"I believe the songs on Voodoo Moon are the best I've written since the early 70's. It is modern blues rock but with more song orientation than normally associated with the genre."

Kim Simmonds  This is a strong statement from one of the architects of the British Blues movement, a movement that has and will continue to influence the musical landscape. But Simmonds knows of what he speaks.

 

After 45-years, thousands of concerts and millions of albums sold worldwide, Savoy Brown is one of the beacons of outstanding new, original music steeped in the history of blues and rock 'n' roll.

Voodoo Moon speaks cleary to this history and the future of what great artists can do. Simmonds woodsheds like a journeyman, always reaching for higher ground. He can be found in his own backyard White Cottage studio most every morning when Savoy Brown is not on the road.

 

Simmonds is constantly writing songs and working on his playing - both electric and acoustic. He has taken to solo performances since 1997 which is one the greatest of artistic challenges. He has also been painting since 2001(???) which gives him another creative challenge. But most of all, Simmonds challenges himself to continually be a living artist.

 

"My motivation is to reach for that spirit I had as a young boy," says Simmonds. "I think that's always good to hold onto. Constantly practicing, writing and playing live - raw, naked in a sense - brings creativity and perspective, as well as inspiration."

 

Begun at White Cottage Studio in 2010, finished and mastered earlier this year at SubCat studio near his adopted hometown of Oswego, New York, Voodoo Moon reflects a lifetime of living and loving the blues. His new, local lineup of talent - Joe Whiting (vocals/sax), Pat DeSalvo (bass) and Garnet Grimm (drums) - rehearse faithfully; and it shows. Fans and promoters report this is one of, if not the best live concerts and and new music in the ever-evolving lineup of Savoy Brown.

 

Click for more

 

A HUNDRED WHITE LIES features The Dick 50 Band (Delbert McClinton), Bekka Bramlett, the McCrary Sisters, and was produced by gold record producer Kevin McKendree.

 

Over the past 10 years, Shane Dwight has performed over 2,000 live shows, released seven CDs with over 60,000 units sold, been a repeat performer on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise (West Coast and East Coast), headlined and performed at some of the biggest music festivals around the world, including Beale Street Music Festival, Bayfront Blues Festival, Bethlehem Musikfest, Ottawa Bluesfest and Portland Waterfront Blues Festival. He has performed with and/or shared the stage with a wide variety of some of the biggest names in music: B.B. King, Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys, Night Ranger, The Marshall Tucker Band, Johnny Winter, Etta James, The Doobie Brothers and Jimmie Vaughan, to name a few. His music has been heard on hundreds of radio stations in over 30 different countries.

 

 

Click for more

 

 

 

I am Kaati, the publisher of the Blues Festival Guide magazine and website, and I just returned from cruising with the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise out of San Diego to Mexican Ports o'Call.

 

We are proud media sponsors of this Cruise. Two of my sisters and my eldest niece Irene came with me. This is my 6th cruise and each one is unique. The stand out performances on this one included having the legendary soul-blues singer/songwriter, Bobby Blue Bland on board. Although quite old and in a wheel chair, his performances were heartfelt and gave us goosebumps.
Remember this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2vCAqdFx1s

 

New to us was the trance-blues outfit called Otis Taylor Band; we couldn't get enough! http://www.otistaylor.com/  Please visit their site to find out more. Their sound is other-worldly and powerful.
Guitar Player magazine writes, "Otis Taylor is arguably the most relevant blues artist of our time." Whether it's his unique instrumentation (he fancies banjo and cello), or it's the sudden sound of a female vocal, or a seemingly upbeat optimistic song takes a turn for the forlorn, what remains consistent is poignant storytelling based in truth and history.

 

Here is who we got to enjoy:
Bobby “Blue” Bland, Bobby Womack, Elvin Bishop w/ Special Guest Mickey Thomas, Big Head Todd & The Monsters “Big Head Blues Club”, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue w/ Tommy Castro Band, Curtis Salgado, Deanna Bogart & Bernard Allison, Charlie Musselwhite, Tab Benoit, Delta Guitar Slingers w/ Michael Burks Band, Vasti Jackson & Sherman Robertson, Tommy Castro, Ruthie Foster Quintet, Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers w/ JP Soars & Hydraulic Horns, Billy Branch & The Sons Of Blues, Deanna Bogart Band, Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band, Otis Taylor, Gaye Adegbalola, Cedric Burnside Project, “Girls With Guitars” Samantha Fish, Cassie Taylor, Dani Wilde, Eden Brent, Leon Blue, Scottie “Bones” Miller, Steve Willis, Lionel Young Band, 
Laurie Morvan Band, 
and Randy Oxford. Plus Taj Mahal was on board for a vacation and sat in on a few sets plus we ate breakfast with him a few times.

 

That is the beauty of the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise - "Every pass is a backstage pass". You get to be up-close-and-personal with your favorite blues musicians, and even jam with them on stage!

 

Although LRBC will no longer be sailing out of the West Coast, there are now two Caribbean cruises scheduled and we encourage you to put down your deposit now to hold your spot.

 

LRBC #18 Caribbean
January 22~29, 2012
Ft. Lauderdale, FL to San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, Virgin Islands & Philipsburg, St. Maarten, AN on the Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

 

and
LRBC #19 Southeastern Caribbean
Oct. 27~Nov. 3, 2012
San Juan, Puerto Rico to Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica & returning to San Juan on the Celebrity Summit.

 

For more information visit http://bluescruise.com/

 

from the Commerical Appeal (Memphis)

 

High-rollers partied at the Peabody two weeks ago in a fund-raiser for a world-class blues museum in a historic downtown building.

 

It happened in St. Louis, where downtown boosters donated profits from an annual gala to a planned National Blues Museum. The venue: a newly restored Peabody Opera House, the former Kiel Opera House, repurposed in a naming rights partnership with Peabody Energy.

 

While Memphis bemoans the Folk Alliance International's announced move to Kansas City, St. Louis appears to be gaining ground on another music-related front: creating a blues museum to celebrate the Delta-born art form and pull in visitors.

 

The Show Me State's blues museum development parallels the Memphis-based Blues Foundation's effort to create a Blues Music Hall of Fame at 421 S. Main.

 

Both groups have been laying behind-the-scenes groundwork for capital campaigns, shooting for about $3 million in Memphis and $13 million in St. Louis. Neither has gone public with fund-raising, although St. Louis is touting a 2013 opening.

 

A St. Louis blues museum was proposed in 2003, went dormant and was revived by the 2010 advent of Blues Week. The series of concerts and workshops leads into Labor Day weekend's annual Big Muddy Blues Festival.

 

The Blues Foundation Hall of Fame has been operating in Memphis 30 years, but has never had a bricks-and-mortar museum to display the honors accorded to artists, songs and industry figures.

 

Organizers in Memphis and St. Louis see their attractions coexisting peacefully, even feeding off each other.

 

"I certainly think there's room for both," said Kevin Kane, Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau president and longtime Blues Foundation backer. "I think what we're doing is apples and oranges. We are the living, breathing Blues Hall of Fame that is recognized by musicians all the way to their obituaries."

 

"Theirs is a community effort to capitalize on their blues heritage, which I think is smart, and I think the timing of it is a little coincidental. We're moving forward with something we've basically been doing for 30 years."

 

A Blues Music Hall of Fame would fit in with Memphis Mayor A C Wharton's City of Choice initiative.

 

"As part of the City of Choice, we are focusing on those areas where we are first, best or only. Memphis is the Home of the Blues. While we haven't seen a concrete proposal yet, we are strongly supportive of the Blues Foundation's efforts," said Wharton, who is scheduled to be in St. Louis Friday wooing the Church of God in Christ to return its annual convocation to Memphis.

 

Memphis firm Design 500 and the architectural firm archimania presented preliminary plans for the Blues Music Hall of Fame in September. The exhibit would occupy about 10,000 square feet on street and basement levels of the Hotline Records Building on South Main.

 

Dawne Massey, project director, said the National Blues Museum's focus would be broad. "We want to tell the whole story of the blues: St. Louis, Memphis, Delta, Chicago, West Coast."

 

Massey said the museum gained traction after Mike Kociela of Entertainment St. Louis got behind it. "St. Louis has a really rich blues heritage, as well as Memphis. We're on the Blues Highway too."

 

Massey worked at the Memphis CVB before leaving for St. Louis 17 years ago. "We totally know that a lot of great music in this part of the country goes all up and down the river."

 

The St. Louis museum got a boost when Spinnaker St. Louis asked the museum to occupy 23,000 square feet of a former Dillard's Department Store at 601 Washington. Spinnaker's Mercantile Exchange project has converted upper floors into an Embassy Suites Hotel and apartments.

 

Noted music museum consultant Bob Santelli, whose credits include the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Seattle's Experience Music Project, is a volunteer, Massey said.

 

Museum designer is Gallagher & Associates, which created designs or master plans for museums including the Grammy Museum, the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Miss., and the Bethel Woods (N.Y.) Center for the Arts, also known as the Woodstock museum.

 

Massey said National Blues Museum fund-raising is "on the edge" of going public.

 

Kane said the Blues Music Hall of Fame is focusing on insiders before taking its appeal public. "The train has left the station, so to speak. We're going to take probably a year to raise the money."

 

-- Wayne Risher: (901) 529-2874

 

 

Joe Bonamassa will continue to host his Keeping The Blues Alive clinics with the next session set to take place in Albany, NY at the Palace Theatre on Wednesday 9th November.

 

Keeping the Blues Alive 501 (c) is a non-profit organization founded by Bonamassa in which he seeks to promote Blues Music through regularly scheduled school assemblies whilst aiming to create awareness about the Blues and its impact on our culture to the younger generations.

 

"Securing the future of blues music, and helping its legacy as an original American art form live on, is something to which I am deeply committed. In introducing blues to a younger generation, and hopefully inspiring others to support it and play it, my hope is that the music will remain a living, breathing tradition carried forth by new practitioners all the time," said Bonamassa.

 

The hour long sessions are designed for students aged 13 - 21 and feature Bonamassa alongside rising stars & more established blues/rock musicians. During the events Joe will also discuss the origins of blues music and his life as a musician as well as field questions from the audience.

 

Shemekia Copeland was born in Harlem, New York in 1979 and was surrounded by the Blues growing up as her father was Texas Blues legend Johnny Copeland.

 

Shemekia sang with her father at the Cotton Club in Harlem when she was eight years old and was opening for him on the road
by the time she was sixteen. 

 

Copeland released her first album on Alligator Records a year after
graduating high school and her second album a few years later won her three Blues Music Awards.

 

Shemekia continues to perform and grow before our eyes to this day and tours internationally sharing her gifts and is truly a young lioness of the Blues.

 

Here she is singing a beautiful Blues ballad.

 

 

Alligator Records is pleased to announce the signing of celebrated guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Joe Louis Walker, the man Blues Revue called "one of contemporary blues' most dynamic and innovative musicians, who releases consistently exciting music. No matter what he's singing, Walker's approach is soulful, heartfelt and spellbinding." According to Living Blues, he is "one of today's modern musical masters." Walker's Alligator debut will be released in January of 2012.

 

Alligator president Bruce Iglauer is thrilled to have Walker on board. "Joe Louis Walker is one of the most exciting and passionate bluesmen of his generation. He's a major talent whose music speaks to both blues and rock fans. We're excited to help bring his music to a larger audience than ever."

 

And Walker's in full agreement. "Alligator has clearly been one of the most important blues labels of our time and I am proud to say that I am an Alligator artist. I look forward to being part of the Alligator family."

 

Over his 27-year career, Walker has released 24 albums and toured worldwide. He won four Blues Music Awards, including the 2010 Album Of The Year Award for Between A Rock And A Hard Place(Stony Plain Records), and has been nominated for 43 more. He's also recorded as a guest with some of the blues world's best-known artists, including appearances on Grammy-winning records by B.B. King and James Cotton.

 

Joe Louis Walker was born in the Fillmore district of San Francisco on December 25, 1949. By the time he was 16, he was working the local club scene steadily as an in-demand guitar player. When Walker was 19 he befriended famed guitarist Michael Bloomfield. Bloomfield introduced Walker to many of the day's top rockers and helped push Walker's blues into a more rock-fueled direction. The two were close friends until Bloomfield's death in 1981.

 

In 1985 Walker released his debut, Cold Is The Night, on Hightone Records, his first of many outstanding albums. Firmly rooted in blues, gospel, R&B and rock, the album caught the attention of music fans everywhere. Over the course of the next 26 years, with each subsequent release, Walker's audience continued to grow, as his touring schedule continued to expand. He's played major European festivals, including Northsea Jazz Festival, Glastonbury, Notodden and Montreux, as well as festivals in Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Ireland, Turkey and Brazil. He's appeared on national television, including performances on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, The Don Imus Show and Later With Jools Holland in the UK.

Fans and critics have been celebrating Walker for years. Living Blues said, "His fretwork is indelibly stamped with his own trademark blend of emotional heat and impeccable precision -- even at his most flamboyant, Walker sounds as if he's playing ideas, not just notes."

 

The Philippine Blues Society is sponsoring an act for the Youth Showcase. The Bleu Rascals have their Philippine passports and are looking forward to their trip to Memphis. The Philippine International Jazz Festival recently featured the Rascals as the opening band for Scott Henderson, Jeff Berlin and Dennis Chambers last weekend. U.S. Embassy staff have discovered the young band, filling the legendary Hobbit House, which is only a few blocks away from the Embassy, at its last gig there.

 

In the meantime, blues is making amazing progress in the Philippines right now. A year ago, one was lucky to find one blues event a week in Manila. This week, there has been live blues available every night of the week except Sunday. Most of the important venues are now booking blues on some nights -- recently announced that a new blues & jazz club will be opening soon in the upper-class Makati section of town, joining the Backdoor Blues Cafe over the in blue-collar part of town. Also, a local blues guitarist/vocalist is among the 20 nominees for most "liked" guitar in the Philippines -- and he's currently way ahead in the voting!

 

       

 Few bluesmen have had a more checkered career than Ike Turner.  But he was much more than the infamous husband of Tina Turrner.  He had his share of glory as well - as songwriter, piano player, guitarist, producer, bandleader, and talent scout.  Some call him the inventor of rock and roll.  This week- the life and music of Ike Turner.  Exclusive interviews with the man himself, plus Pinetop Perkins, Elvis Presley, and (of course) Ike and Tina.  Then Elwood will turn to British bluesman Ian Siegal, who took a trip to North Mississippi to make a record with the sons of Mississippi bluesmen.  The result is called The Skinny.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 House of Blues Streaming Audio Here