It's been 35 years since Stony Plain Records began its life as a record label - and to mark the anniversary, the label's prepared a giant 2CD-plus-DVD package, with more than 40 tracks and eleven videos.

 

Exclusively featured on our 35 year compilation are three previously unreleased tracks by the legendary singer-songwriter Bob Carpenter, recorded as publishing demos in 1979. Bob only made one album - Silent Passage, now out of print, but available digitally - these tracks are a reminder of what music was lost when he passed away 15 years ago.

 

Performing on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise is like going to blues school for a guy like me. I feel I still have a lot to learn and I get chance to see a lot of great talent in a short time on the Cruise. Taking the Revue on the road allows me to spend a little more time with some of my favorite players. We play, jam, tell stories and share our experiences as we roll around the country in my funky old bus. Every one of my co-stars on this record has inspired me more than they know. I'm very grateful for their participation on this release.

 

If you love live music, you're going to love this record.

–Tommy Castro

 

 

By good fortune I was in Toronto last weekend and my friends and I got to go to the Waterfront Blues Festival. The promoter, Rico Ferrara met us with backstage passes and a photo op. But first we went to the Toronto Blues Society table to give them boxes of Blues Festival Guides to hand out. The four boxes we brought went like hotcakes off their table.

 

A free, three-day event, The 7th Annual Waterfront Blues – Metro Toronto’s only genuine Blues festival featured Curtis Salgado, 21st Century Bluesman Larry McCray, Blues Music Award nominee Teeny Tucker, Juno Award winners Gary Kendall & Chuck Jackson of Downchild, and more.

 

 

Toronto is beautiful (this was my first visit), and this particular area of Toronto by the water was especially lovely. The venue was grassy with a stage at the top of a slope so everyone got a great view. We were impressed by the beer garden that offered tables and chairs for everyone with great views of the stage.

 

(As a dog lover, I was happy to see dogs on leashes were allowed.)

 

A first-rate festival  - add this one to your blues bucket list.

 

 

For more info:
Rico Ferrara at Blues For A Big Town
"Blues to soothe your Soul"
349 Cedarvale Avenue
Toronto, ON, Canada  M4C 4K5
Tel.: (416) 423-2224
Fax: (416) 425-6663

 

 

"An insightful songwriter and fine guitarist. As gritty and immediate as Luther Allison." ---Tom Hyslop, The Blues Revue

Luther Badman Keith has established himself as one of Detroit’s top blues song writers and performers with a unique sound that borrows from many forms of music—but doesn’t mimic anyone else. You can hear all kinds of influences rumbling through his compositions,  from down home traditional blues, to up tempo jazz inflections, from Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix rock, from Santana to The Doors, from James Brown to Motown.

 

That unique characteristic, in his playing, performing and songwriting, has won Keith legions of loyal fans, some of whom turn out over and over again to see his high energy shows. “I see him every chance I get,” says Rodney Guyton, a blues fan from Detroit. “No two shows are ever the same.”

 

Keith is now accepting bookings for summer, late fall and winter of this year, bringing  a dynamic and , tight six piece unit that features horns, harmonica, keyboards, drums, bass and Keith on guitar and vocals. That’s the same unit on Keith’s recently released, critically acclaimed third CD, Blues Nation, described by RadioIndy as a “fantastic collection of blues songs.”

Upcoming dates are June 10 at the Hard Rock Café in Detroit, June 23rd  at the Lager House, Detroit, July 16 at the Community Blues Festival Detroit and July 30 at the Heatstock Festival in Fostoria, Mi.

 

On Aug. 7, Keith will be at the RibsNSoul Festival, Detroit, and Aug. 14, at the Jazz on the River Festival on the banks of the Detroit River. More details at www.badmanbluz.com.
Website: www.badmanbluz.com
Email: badman@badmanbluz.com
Bookings: 313-407-6772

 

The Pinetop Perkins Foundation is pleased to announce the names of nine youth scholarship recipients from for the 2011 Master Class Workshops in Piano and Guitar. Scholarships this year went to:
Austin Young, Colorado
Christopher Dixon, Tennessee
Jack Gaffney, Colorado
Jonathan Ruckman, Texas
Justin Willis, Georgia
Patrick Knight, Tennessee
Christone Ingram, Mississippi
Layesha Ba, Mississippi
Andrew Blades, Mississippi

 

The recipients from Mississippi are all in the music program at the Delta Blues Museum and played on the recently-released CD, "From Clarksdale to Kansas City, Vol. 1". "Some of the other kids are already professionals," said President Patricia Morgan. "They are our next generation of blues musicians."

 

The Foundation is especially indebted to the Rock River Foundation of Mississippi for funding.  We are also very appreciative of the donations received from many individuals after the passing of Pinetop Perkins in March.  In addition we would like to thank the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation of Washington State, and the Tomblin Family Foundation of Austin, Texas for their kind generosity. 

 

These youth will join other participants in piano and guitar workshops led by Erwin Helfer and Bob Margolin along with intern Clay Swafford at Hopson's Commissary and the Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale, MS from June 15-17th.

 

A reception in honor of the workshop participants and instructors will be held at  at Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale on Thursday from 5pm to 7pm.

 

Workshop participants will also join Erwin, Bob and Clay for a performance on stage at Ground Zero Blues Club on Friday June 17th starting at 8pm.   Tickets for Friday night's show are $10 and can be purchased at the door, all proceeds benefit the Pinetop Perkins Foundation.       www.pinetopfoundation.org/ 

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Other notable performers include Wild T and the Spirit, Les Dudek, Dana Fuchs, Blues Brotherhood, trampled Under Foot, Sean Chambers, Moreland and Arbuckle, Big Walter Smith, JJ Grey and Mofro, Oli Brown, Laurie Morvan, Matt Andersen, Tyler Yarema, Joanna Connor, Albert Castiglia, along with nine incredible local acts including Clay Breiland, The Chain, Southern Comfort, Midnight, Dr. Buck, The Blooz Berries, Tracy K & Jamie Steinhoff, Michael Abraham Trio, and John Booth and the Southside Band.

 

The Thunder Bay Blues Festival promotes the city’s artistic heritage and community spirit, and to contributes to local community charities. The Thunder Bay Blues Festival is Northwestern Ontario’s premiere festival.

 

 

 

Many of the artists and visitors at the Thunder Bay Blues Festival have said that it is “The best Festival anywhere,” and that is “North America’s best kept Festival Secret.” It is Thunder Bay’s summer musical tradition – We invite you to make it yours!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later this month, teams will be dashing through town hunting down trash in the second annual Dash 4 Trash, followed by a ribs and blues festival.

The Dash 4 Trash, co-sponsored and organized by the Orange Downtown Alliance (ODA) and the Orange County Litter Control Committee (OCLCC), pits teams of up to 10 participants against each other to see who can collect the most trash in town. Teams have two hours to collect the most trash possible, earning points based on the type of trash collected and for team spirit. This year's dash will be held June 18.

"Last year, the dash was a crazy success," OCLCC member Laura Carter said. "Everyone had a great time, the town looked great and lots of people noticed. The dash raised awareness that littering is a problem."

Carter said teams are given a list as to the types of trash they should be looking for including illegally posted signs that litter town poles, hubcaps, recyclables, regular trash and e-waste, like cell phones, batteries and battery chargers. Last year, Carter said cigarette butts proved to be a big point earner for teams. She said teams collected the butts in 20 ounce bottles.

 

Blues has been dubbed "The Overlooked Genre" by some.  Maybe because it's not as marketable as other genres - whatever the reason, I explored it with this week's blues ear.

 

Cap'n Barney "ODD ROCK" on WMHB 89.7 FM
www.wmhb.org

 

Q:  Why do you think blues is such an overlooked genre?

 

A:  Overlooked by whom?  The blues has never been a 'young' person's genre.  So in terms of sales and market, the blues are not a major force like rock and hip-hop.   However, the blues sticks around and will always stick around.  The blues is the basis for modern music be it jazz, rock or hip-hop.  Blues societies have been on the increase for a long time.  Blues festivals continue to thrive.  Rock and others artists give the blues greats their props.  Blues is the real deal. 

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NIAGARA FALLS — Organizers of the Niagara Falls Blues Festival will be asking visitors to “stay an extra day” this year and they are hoping the extended schedule will mean a higher return on investment for the city.

 

The fourth-annual Blues Festival is scheduled for Sept. 9-11 on Old Falls Street downtown and is being supported by local sponsorships and with $10,000 in tourism funds and $20,000 in casino revenue from the city. Organizers are still putting the finishing touches on the lineup, but so far eight musical acts have been booked, including British blues guitarist Matt Schofield and Coco Montoya, a former member of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Sterner said organizers are still welcoming private donations, sponsorships and volunteers for the 2011 event. For more information, contact Sterner at 283-1738 or visit the blues festival website.

The North Atlantic Blues Festival, Rockland Maine, rolls around for its 18th year in a couple of weeks. Producer Paul Benjamin gives us a brief preview of the Festival, its history, his background and guitar collection in this promo for our feature story coming soon.

 

The sound of music, yet another time-honored trademark of a Soyuz launch, provided temporary entertainment for the crew moments before blastoff. About an hour before the rocket’s first two stages ignited, the crew nestled in their custom-fitted seat liners rocked out inside the descent module of the vehicle poised at the tip of the rocket.

 

 

ZZ Top offered a track entitled “Flyin’ High” from the new album, the band’s first studio recording since 2005, to be played in honor of the crew’s loved ones. An excerpt from the song’s lyrics, “Flyin’ high, I’m gonna touch the sky,” resonates with the Soyuz trajectory and docking at the International Space Station.

 

Fossum grew up in McAllen, Texas, and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University. The long-bearded, American rock band also from Texas shares the common tie with Fossum in its roots.

 

During the course of his previous mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, Fossum played the band’s hit “Got Me Under Pressure,” a reference to the raising of cabin pressures during the course of that 2008 flight.

 

Astronaut Fossum is joined on the Soyuz heading to the space station by Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

 

THIS MON. JUNE 13 - BLUES LEGEND - KIM WILSON IN TARZANA!

 

      

 

Pop superstar Tom Jones takes a remarkable detour with his CD, Praise & Blame, a fine collection of rootsy gospel music.  Sir Tom Jones joins Elwood to talk about the album, and how he got the blues.  Also:  Mahalia Jackson, John Lee Hooker, Otis Redding, and a Jones rarity with guitar god Jeff Beck.  The bluesbreaker of the week is from amazing young soul singer Gina Sicilia.  There’s a chance for five of you to win the new CD from The Soul of John Black, “Good Thang.” And the bluesmobile kicks off a new contest:  one lucky listener will get a gorgeous custom Jorma Kaukonen Model Acoustic Guitar, signed and numbered by Jorma himself, from the legendary Martin Guitar Company.

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, Yvonne Varner, editor@bluesfestivaleguide.com

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

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