Jim’s contemporary blues-rock style has a uniquely modern feel with contemporary lyrics and explosive guitar lines, but it respectfully bows to the core soul that has been embodied in the blues throughout the ages. It is Jim’s dream to help foster the blues to a larger audience. His newest album, Overclocked, is an ambitious, perfectly crafted 13-song set of original blistering blues, sophisticated jazz, heavy rock and tender pop ballads spotlighting his virtuoso guitar chops, creative lyrics and mellifluous vocals.

Click for more

Pristine, with the charismatic redhead Heidi Solheim in front, forges on with power, passion and intensity.

Bluesrock with traces of southern rock, soul and funk - with a compelling intensity and a persistent high energy level.

Pristines music has strong roots in blues and 70s rock. In addition to traditional blues, Heidi & Pristine draw inspiration from the likes of The Faces, Grand Funk Railroad, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Keys, Cream og Led Zeppelin. Which is very noticable on the 2011 debut album "Detoxing".

The album was barely released before the accolades from the national press started pouring in:

"Pristine is so self-confident that it borders on arrogance", "Detoxing" is a record that is both true to the genre and innovative enough to rejuvenate a genre that can be experienced as rigid and old-fashioned." (iTromso.no) 

Click for more

Axed Musicians To Protest Outside Grammy Awards show

(www.reuters.com) - Angry musicians will protest outside Sunday's Grammy Awards ceremony over a decision to cut 31 ethnic and minority musical categories from the music industry's top awards.

Organizers said on Wednesday they hoped dozens of music artists and fans of Latin jazz, gospel and blues music would join in the demonstration, and attend an alternative concert.

Some 23,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the Recording Academy reinstate Grammy awards for Native American and Hawaiian music, and reverse cuts in categories for Latin Jazz, Gospel, R&B and Blues that were axed in a major overhaul last year.

Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and Bobby Sanabria are among the dozens of artists who have spoken out against the decision. Musicians say the Grammy cuts will harm their careers financially and diminish the profile of music enjoyed by minority communities.

Spokesman Robert Sax said on Wednesday that the protest would be held outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles as stars like Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, The Beach Boys and Tony Bennett arrive to perform at the Grammy Awards show on Sunday.

The demonstrators will later celebrate the Not Those Awards All-Star Latin Jazz Jam at a Los Angeles nightclub, with performers including two time Grammy winner Oscar Hernandez, John Santos and Bobby Matos.

"We are holding this concert to remind music fans about all the great music that has been eliminated from the Grammys. To paraphrase what Frank Sinatra said at the first Grammy Awards in 1959, 'Remember, the awards are about excellence, not popularity.'", Latin jazz artist Matos said.

The Recording Academy announced in April that it was slashing the number of Grammy categories to 78 from 109 for the 2012 Grammy Awards, saying the cuts were necessary to maintain "the prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music."

Rapper Kanye West leads the field of Grammy contenders with seven nominations, followed by Adele, Bruno Mars and Foo Fighters.

Bonnie Raitt In Chicago For Safe-Energy Benefit

Chicago—Legendary singer Bonnie Raitt and her band will be performing at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago on Saturday, May 19th. She will hosting a special benefit reception following her show with singer songwriter Marc Cohn, in support of the Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS).

Preferred Gold and Green Circle seating tickets for the concert and the special dessert "meet-and-greet" reception with Bonnie Raitt go on pre-sale Thursday, February 9th at noon EST, only at www.guacfund.org . Public tickets will go on sale Saturday, February 11th at regular outlets. Tickets for the "meet-and-greet" are partially tax deductible.

Bonnie Raitt is touring again in 2012 after a two year respite and will premiere her new album Slipstream, which will be released on April 2nd. Bonnie is a nine time Grammy winner and inductee into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. She has an amazing 58 other recordings. She is a well known, long time social change activist and is a founding member of The Blues Foundation and Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) among others. Bonnie's web site: www.bonnieraitt.com , is very complete and up to date with information on Bonnie and all of her work, including her activism. She has been a supporter of NEIS for over 20 years.

"Bonnie is not only well known as a great musician, but a dedicated social activist," notes Dave Kraft, director of NEIS. "We are grateful that she would support NEIS so generously to carry on work for something so personally important to her -- a less nuclear world."

NEIS (www.neis.org) is a Chicago based 30-year old nuclear power watchdog organization that promotes safe energy alternatives to nuclear power. "We're thrilled that Bonnie would pick Chicago — the birthplace of the Nuclear Age — to highlight the safe-energy anti-nuclear message," Kraft continued. "She's been supporting this message for over 30 years, and all the events — Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and now Fukushima — have proven her right. NEIS is honored by Bonnie's support to continue to promote this vision for a safe-energy future, a vision we both share."

The Guacamole fund has worked with Bonnie and other members of the musicians' community for over 35 years for peace with justice, the environment and a non nuclear future. More information is available at:

 www.musiciansunited4safeenergy.org,

 www.nukefree.org

 www.guacfund.org

Vallejo Blues Musician Now Facing Eviction

(Jessica A. York/timesheraldonline.com) Vallejo, CA - The shock of being unable to find affordable housing in Vallejo has come like a pail of icy water dumped over the head of one of the Bay Area's most prominent blues musicians.

After a complicated falling out with a Vallejo senior home and subsequent court settlement agreement, Carl Roquemore, better known by his stage name of Carl "Good Rockin' " Robinson, said he will be homeless by 6 a.m. Thursday, the deadline for eviction.

In an interview, Roquemore, 64, was vague on what he would do if he can't find a place to stay by then.

"Why can this man not afford to live in a town he's given so much love to? Because, it's not like I don't have income coming in right now," Roquemore said this week. "There's only so much I can do under my health circumstances."

Beyond his heyday as a band leader with some of the blues greats in the 1960s and 1970s, Roquemore has spent his last 20 years in Vallejo, focused on the local music scene. In 2009, he was recognized at the 10th annual West Coast Blues Hall of Fame & Awards Show in Oakland.

He organized the former Vallejo Youth Music Awards in 2003 with partner "Lil' Frances" in an effort to combat a decreasing focus on music and the arts in the public school systems.

Then, for several months in 2009 and 2010, Roquemore needed to stay in a convalescent home to recover from a foot injury related to a calcium-deficiency disease. He said he always dreamed of the day he could once again live independently, a desire that helped him recover.

What the Detroit-born and Oakland-reared blues guitarist said he is not looking for is pity. His concern, he said, is that other seniors may find themselves in his situation and be afraid to come forward.

Roquemore lives off a fixed income of $820 a month, severely limiting his housing options. A daughter living nearby, Roquemore said, has three children and lives up two flights of stairs -- a nonstarter for the mostly wheelchair-bound senior.

Housing problems

In March 2010, Roquemore moved in to Ascension Arms, a nonprofit federally subsidized senior housing complex not far from Vallejo City Hall. At the time, he was placed on a waiting list to receive further subsidy, known as "Section 8" funding, which limits rent costs to 30 percent of the client's income. His rent was initially $537, and increased to $587 -- more than 70 percent of his income.

From there, Roquemore and the Ascension Arms management disagree on a few points. Roquemore said he felt the pending subsidy was "dangled like a carrot" in front of him and he expected to qualify immediately for Section 8 help.

Ascension Arms property manager Judy Huffman said Tuesday, however, that the waiting list for the complex's ever-growing Section 8 funding is as long as 18 months for all of her residents.

By October, the dispute wound up in court. Ascension Arms, represented by attorney Osby Davis, claimed unpaid rent, while Roquemore, representing himself, told the judge his rent was raised instead of being reduced. In a settlement, both sides agreed to give Roquemore three months, paying a lowered rent, to find new housing.

"It is kind of a difficult situation," said Davis, who also serves as Vallejo's mayor.

Roquemore said this week that he had planned to be gone before the Jan. 31 deadline, but his housing exit plan fell through and his other housing applications are pending, dragging out his stay until Thursday.

He has received some music community support. The MusiCare Foundation out of Santa Monica wrote a check for Roquemore's last three months rent. Fellow Oakland-based musician and filmmaker Earl Crudup, meanwhile, said he is interested in creating a movie based around Roquemore's "very profound" life.

"I find (Roquemore's housing problems) kind of ironic, in a way, because one of your other Vallejo people, Sly Stone, is kind of going through the same thing," said Crudup, reached by phone this week. "I guess it's a sign of the times." Stone, founder of the group Sly and the Family Stone, received media attention in September, reportedly living in a camper in Los Angeles.

Vail-Leavitt Two-Day Blues & Music Fest Gets Thumbs-Up From Town Board

 (riverheadlocal.com/NY) - Vail-Leavitt's special event permit to host a music festival on the Peconic Riverfront June 16 and 17 was approved by the Riverhead Town Board at Tuesday afternoon's regular board meeting.

Vail-Leavitt treasurer Vince Tria, who has been the organizer of the event for the past several years, said he wants to make this festival "the best one ever" because it will be his last. Tria, who turned 80 in December, said he's getting too old to produce the music festival.

Grammy-nominated "Texas guitar slinger" Johnny Winter has been booked to headline on Saturday night, Tria said.

The event in June marks the resumption of the annual festival, which had run for 12 consecutive years, after a one-year hiatus. It was called off last year in the midst of turmoil that began brewing in early 2010, when Supervisor Sean Walter asked the Riverhead BID Management Association to work with the Vail-Leavitt on the festival. Vail-Leavitt board members saw the move as a power play to take wrest the festival from the Vail — which the supervisor and BID board members denied. Things went downhill from there over the next year, with officers of both organizations publicly exchanging harsh words on several occasions.

But things warmed up in the new year, when Vail-Leavitt treasurer Vince Tria showed up at a Town Board work session and hashed out an agreement with the board and members of the BID management association board.

Tria told the board on Tuesday the Vail-Leavitt will provide the town with an accounting for the music festival, even though that was not made a condition of the permit. Vail-Leavitt's reluctance to give the board an accounting helped fuel the controversy a coupe of years ago. Board members said they wanted an accounting because Vail-Leavitt was using town property free of charge to host an event which limited admission to paid ticket holders.

Video of the Week

Valentine Blues....

           Bobby "Blue" Bland with "I'll Take Care You" 

Click for video 

BLUES HARMONICA ICON JAMES COTTON TO JOIN ERIC CLAPTON, KEITH RICHARDS AND OTHERS IN A TRIBUTE TO HUBERT SUMLIN AT NEW YORK'S APOLLO THEATER

Blues harmonica master James Cotton will join Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Shemekia Copeland and many other musicians live at New York's famed Apollo Theater to pay tribute to the late guitarist Hubert Sumlin. The event will take place on Friday, February 24 and is a benefit for the Jazz Foundation Of America.

Other artists scheduled to appear are Doyle Bramhall II, Gary Clark, Jr., Billy Flynn, Barrelhouse Chuck Goering, David Johansen, Steve Jordan, Danny Kortchmar, Dr. John, Keb Mo, Todd Mohr, Ivan Neville, Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Larry Taylor, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Jimmie Vaughan, Jimmy Vivino, Willie Weeks, Jody Williams, Kim Wilson and special surprise guests.

Cotton's latest CD is the Grammy Award-nominated Giant.

Click for more