover charge. But she believes it could boost attendance for blues shows, because many older fans don’t smoke.

 

“Honestly, I think it will help us,” she says. “I think there’s a lot of the blues crowd that doesn’t come here because of the smoking.”

 

Kettle also argues most out-of-state musicians who roll in for shows at The Intersection already have adjusted to no-smoking rules. They usually express surprise they can light up inside the Grand Rapids club, because most music venues - from New York to California - banned cigarette smoking years ago.

 

The ban’s benefits extend beyond health: The tar in cigarette smoke is murder on laptop computers, amplifiers and other gear used to crank out music and control lights.

 

“Everything is coated in tar and trying to keep it clean and keep it from overheating is a nightmare,” says Kettle, noting he’s burned up several laptops because the computers’ fans suck in the cigarette smoke and its gumming tar. “On May 1, everything’s getting torn apart and cleaned - all the amps and consoles.”

 

Even cleaning up tables should get easier, he surmises. “The tar is just like any other oil. It doesn’t react well with water,” he says.

 

While no one’s really sure whether the live music trade will suffer due to the smoking ban, or how the rules might get enforced, Kettle insists it may give The Intersection more entertainment options.

 

“I think we could do more upscale shows, high-end blues and that sort of thing,” Kettle says. “Those audiences certainly don’t want to be around that smoke.”

 

Nor do I. And there could be an even more significant benefit to all this: It might persuade some folks to stop smoking altogether.

 

“I’m ready to quit along with everybody else,” says Charles, over at Billy’s. “I hope this makes everybody quit.”

 

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Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The ad might read, "Percussionist wanted, preferably marimba player, for jazz-influenced band. Must be able to improvise, bob head and wear metal."

 

And the perfect candidate? It may be Shimon, a marimba-playing robot that, despite having four arms, is remarkably human. It has a shiny aluminum-steel head that bobs with the music and acknowledges other people when they're nearby.

 

Like any jazz impresario, Shimon can listen to music, analyze its structure and improvise with other musicians. But instead of lifelong musical training, Shimon relies on complex algorithms to identify tempo, beats, chord progressions and melodic dissonance and consonance.

 

"We interact with this [robot] very differently [than with humans]," said Ryan Nikolaidis, a PhD student at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology. Nikolaidis programs Shimon, whose name means "one who hears" or "one who is heard" in Hebrew.

 

"Having the presence, having a head that bobs. ... It looks at you when you're soloing and looks at itself or looks at the other players. It's really a different level of social interaction," he said.

 

John Coltrane. Thelonious Monk. Shimon can improvise like the best of them. The robot morphs the styles of these jazz masters to produce novel, surprising arrangements that both inspire and challenge Shimon's human bandmates.

 

"We're interested in improvising like a human but playing like a machine," said Nikolaidis, who also performs with the robot on his piano keyboard in a constant feedback loop of teach and learn.

 

"Being able to shift between different influences and create a rich vocabulary that's nothing like any human would ever play ... hopefully this then inspires us to play differently as well, play something that we wouldn't play with other humans," he said.

 

Gil Weinberg, director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, built Shimon two years ago with help from his colleague Guy Hoffman and Roberto Aimi of Alium Labs. The National Science Foundation helped fund the project.

 

Shimon isn't Weinberg's first foray in making robotic maestros. He and his students developed Haile, a robot drummer, in 2006. Like Shimon, Haile learns, performs and improvises alongside flesh-and-blood musicians.

 

Weinberg also helped pioneer the popular iPhone app ZOOZbeat, which helps anyone -- regardless of musical talent -- create songs by waving and shaking their phones.

 

Cyndi Lauper has an album of blues covers on the way.

 

On 'Memphis Blues’, legends B.B. King and Allen Toussaint will join Cyndi for the classic 'Early In The Morning’ and Toussaint makes a reprise later on the album with 'Mother Earth’.

 

Other guests include Jonny Lang and Charlie Musselwhite.

 

'This is the album I’ve wanted to make for years,' said Lauper in a statement. 'All of these beautiful songs, and all of the great players on the album, were carefully chosen because I’ve admired them my entire life. And I knew from the moment Alan Toussaint hit the keys in 'Shattered Dreams’ that we were creating something really special.'

 

Lauper recorded 'Memphis Blues’ at Electraphonic Recording Studio in Memphis with producer Scott Bomar.

 

Stax veteran session musicians Lester Snell and Skip Pitts play on the record.

 

'Memphis Blues’ will be released through Indie label Downtown Records in June.

 

The tracklisting is:

 

1. Just Your Fool
2. Shattered Dreams
3. Early In The Morning (Feat. Allen Toussaint and B.B. King)
4. Romance In The Dark
5. How Blue Can You Get? (Feat. Jonny Lang)
6. Down Don t Bother Me (Feat. Charlie Musselwhite)
7. Don t Cry No More
8. Rollin and Tumblin
9. Down So Low
10. Mother Earth (Feat. Allen Toussaint)
11. Crossroads (Feat. Jonny Lang)
 

The Bonita Blues Charitable foundation will donate the proceeds of the Fourth Annual 2010 Bonita Blues Festival to the Bonita Springs Assistance Office and Music For Minors.  

 

The Assistance Office offers a helping hand up to those in need and Music For Minors provides musical instruments to children who could not otherwise afford them. 

 

The donations will be presented at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Bonita Springs Assistance office.

  

The donation to Music For Minors will take place at 4 p.m. at Riverside Park in Bonita Springs.  

 

 Bonita residents, founders and producers of the Bonita Blues Charitable Foundation, Michael and Terry Pfeffer and Kevin and Jennifer Barry will make the presentations. 

 

The Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity, has also donated to The Liberty Youth Ranch, The Immokalee Friendship House, Healthy Start and the Center for Abuse Women and Children. 

Black Bear Productions and R-Ranch in the Mountains present Georgia Bluesfest 2010, to be held in Dahlonega, GA on August 21st of this year. Headlining the event will be guitar legend Johnny Winter and his band featuring harp legend James Cotton. Other performers introduced at the event will be Men in Blues, Fat Momma Band, Robert Lee Coleman, Reverb-O-Rockets, Sammy Blue, and WSNB. This will be the first major blues music event for Dahlonega and north Georgia and is expected to draw a diverse crowd of concert-goers who will spend their weekend in the Dahlonega area.

 

Tickets for the event are available online at the festival website www.georgiabluesfest.com. Sponsorships and vendor spaces are still available but will not last long.

• Potential sponsors should contact promoter Brian Bosarge for packages at brian@georgiabluesfest.com or call (770) 910-2352.

• Vendors should submit a request detailing the product or service offered for review to info@georgiabluesfest.com, or call promoter Brian Bosarge at (770) 910-2352.

 

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SECOND EAST HARLING INTERNATIONAL BLUES & BEER FESTIVAL - Mayday Bank Holiday weekend: 30^th April, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd May 2010.

 

A great lineup for this uniquely intimate new festival of real blues and real ale in a quiet corner of rural Norfolk…at the Sports & Social Club (The Club), Church Road, East Harling, Norfolk, NR16 2NA.

Friday kicks off with infectious good-time blues from the home-grown Honeydrippers Blues Band.

 

Saturday welcomes Shar-Baby “Alabama blues singer and guitarist…a fan of Howlin’ Wolf…authentic blues”. Also, Vernon Harrington, a West Side Chicago guitarist from a dynasty that includes Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Lurrie Bell and the late Carey Bell. Vernon’s mentor was the great guitarist Magic Sam. His recent release “West Side Blues” is a classic!

 

The Dave Thomas Band will be backing both of them. “Dave Thomas is a real breath of fresh air…one of the best outfits on the British scene” (Phil Wight, Blues & Rhythm).

 

Dave is the British blues guitarist and singer best known for his work with African American blues artists in the USA and when they visit the UK to perform at Gerard Homan’s celebrated Shake Down Blues promotions.

 

On Sunday Dave’s band provides the backing for Kathleen “KAT” Pearson-Thomas from Longbeach, California. KAT delivers an energy-packed blues and gospel set “…a sassy lady and a hard working band” (Shake Down Blues). Plus Grapevine (featuring Russian guitarist Dr Ika) and Shar-Baby & Steve Payne “…one of the UK’s finest guitarists”.

 

Monday sees the festival out in fine style with Paul Lamb and The King Snakes. Paul has been described as “Europe’s foremost blues harmonica exponent”. Plus Dave Thomas & James Goodwin (world class blues and boogie woogie piano).

 

Other artists appearing over the weekend include: Canadian singer/songwriter/guitarist Tony Henderson; American singer/songwriter/guitarist Rusty Floyd; American bass player and singer Paul Lawson and Australian vocal and guitar duo Rick & Jo Ludbrook. A truly international gathering of blues talent!

 

East Harling is easy to find…on the B1111 just a few miles East as you come off the A11 near the Snetterton Racing Circuit between Norwich and Thetford. As you drive into East Harling The Club is right opposite the Church…a perfect location with plenty of caravan and camping facilities, local B&Bs and hotels nearby. The Club overlooks beautiful water meadows. With real blues and real beer on tap what more could you ask for?

For tickets/further information:

 

Let's Live It Up is Mississippi Heat's third recording for Delmark, and their best yet. For this outing, the band recorded 14 new original songs, eleven by leader and harmonica player Pierre Lacocque. Special guest vocalist/guitarist John Primer sings and plays on 3 cuts, while another legendary Chicago area blues guitarist Carl Weathersby can be heard throughout this new anticipated album. Inetta Visor returns as lead vocalist on 8 tunes, while singer Rhonda Preston also delivers one song. Keyboardist Chris “Hambone” Cameron, The Chicago Horns, percussionist Ruben Alvarez, killer guitarist Giles Corey (Lubriphonic) and background vocalists also appear on this anticipated studio recording. More Mississippi Heat on Delmark: One Eye Open, Live at Rosa's (CD DE783, DVD 1783), Hattiesburg Blues (DE795).

 

Mississippi Heat Delmark CD Release Party for LET'S LIVE IT UP!! Friday May 7 - Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago www.mississippiheat.net

 

 

 

 

We’re very excited and proud to present the Delmark debut recording of one Chicago’s long time favorite blues bands, Dave Weld and the Imperial Flames! This is a killer veteran all-star, real deal Chicago blues band at its house rockin’ best, led by the Hound Dog Taylor and J. B. Hutto influenced guitarist/vocalist Dave Weld (b.’52.) Weld (who learned directly from Hutto) leads one of the hardest working, longest running and most talented and cohesive Chicago blues bands around. The Imperial Flames feature the one and only Abb Locke on saxophone (you should read his bio- Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Howlin’ Wolf. Elmore James, Earl Hooker, & The Rolling Stones!) I love his sax solo on Dave’s original, “She’s Mine.” Harry Yaseen on piano (who studied under Art Hodes), Dave Kaye on bass (rotating with legendary bassists Bernard Reed (The Artistics, Syl Johnson, Tyrone Davis) and Herman Applewhite (Buddy Guy/Jr Wells), the vastly underrated Jeff Taylor on drums and lead vocals (check out his catchy A.C. Reed influenced “I Got Mad”), and the talented singer Monica Garcia on lead and harmony; all adding much depth and variety to this tough Chicago blues recording. A very special guest and long time friend/bandmate is featured on this anticipated CD, Lil’ Ed! Under Ed’s uncle J.B. Hutto’s tutelage, Weld and Lil’ Ed formed the original Blues Imperials and recorded their classic debut in ’86 on Alligator, Roughhousin.’ Dave started his own band, the Imperial Flames in ’88, and have been popular road warriors on the competitive scene ever since. Lil’ Ed and Dave are now reunited again in the studio for this much anticipated release, following their hit collaboration in ’96 on Earwig, Keep on Walkin’. The Imperial Flames are ready to bring their wild and raucous blues party to your town- no festival or bar is too far!

Delmark DE – 806
Recorded November 3-5, 2009 at Delmark’s Riverside Studio

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Blues Society has teamed up with Tomahawk's Smokehouse and Saloon for an all-day musical memorial and fundraiser Saturday for the families of the miners killed in the Upper Big Branch mining disaster.

 

The full day of music will feature performances by Blues Music Association nominee Jason Ricci and New Blood with special guest Washboard Jo, the Jimi Vincent Band, the Crossroads Blues Band and many others.

 

Ricci, actually, led the call for a benefit.

 

"Jason has played here for us a couple of times," Blues Society president Jack Rice said. "He called us, said he'd been following the story of the miners and wanted to do something to help."

Rice said the blues harmonica player and singer doesn't do a lot of benefit shows. "Naturally, we're tickled."

 

The benefit, according to Rice, has drawn bands from six states, and also features several local blues bands, including the recently reunited Crossroads Blues Band. Guitarist Jeff Mangus says that, when he got the call, his band jumped at the chance.

"Of course, we did," Mangus said. "It's a great opportunity for us and lets us help those families."

 

Proceeds from the benefit will go to the West Virginia Council of Churches and its Montcoal Disaster Fund. Tickets are $15 per person and $25 for couples. Children will be admitted for free.

The ticket price also includes a pig roast.

 

 

 

The 31st annual Blues Music Awards celebration happens this May 6 in Memphis, Tennessee. If you can’t be here, you can still be here. The Radio Hour gives a listen to some of the nominees for the highest honor the blues community has to offer. Elwood has these folks lined up for you: Derek Trucks, Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Tommy Castro, Duke Robillard, Super Chikan, Rick Estrin, Candye Kane, and more. Plus brand new music from the Los Angeles blues supergroup, The Mannish Boys.

 

For a list of stations where you can find House of Blues Radio

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