Roots music from the heart from this multiple WC Handy Blues Music Award Winner and former member of the Muddy Waters Blues Band. Oscher sings - plays Harmonica, Bass Harmonica, Piano and Guitar- Blues, gospel and jazz. Recorded live and in the studio.

 

Fifteen Tracks Of Low-Down Blues, Gospel And Jazz From This Former Muddy Waters Blues Band Member And Multiple Blues Music Award Winner.

 

This Work Features Paul On Vocals, Bass Harp, Neck-Racked (Diatonic And Chromatic) Harmonicas, Guitar And Piano In Solo, Trio And Quartet Settings.

 

Diamonds in the Dirt is the exciting new album by British artist Joanne Shaw Taylor, a rising star on the international blues scene. The 18 months since the release of her debut White Sugar have seen that recording receive a nomination as Best New Artist Debut at the 2010 Blues Music Awards and become the most successful debut ever on Ruf Records. Taylor's latest release reunites her with Grammy-winning producer Jim Gaines (Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan) and the same team of studio pros that made White Sugar such an infectious pleasure.

Recorded at Gaines' Bessie Blue Studios in rural Tennessee, Diamonds in the Dirt offers 10 stellar, all-original cuts. It begins with the unexpected sound of a lone acoustic guitar but soon shifts into overdrive, becoming a dizzying display of frenetic, full-throttle electric power. Taylor recently moved to the U.S. and attributes the heavy sound of Diamonds in the Dirt to her new musical environment - a place immortalized in song as 'Detroit Rock City.' "There's a huge amount of incredible bands and musicians in Detroit," says Taylor of her current home base. "I'm sure it's given me new inspiration and been part of the reason for the slightly heavier sound on this album."

Songs like "Can't Keep Living Like This" and "Have Mercy" showcase a remarkable range of dynamics. Taylor and her tight, two-piece rhythm section build gradually upon solid, riff-driven grooves. When the moment comes, the guitarist launches into one of her incendiary solos. Often, as on "Have Mercy," Taylor, drummer Steve Potts and bassist Dave Smith explode together in a final, breathtaking climax.

It's not all fireworks, though. "Diamonds in the Dirt," a song about the process of emotional recovery, shows off the softer, more melodic qualities in Taylor's singing and playing, as well as her willingness to reveal and heal. "Writing, for me, is very personal," she says. "All the songs on this album are autobiographical. It's basically a chance to put thoughts and fears to paper."
As tempting as it was to try and repeat the success of White Sugar, so much has changed in Taylor's life since then that she never even considered it. Thus, Diamonds in the Dirt is a fitting step forward. "I wanted an album that showed my growth as a musician and person. I think Diamonds in the Dirt is a good snapshot of where I am right now as an artist and a good memoir of the past two years."

 

Once Again Funding Scholarships For Youth Workshops

 

[January 5, 2011] The Pinetop Perkins Foundation will be able to provide scholarships for youth attending the Second Annual Master Class Workshops, thanks to a grant from the Rock River Foundation founded by Morgan Freeman. The grant will enable the workshop to fund up to four Mississippi youth (ages 12 to 21).  In addition, the Pinetop Perkins Foundation will - offer for the first time - a scholarship for a youth applicant living outside the state of Mississippi.   

 

Held on the grounds of the historic Hopson Plantation and the Shack Up Inn, the workshops cover two and a half days of instruction capped by a performance Friday evening at Ground Zero Blues Club. In speaking about the their grant support to the Pinetop Perkins Foundation's Second Annual Master Class Workshop, Club owner and accomplished actor Morgan Freeman said "our Rock River Foundation board is pleased to support the piano and guitar workshop to be held in 2011 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. After all - there is no better place to learn the blues than at ground zero for blues music! Bill Luckett, Howard Stovall and I are also pleased that you chose to showcase the workshop talent at our club-Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale."

 

Open to "the young and the young at heart," the event will take place from June 15 -17, 2011, and offer guitar as well as piano workshops.  Bob Margolin will direct the guitar workshops and Ann Rabson returns to lead the piano workshops.  Pinetop, himself, plans to in attendance for part of the event. Other major artists will be added to the roster in the coming weeks.

 

Both the piano and guitar workshops are geared for advanced and intermediate-level players.  The piano workshops will focus on blues forms and blues elements including blues rhythms, introductions, turnarounds, left hand grooves, among other "various licks and tricks."

 

The title for Bob Margolin's workshop on the other hand, is Finding Deep Blues Guitar, and aims to personalize the experience--sharing technique, attitude, as well as exploring the art of listening and helping to perfect performance skills. 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason King Band will be representing Northern Nevada in the 27th International Blues Challenge held in Memphis, TN during the first week of February 2011.  While at the IBC they will also be performing in a Showcase held by Blind Raccoon Music Company on February 4, 2011.  Jason King Band’s debut CD, Blue Skies & Black Shoes, have garnered a list of awards and accolades including “Best Local CD for Northern Nevada” and the winner of “Blues Revue Magazine’s Sponsor The Band Competition.”  In winning Blues Revue’s competition, the Jason King Band beat out blues icons such as Bettye LaVette, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Jonny Lang, Walter Trout, Keb Mo’ and John Németh.

 

Jason King Band’s CD and live performances have already been receiving praise:  

 

“The Jason King Band has a winning eclectic mix of sounds that showcase the band’s talent and musical range.  Who knows, with all they’ve got, they just might win the Blues championship!”  James “Skyy Dobro” Walker, Blues Blast Magazine 

 

“The Jason King Band offers a fresh approach to blues/rock, acknowledging their influence while steering the music in new directions.  Blue Skies & Black Shoes shows them as a force to be reckoned with on the blues scene.  This won’t be the last you hear of this band.”  Graham Clarke, Blues Bytes 

 

“Reno, Nevada’s Jason King Band specializes in high-intensity blues-rock, yet are able to dial down the heat for quiet, slow blues like ‘Cryin’ Shame.’”  Tom Hyslop, Blues  Revue 

 

Click to hear "Learn To Take it Slow"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Include your band or business in the celebration of our 10,000th Friend on our Facebook site: Blues Festival Guide

 

In just under one year, we have almost reached 10,000 friends and we want to celebrate by giving that lucky person that signs up as #10,000 a goody bag full of blues-related gifts.

 

We are going to continue this Promotion for six months including asking blues-related trivia questions and awarding the winner a prize.

 

Steph Bravo is our Social Network Editor. She will be letting all 10,000 blues friends about you and your product. Free advertising for you!

 

Steph will make an exciting display/promo on our Facebook announcing the winner and repost it often so it remains on top so that your brand is seen again and again.

 

To participate, please send up to six units (CD, t-shirt, poster etc.) to:

 

RBA Publishing Inc/Blues Festival Guide
P.O. Box 5065
Reno, NV 89513

 

Shipping:
3020 Markridge Drive
Reno, NV 89509

 

Also, please send your logo to Stephanie DJStephB@aol.com as a jpeg attachment and let her know what you are shipping so she can match up your logo with your product.

 

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Tall City Blues Fest, a multiday music festival, announced Monday a partnership with Midland College to offer educational workshops and seminars as part of the weekend's Festival offerings.

 

Tall City Blues Fest, featuring award-winning blues and roots music, is planned for July 29-31 in Centennial Park.

 

 

- Blues Guitar, Beginner & Advanced,

 

- Harmonica, Beginner & Advanced,

 

- HarmoniKids,

 

- Hawaiian Blues,

 

- Writing the Blues, a focus on songwriting, and

 

- Blues Band Bring About, creating a band from scratch

 

"We are working to make the great ideas from our brainstorming a reality -- things like working with the instrument companies so that we can provide complementary harmonicas and ukuleles as part of the classes for the beginning and kids workshops and offering the band that is created from the Blues Band Bring About workshop a spot on the stage during the Festival," said Lisa Grissom of Promising Projects, and producer for Tall City Blues Fest.

 

Pre-registration will be offered through Midland College's Summer Continuing Education course catalog, and all proceeds from workshop enrollment will benefit Midland College Community Programs. "Community programs are the 'fun' classes in the Continuing Education catalog, and partnering with Tall City Blues Fest has opened an offering of fun classes that we wouldn't otherwise have been able to offer," said Brenda Cordero, associate director of Community Programs Continuing Education at MC.

 

Additionally, Tall City Blues Fest will donate 10 percent of its advance and at-the-gate weekend Festival pass purchases to Midland College KIDS' College to be earmarked for scholarships. Weekend Festival passes are $40 and are valid for the entire weekend with come-and-go entrance to the Festival. Workshops can be attended separately from the Festival, or Weekend Festival passes can be bought in conjunction with workshop registration.

 

For more info on Tall City Blues Fest or to purchase advance Weekend Festival Passes, go to www.tallcitybluesfest.com/.

 

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DATE:     January 3, 2011 - January 31, 2011
PLACE:   www.seancostellofund.org/themojoproject.html
WHO:      Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research

 

WHAT:   Due to placing in the top 100 in the month of December, The Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research's MOJO Project is in the running again for a $50,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project. The Sean Costello Memorial Fund has been chosen to compete starting January 3.  Winners are decided by total votes with the top 10 entrants receiving the grants entered. 

 

As one of the organizations with the top votes, the Fund will develop and implement The Mojo Project: an internet and mobile based application to monitor sleep patterns. Sleep deprivation is known to be a trigger for mania. Mania can lead to reckless and often dangerous behavior. The Mojo Project is a joint effort of two of the Fund's scientific advisors from Berkeley and the Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. 

 

Supporters can vote 3 times a day, once from each of the following sources:

  

1. Pepsi Refresh website http://www.refresheverything.com/themojoproject2 *

 

2. Facebook:   http://tiny.cc/9qxn3                            

 

3. Texting: 104661 to Pepsi (73774) *

 

 

The Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research was founded after the death of Sean on the eve of his 28th birthday. Its mission includes researching the connection between creativity and bipolar disorder, reducing the stigma of bipolar disorder and supporting resources for musicians who are bipolar. For more information, please visit www.seancostellofund.org/ .  The Fund is recognized as the only organization focused on creativity and bipolar disorder.

  

Vote for The Mojo Project three times a day, every day this January. To learn more please  Click here. 

 

Having just turned 81 Matt "Guitar" Murphy has embarked on a new career as a guitar designer.  Matt is working with Mike Delaney of Delaney Guitar's to produce the MGM Signature Series.  The first model will be debuted by Matt on the Legendary Blues Cruise in January. Each guitar will be custom built for the induvidual to Matt's specs.  Expected retail to be under  2000.00 with two models planned initially.

 Details will appear on delaneyguitars.com and mattguitarmurphy.net  when the LRBC docks January 29th.

 

The 2011 International Blues Challenge will be the 27th year of Blues musicians from around the world competing for cash, prizes, and industry recognition.

 

The Blues Foundation will present the 27th International Blues Challenge February 1-5, 2011 in Memphis, TN. The world's largest gathering of Blues acts represents an international search by The Blues Foundation and its Affiliated Organizations for the Blues Band and Solo/Duo Blues Act ready to take their act to the international stage.

 

In 2010, 110 bands and 80 solo/duo acts entered, filling the clubs up and down Beale Street for the semi-finals on Thursday and Friday and the finals at the Orpheum Theater on Saturday. We will have at least that many in 2011.

 

The 27th year of the International Blues Challenge will once again include a youth showcase for those under the age of 21. Smokin' Bluz of Charlotte, NC has signed on again as the Presenting Sponsor. The 27^th IBC will include an afternoon (Friday, February 4, 2011) of talented young people showcasing their talents for record labels, media, festivals, managers, talent buyers and the fans.

 

The week of events will once again kick off Tuesday night with a Meet & Greet hosted by the Beale Street Merchants Association at the New Daisy Theater, followed by the FedEx International Showcase. In addition to the evening Blues competition, the days are filled with seminars and workshops and topped off in a moving Saturday morning brunch in which the Blues community will honor its own with the prestigious Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) awards that honor the men and women, who have made significant contributions to the Blues music world, in 20 categories such as journalism, literature and photography and to the best clubs and festivals, as well as managers, promoters and producers.

 

Media Sponsors include Beale Street Caravan, Big City Rhythm and Blues, Blues Festival Guide, Blues Revue, Downtowner, House of Blues Radio Hour, Living Blues, Memphis Flyer, Memphis Music Magazine and WREG-TV.

 

The 27th International Blues Challenge is sponsored by ArtsMemphis, bandVillage, Beale Street Merchants Association, Budweiser and its local distributor, D.Canale Beverages, FedEx, Gibson, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, Smokin' Bluz, T. Clifton Art, Tennessee Arts Commission, and the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission.

 

The list of current blues artists that have competed in the IBC over the years is impressive indeed: Slick Ballinger, Barbara Blue, Fiona Boyes, Eden Brent, Keith Brown, Michael Burks, Sean Carney, Albert Castiglia, Tommy Castro, the late Sean Costello, Albert Cummings, Delta Moon, Larry Garner, Joey Gilmore, Diunna Greenleaf, Zac Harmon, Homemade Jamz Blues Band, Richard Johnston, Joe Moss, Jason Ricci, Robin Rogers, Matthew Skoller, Super Chikan, Patrick Sweany, Susan Tedeschi, Teeny Tucker, Watermelon Slim, the late John Weston and Michelle Wilson.

 

Email joe@blues.org if you have any questions.

 

 

Early-Bird Advertising Special!

 

Order and pay for your ad before January 15, 2011 and receive a 15% discount! (Ad/artwork isn't due until end of March).

 

 Featured Festival Section
      Full Page    $1,390    you pay $1,180    you save $210
      Half Page   $725    you pay $615    you save $110

 

  General Magazine
      Full Page   $1,735   you pay $1,475    you save $260
      Half Page   $875    you pay $745    you save $130
      1/3 Page   $640    you pay $545    you save $95
      1/4 Page    $520    you pay $440    you save $80
      1/6 Page   $360    you pay $305    you save $55
      1/8 Page   $290    you pay $245   you save $45

 

      Color add $375 for full-1/2 page ads   $375   

      you pay $320  save  $55
      Color add $225 for 1/3-1/8 page ads   $225   

      you pay $190   save $35

 

Don't miss out on a once-a-year marketing opportunity to reach blues fans around the world. Order your ad in the 9th annual BLUES FESTIVAL GUIDE magazine today.

 

100,000 copies distributed free throughout U.S. And Canada in April 2011!

Plus thousands of more blues fans will see your ad in the digital edition.

 

Contact us today:
775-337-8626
advertising@bluesfestivalguide.com

 

P. S. Festival Promoters, post your festival for free by going to
www.BluesFestivalGuide.com and click on Submit Festival and fill in the fields. Easy and free. Our site gets over a million hits per month and will drive traffic to your site.

 

Saturday, Jan. 22 - The Cotillion - Wichita Kansas

 

 

The ball will feature our local Blues Challenge winners: Josh Vowell & the Rumble (band) and Cleveland Blue (solo/duo). The ball has become the official “send off” to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge.

 

Headlining the ball will be Delta Groove recording artists The Insomniacs.

 

Doors open at 7; show at 8
Tickets - WBS Members - $12.00

Advanced tickets $12 at Select-a-Seat, The Cotillion, House of Sight & Sound (Salina) and the employee clubs. Tickets on the day of the show will be $15.00 for non-members. For further information and to charge tickets by phone call 316-722-4201 or visit www.thecotillion.com/ 

 

 

 

The Phoenix Blues Society is pleased to announce that Memphiswest Music is producing a fundraising concert on its behalf.  The event, “Ladies’ Night Out – Women of the Blues”, will be held on Saturday, January 22^nd at the Tempe Center for the Arts (TCA).  TCA is located at 700 West Rio Salado, Tempe, AZ 85281.  Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. and the show will start promptly at 7:00 p.m.

 

Headlining the show will be muli-Grammy award nominee and international recording artist Dorothy Moore.  Dorothy burst onto the scene with the chart-topping Misty Blue.  Other early ballads of Dorothy’s that topped the charts include: Funny How Time Slips Away; I Believe in You; For Old Time Sake and With Pen in Hand.  Dorothy was recently honored with a Blues Trail Marker at the Alamo Theater in Jackson, MS and received the first ever Monterey Lifetime Achievement Award from the Monterey Blues Festival.

 

Joining Dorothy on the card is Chicago’s Nora Jean Bruso.  Nominated for several Blues Music Awards over the years, Nora Jean is hard at work recording her third album.  The “Hit” of this year’s Chicago Blues Festival, Nora Jean brings one of the strongest female voices in Blues today to the TCA stage.

 

Rounding out the performer’s list is Karen Lovely from Ashland, Oregon.  Karen’s band took 2^nd place at last February’s International Blues Challenge and her new record, Still The Rain, is one of the strongest releases of 2010.  It garnered Karen three Blues Music Award nominations including: Contemporary Female Artist of the Year; Contemporary Blues Album of the Year and song of the year for “Still The Rain”. 

 

Tickets are available through the Tempe Center for the Arts Box Office.  Their phone number is: 480-350-2822.  Other event information can be found at www.memphiswestmusic.com

 

Should you have further questions about this event; need photos or for any other inquiry, please contact Phoenix Blues Society President Kyle Deibler at phxbluesprez@cox.net.  He can also be reached at 602.770.5936

 

    

 

Janiva Magness was a fourteen year old runaway when she first heard Otis Rush, and it turned her feet to the blues. Janiva joins Elwood to talk about how her hardscrabble life became a life of beauty and purpose. Her CD, The Devil Is An Angel Too, pretty much explains it all. Besides Janiva, some of Janiva’s influences will be heard: Led Zeppelin, Koko Taylor, the Stones, Bullmoose Jackson, and (of course) Otis Rush. Plus: new music from Canadian roots player, Jim Byrnes.

 

 

 December 31st, midnight, is the deadline – enter here. And that’s how much time you have to vote for your top ten CDs of 2010. One lucky listener will get copies of all ten.

 

 

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

 

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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