Ana Popovic is widely regarded as one of world's very best female guitar-players. Her new album, "Unconditional," was recorded at the famous Piety Street recording studios in New Orleans and is Ana's sixth studio release. It was produced by Ana Popovic and Grammy Award winning producer John Porter. "I recorded in eclectic cities like Memphis and Los Angeles, but always wanted to go to New Orleans to capture something of their rich musical history," says Popovic who was born in Belgrade, Serbia. "I loved being in New Orleans for a period of three months. I love everything about that city - its vibe, spirit and optimism, and not to forget, hospitality and kindness of the people. I think it influenced the album in more ways than just musically. "

 

Popovic was recently honored to appear as a special guest at B.B. King's German shows. Her previous studio release, "Still Making History" made its way to #3 on the U.S. Billboard blues chart for a total of 19 weeks. On 2011's "Unconditional," Ana truly is a guitar goddess – illustrating a daring slide on a powerful guitar record that presents a soulful fusion of contemporary and classic blues. The album features a representation of New Orleans' finest musicians such as renowned slide guitarist Sonny Landreth, the amazing Jon Cleary and David Torkanowski on Hammond B3 and piano, Calvin Turner on bass and Doug Belote on drums. "I was fortunate to have the fabulous Sonny Landreth - my slide idol since my Belgrade years - to play on the album, a dream come true,'' says Popovic. Also the incredible harp player Jason Ricci makes a guest appearance.

 

Of the album's twelve songs, eight are originals by Popovic, from which two are co-written by writing partner Mark van Meurs. Also on the album are songs gleaned from the rich blues history done by some of Ana's favorites, including Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, Otis Spann, Nina Simone and Sugar Pie DeSanto.

 

Dreamin': Contemporary rocked up blues the you have to pay attention to, Champion has been quietly building up a discography that keeps getting better and hotter each time out. With a sound and fury that would have been at home during Muddy Waters' west side Chicago prime, this cat hits hard and fast with snazzy sounds that sound like aural street fights he's going to win. Often over the top, there's no roadhouse or frat house that contains this bad boy. A head and shoulders above and beyond anyone else in this race, this is just killer stuff that almost any blues fan won't be able to resist. A winner throughout.

 

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Come celebrate the 15th Anniversary of Blues by the Bay in beautiful Eureka, California at picturesque Halvorsen Park, located on Humboldt Bay. The incredible view from this bayside park will be the backdrop for a spectacular line up of world premier blues musicians. Food and beverage, art and craft vendors, and micro-brew beers from many local breweries will be available.

 

Seating is first come first serve. Bring your blanket or low-back beach chair. Gates open at 9:30 AM on Saturday and 8:45 AM on Sunday with music starting at 10:30 AM on Saturday and 9:15 AM on Sunday. The festival ends by 7 PM each day so you still have time in the sun to explore Eureka’s wonderful Victorian buildings or the great Humboldt County coast line and redwood trees. So get the family together and come experience Blues by the Bay!

 

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BC,Canada - They're being phased out, but if you have one of the older B.C. driver's licences, pull it out and have a look.

 

See the pretty picture of a mountain just to the left of the pretty picture of you? That's Mount Bastion situated across the Shuswap Lake, looking straight north of beautiful Salmon Arm.

 

That said, when you're on the Salmon Arm Fairgrounds taking in this weekend's Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival, the scenic backdrop will be provided by both Mount Ida and the Fly Hills. Yes, there are lots of hills and mountains and valleys and peaks around Salmon Arm and the Shuswap area which, as it turns out, was a big magnet for the festival's executive director, Hugo Rampen, when he decided to move up six years ago.

 

He grew up near Toronto where his father was a CBC TV producer running shows like Man Alive and Take 30, the original Canadian afternoon talk show that launched Adrienne Clarkson. Rampen distinctly remembers Martin Luther King's wife, Coretta, and her two children coming to dinner.

 

Out on his own, Rampen operated a 500-acre farm near Guelph, Ont. where he raised 100 head of cattle and 200 sheep in a one-man operation.

 

He noticed a nearby theatre wasn't being used, started booking shows and boom, he was in the music industry.

 

Later, a booking agent he knew confided he always wanted to farm so Rampen traded his manure spreader for the agency, which he ran until moving to Salmon Arm. This all meshes seamlessly for Rampen.

 

Farm life and booking and dealing with artists, he says, ". . . is not too dissimilar. It's all about animal husbandry. You give your musicians warm and draught-free, you give them good bedding and the proper environment and they'll perform for you."

 

This is the 19th edition of the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival and this year's lineup (go to rootsandblues. ca) is solid and eclectic and will keep kids, young people, adults and seniors attentive and entertained.

 

There are lots of Canadians, from B.C. percussionist Angela Roy and Quebec's world beat/electronic band Apadoorai to Ontario's Bob Wiseman and Broken Social Scene.

 

Internationally you have Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers from the States, Finland's Felix Zenger - check this guy on YouTube, he's amazing - and Australia's Ganga Giri. And then you have American guitar star Jonny Lang and folk/blues legend Taj Mahal (. . . who I've been chasing for four years. He finally submitted.")

 

For a town of some 16,000, this is bigity quality stuff.

 

"Programming this festival, we're tryng to make it applicable for five genertions," says Rampen.

 

"This could be a place for a family reunion. It's a retirement community and that's what we're seeing.

 

"To get the young folk home to see mom and dad or grandma and grandpa we have to present a festival that appeals to everybody.

 

"So on one stage you'll see hip hop or beat box and on another stage you're gonna see some back-porch blues. And in our children's area - 12 and under is free - we have interactive things where you can learn circus skills or sing along to Sharon & Bram."

 

SPECIAL EVENT

 

SALMON ARM ROOTS & BLUES FESTIVAL

 

Where: Salmon Arm Fairgrounds

 

When: Friday-Sunday Tickets: Various prices at

 

Seattle Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Jerry Manning announced today that Seattle writer Cheryl L. West's new play with music, Pullman Porter Blues, will be the season opener for the theatre's 50th Anniversary season, beginning fall 2012. The remainder of the 50th Anniversary season will be announced this spring.

 

Seattle Rep has a long history of collaborating with some of the country's most important playwrights to develop the next great works of American theatre. The theatre's New Play Program was launched under former Artistic Director Daniel Sullivan and then officially re-energized in 2009 by Manning.

 

"Since the re-commitment to the New Play Program, Pullman Porter Blues is the first project we've commissioned that will premiere on our main stage," said Manning. "This is an exciting moment to see how the process can work-from the seed of an idea to the full realization of a new play."

In 2008, Seattle Rep commissioned West to write Pullman Porter Blues, and the theatre has worked with the playwright through the development process. There have been three workshops at the theatre.

 

West and director Lisa Peterson continue development of the script through the New Play Program this year. They have assembled a team of actors and musicians to work on the script in its final phases. They include John Aylward, Emily Chisholm, Chuck Cooper, Larry Marshall, Tonya Pinkins, Warner Miller, Chic Street Man, and Pat Hill.

 

Peterson, who directed An Iliad at Seattle Rep in May 2010, has been collaborating with West for the past year on the development, and she will direct the full production. Jmichael is the music director and composer. Originally from Alabama, Jmichael is one of the country's leading composers of gospel and spiritual music. Essentially a play with music (as opposed to a traditional musical), Pullman Porter Blues is woven with live blues music, played by musicians who are part of the play's narrative.

 

Set in 1937 on the Panama Limited train, Pullman Porter Blues centers on three generations of porters working the sleeping cars the night of the famous Joe Louis/James Braddock boxing match. As the train chugs from Chicago towards New Orleans, grandfather, father, and son spar; racial tensions flare; and Midwest blues flavor the night.

 

Seattle Rep has previously produced four of West's plays: Birdie Blue, Jar the Floor, Play On!, and Holiday Heart, and they commissioned the gospel musical Rejoice!. West has lived in Seattle since 1999. Her work has appeared in theatres across the country, as well as for TV (adaptation of Holiday Heart) and the web series Diary of a Single Mom.

 

"We have a long history of working with Cheryl, and it has been incredible to partner with her on such a powerful piece," said Manning. "I'm proud that Cheryl is one of our own-a Seattle writer. To start our 50th anniversary season with the premiere of this play? I can't wait."

 

 

 

As the writer and/or director of Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, and Wild at Heart, David Lynch has certainly left his mark on the world of film. On November 8th, Lynch will make his debut as a solo recording artist, when Crazy Clown Time is released on PIAS America.

 

With Lynch handling vocal and guitar duties on the album (aided by engineer Dean Hurley, who contributed additional guitar and drums), Crazy Clown Time features a guest vocalist, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, on the tune "Pinky's Dream."

 

Rolling Stone spoke with Lynch about the new album, interviewing Eddie Vedder, and the dangerous gentlemen of his films.

 

How did the idea come up to do a solo album now?

I've always been interested in sound. One thing led to another, and I just wanted a room to experiment with sound. I finally got a room, and then I needed an engineer. I got an engineer, and then I started experimenting. Working with Angelo Badalamenti, I always say Angelo brought me into the world of music. And the experimenting… sound is so beautiful. There are sounds that approach music, and then there is music. I started playing a guitar – the first time I played guitar was just to make a sound effect. I'm not really a guitar player. But it kind of thrilled my soul to be making something that sounded like music. I just got deeper and deeper into it.

 

How long have you been playing guitar for?

Well, let's see… maybe ten years. It seems like after ten years I'd be real good, but I'm not. My son is good.

 

Who else appears on Crazy Clown Time?

My friend Big Dean Hurley, who is the engineer. Together, we wrote everything and played everything. There's one guest vocalist.

 

And that's Karen O, on the song "Pinky's Dream."

I've got a great music agent, Brian Loucks, at CAA [Creative Artist Agency]. I'm not technically with Brian, but he's been a friend for years. He was around in the days when I was working with Angelo and Julee Cruise. From time to time, Brian brings people by, and he brought Karen O by about maybe seven or eight years ago. Nothing happened that time, but this time he brought her by, I had these lyrics for "Pinky's Dream," and Dean and I had tracks. So Karen just went in the booth and started doing her own experimenting, and "Pinky's Dream" was born.

 

Does the album title have any specific meaning?

"Crazy Clown Time" is the name of a song. It is, in a way, speaking about the world as it is these days.

 

What are some of your favorite tracks?

I love "Crazy Clown Time," "Pinky's Dream," "Stone's Gone Up," and "Speed Roadster." They're all a little different. The blues inspired the album, but it's not a blues album – it drifted. I've been turned on lately to Gary Clark Jr. Gary Clark Jr. has got the stuff. It's this Chicago electric blues, and it just comes out of him. I heard about him recently – this is my kind of music. But this guy is incredible. That's the impetus. It was what Dean and I would call "modern blues." It sort of started driving the boat. But the songs aren't really blues.

 

Besides Clark Jr., who are some of your other favorite music artists?

All the great ones. But I really like John Lee Hooker, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elvis Presley. I like Lykke Li, I like Au Revoir Simone. There's so many really good artists.

 

Are there any plans for playing shows in support of Crazy Clown Time?

No. Unfortunately, we're a studio band. I don't think a tour is going to happen.

 

I recently saw a clip of you interviewing Eddie Vedder for the upcoming Pearl Jam documentary, Pearl Jam Twenty.

Eddie Vedder took part in a concert that we put on at Radio City Music Hall, to raise money to give transcendental meditation to students, homeless, post-traumatic stress sufferers, and a lot of other people. I got to interview a bunch of people that took part, and Eddie was one of them. It went real good. Eddie's a really good guy – really easy to talk to. And he's a musician. I don't know what it is – I think musicians, for the most part, they enjoy life more than the others.

 

What are some other projects you're working on currently?

I'm working on a documentary of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, I just took part in a documentary of a 16-country tour I did on meditation, consciousness, and peace. And I'm working on another new film, but it's not there yet. I just finished a one-minute film for the Austrians. They have a festival in Vienna called Viennale.

 

Lastly, who is a more dangerous gentleman, Frank Booth or Marcellus Santos?

 

That's a good question. I'd rather hang with Frank Booth. I'd rather chill with him, and wait for a booty call, than with Marcellus. 

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August 17, 2011 (Helena, Arkansas) -- The world-famous King Biscuit Blues Festival celebrates its 26th year with the addition of an epic new event on Saturday, October 8, 2011, at the historic Malco Theater in Helena, Arkansas.

 

 According to award-winning blues journalist and BluesWax editor in chief Don Wilcock, "Call and Response: The King Biscuit Blues Forum promises to build on the near mythic reputation of this fabled blues festival with an entourage of performers, journalists and presenters from across the blues spectrum in conversation between themselves and with their audience.

 

"We're not putting on a blues symposium of experts interviewing experts," explained Wilcock, also an event organizer and moderator. "We're putting on a conversational blues festival, really, where legendary blues performers do most of the talking." 

 

The line-up is a who's who of past, present and future blues stars -- ranging in age from 18 to 91 years old. Artists scheduled to participate include today’s leading practitioners of the storied Delta blues tradition Cedric Burnside, James "T-Model" Ford, Lonnie Shields, and "Blind Mississippi" Morris. Joining them will be several of today’s leading festival headliners Tommy Castro, Moreland & Arbuckle, Billy Branch and Ryan Perry of Homemade Jamz. Representing two of the leading magazines reporting on blues will be Marc Smirnoff, managing editor of The Oxford American, and Art Tipaldi, editor in chief of Blues Revue magazine. Blues Music Award and Living Blues Award winner Jeff Konkel of Broke & Hungry Records will also take part.

 

Keeping the Blues Alive award winners and moderators Wilcock and Roger Stolle of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art in Clarksdale will keep the festivities rolling.

 

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Did you know that I do Custom Comic Strips and Comic Pages as gifts?

 

 

 

 

Designed to promote hard working New England Blues musicians, the newsletter helps them reach the diverse, niche market of live Blues fans. Publisher, Diana Shonk, started T.B.A. in 1991. The newsletter has continued to support the New England Blues scene with articles and reviews of performances by local, working Blues bands. As a result, T.B.A. has become a history of much of what has happened in the 6 New England states for the past 20 years.

 

T.B.A.helps our local New England award winning Blues musicians by getting their schedules to thousands of dedicated live Blues fans. They have told us in our demographic surveys that they will travel up to 100 miles to see a live show. We write up news on the bands and clubs for any number of reasons and tell the readers about special events. We create interest in the musicians and clubs.

 

We sponsor musicians in need, and help promote special benefit events and fund-raisers for charitable organizations. We help the musicians in their efforts to help their friends and families.

 

We promote and stage “Blues Audience Parties” where we raise awareness of the newsletter and of all the advertisers by selling subscriptions and introducing new people to T.B.A.

 

The web site and FaceBook do not echo the newsletter but contains pictures and articles about Blues Festivals, “Blues Audience Parties” and more information and links of interest. We also send special notices to our readers by email.

 

T.B.A. hosts a Readers Poll every year the results are on our web site www.bluesaudience.com.

 

The Blues Audience newsletter is archived at the University of Mississippi’s Dept of Archives and Special Collections, JD Williams Library, University, Mississippi

 

The Blues Audience newsletter, 62 Cricket Hill Rd., Harrisville, NH 03450

 

• 603-827-3952 • http://www.bluesaudience.com

 

 

By Michael Kinsman on his www.froggerdogger.com blog

 

Blues musician Candye Kane has just been yanked from a blues festival in Pelham, Ala., because her past rankled some of the members of the region’s chamber of commerce.

 

Candye and her band had a contract to play the Shelby Blues & BBQ event Oct. 1 in the Birmingham suburb of 20,000 people. Her Piedmont Talent booking agent was then told the reason she was not being hired is because she is allegedly gay and that she once engaged in a porn modeling career. 

 

“This is the first time I have ever had a contract for a show that has been invalidated because of my past,” said Candye from an airport in Detroit en route to an apparently more enlightened Kitchener Blues Festival near Toronto.

 

“I am outraged that my sexual preference or my career choices are being attacked. My show is empowering and positive.”

 

Candye opened a public debate on this when she posted news of the festival cancellation – and the reasons behind it – on her Facebook page on Aug. 6. That posting has resulted in more than 100 notes of support from friends and fans, including the marketing director of a music magazine and record company president.

 

For the record, Candye Kane describes herself as both heterosexual and bisexual. And, while she doesn’t deny her past working in the sex industry, that occurred long before she became and internationally acclaimed musical artist with 11 albums to her credit.

 

Yet, the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce rescinded the contract offer after learning of Candye’s background during an Internet search. Candye has been playing festivals and club gigs for two decades throughout the United States and Europe for two decades without ever having run across this attitude.

 

Meanwhile, the head of the Shelby Chamber said her organization has never had any contact with Piedmont Talent and denied that there was ever any verbal or written contract for Candye’s services. Jennifer Trammell, president of the chamber, told Frogger Dogger that there were no comments about Candye’s background as well. She said agents from the Magic City Blues Society had recommended Candye as a performer. 

 

Yet, Candye supplied a copy of a contract from Piedmont Talent and evidence that two online services were selling tickets to the event promoting Candye Kane as a headlining performer. This evidence is damning. Booking agents do not generate contracts until a firm deal has been made.

 

So much for the spirit of tolerance and diversity – at least in Alabama

 

“This really hurts because I believe I am an activist for so many oppressed people, not just gays or bisexuals or overweight people, but I consider myself a champion for people with disabilities of all kinds and cancer survivors,” Candye said.

 

Candye, who survived a 2008 bout of very serious pancreatic cancer, has played for the presidents of France and Italy, and just returned from a seven-week tour of Europe with a band that performed a series of shows of United By Music, a Netherlands-based organization that works with individuals with intellectual disabilities to get on stage and perform blues songs. Candye serves as UBM’s chief musical ambassador and will further extend that roll as UBM enters the U.S. this year.

 

Amazingly, Alabama is one of about 30 states that currently don’t have state laws that prohibit discrimination because of sexual orientation in the workplace.

 

But this more of a moral battle than a legal one. What entity has the right to base any decision to hire someone on their sexual orientation? The Shelby festival was to be held at the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Pelham and I can’t help but think about the faces of Verizon Wireless attorneys when they learn that they are endorsing discrimination of this kind. I’m certain they will be making a call or two to officials of the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce about his.

 

I also certain the most of the companies, banks or law offices whose employees are on the 19-person board of the Greater Shelby Chamber are probably pretty red-faced about this.

 

And, frankly, the organizers of the Shelby Blues & BBQ are on thin ice when it comes to hiring blues or any other type of musical performers. Some of the more prominent members of the blues community are openly gay or bisexual, just as they are in any other profession.

 

“This hurts because it is really disrespectful to the musicians who play in my band,” Candye said. “They are being penalized, too.”

 

The Pelham date also was important because it is one of the coveted “anchor” festival dates that musicians seek so much when they do tours to other parts of the country. Those festival dates generally pay better because they attract more people and balance out the low-paid gigs a band needs to play during the week to continue touring.

 

“I’m really disappointed by this,” Candye said. “Think of the people in the blues community – the musicians accused or murder, heroin and drug addictions and all sorts of nefarious backgrounds. And imagine that this festival is going to single me out because of something I have no reason to be ashamed of. I don’t get it.”

 

If it makes any difference, the people at the Greater Shelby Chamber of Commerce don’t get it either. It is one thing to be dumb and stupid in 1961 when it comes to civil rights, but five decades later Alabama should have gotten a clue.

 

The Monday night blues series continues Aug. 29 with David Maxwell playing from 7 to 10 p.m. in the upstairs music room of Time Out Pub, 275 Main St. Admission is $10.

 

Keyboards fans will want to catch Maxwell, a multiple Blues Music Award nominee for Pinetop Perkins Player of the Year; he won last year's BMA for Acoustic Album of the Year Award with "You Got To Move" (with Louisiana Red).

 

Maxwell has amassed an enormous resume throughout the years playing piano with some of the greatest and well-known blues musicians. He plays many styles of blues, jazz and improvised music, but is best known for his soulful virtuosity and unmatched ability to reach the heart of post-war Chicago blues. Often compared to the great Otis Spann (of the Muddy Waters band), Maxwell is no mere imitation but has created a style and sound uniquely his own, earning the reputation as one of the finest blues pianists alive.

 

Maxwell has played with many of the greats including tours with Freddie King, Bonnie Raitt, James Cotton, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Charlie Musselwhite and Ronnie Earl; and gigs with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Levon Helm, Jimmy Witherspoon, Lowell Fulsom, Junior Wells and many others. He can be found playing keys on many blues albums that have been released in the last 25 years and backed up Keith Richards and Eric Clapton for Hubert Sumlin's 2005 CD "About Them Shoes."

 

For upcoming artists in the Monday night series, check the Time Out Blues page at northatlanticbluesfestival.com.

 

 

LATimes.com - Legend has it that beneath every House of Blues stage is a metal box filled with Mississippi River Delta mud. The idea is to convey the spirit of the deep South to every musician playing on the stages above.

 

In similar vein, the entire franchise is reaching back to its roots in an effort to revive the buzz and cachet it enjoyed following its 1992 launch. Partly inspired by "The Blues Brothers" movie and John Lee Hooker's album, "House of the Blues," the first House of Blues clubs were modern-day juke joints with a reputation for having top-notch players.

 

"People didn't see them as bars with music," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a publication that tracks the live entertainment business. "They saw them as clubs where you could see serious music and have some food on the side."

 

After its purchase in 2006 by Live Nation Entertainment, the franchise drifted on autopilot. Then in December, Live Nation tapped the former chairman of Universal Studios' theme-park business, Ron Bension, to liven up the clubs.

 

Starting this month, Bension is rolling out a new menu, designed by Food Network celebrity chef Aaron Sanchez, and pumping more events through the 13-chain clubs to keep the crowds, and the beer, flowing.

 

Will his plan work?

 

It's still early, but the effort is being helped by a healthier concert business thus far. Attendance is up 10% compared with last year, and Bension is expecting 5 million people will come to the company's 13 House of Blues and 23 other theaters and night clubs by year's end.

 

"It's definitely turning out to be a better year," Bongiovanni said.

 

 

Belfast, Maine - What better way is there to spend a Sunday afternoon than eating lobster or steak on the waterfront while listening to great blues music? Add to it that the event is a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity of Waldo County and you’ve hit the jackpot. 

 

On Sunday, Aug. 21, from noon to 3 p.m. at Steamboat Landing (at the foot of Commercial Street in Belfast) volunteers will be cooking and serving lobster (or steak), clams, corn on the cob, chips and homemade pies, and Juke Rockets will be providing the music. 

 

Members of Juke Rockets Blues Band include Carlene Thornton, Bob Strusz, Steve Mellor and Tim Woitowitz and they know how to play the blues. 

 

Tickets for the event are $25 and can be reserved by calling 338-2344, from any Habitat board member or stopping by the Mailloux and Marden Law Offices on High Street in Belfast.

 

 

I am writing to you to ask if you would throw your support

(in a small way) behind The Blues Audience newsletter.  I know first hand that times are tough, I understand that every penny is an essential part of your budget.   That is why I am offering this special discount for returning and new subscribers right up to the 20th Anniversary issue in October/November 2011. 

You get the 4 color newsletter mailed to you. You also get a subscriber card for discounts.   AND special email updates about important last minute gigs.  Please consider supporting New England's only Blues publication.  We have made it through thick and thin. Let's keep it going.

Here is the link:

      

 

The legendary Smokey Robinson joins Elwood to look back on his fabulous life as singer, frontman, and songwriter. The Rolling Stones, J. Geils Band, and the Beatles are played (doing Smokey’s tunes). Plus the Miracles, the Temptations, BB King, Rufus Thomas, and Carlos Santana. Also good time blues from Oakland’s Quinn Deveaux and the Blue Beat Review. And there is still a chance for one lucky listener to win the custom Martin guitar, signed and numbered by Jorma Kaukonen. Register to win here.

 

 

More on our radio and video streams can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 House of Blues Streaming Audio Here