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Greetings from your Editor...
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Laughter is the best medicine
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Monday April 14th is "Moment of Laughter Day." The objective of this day is to get people to laugh and to laugh more often. After all, "laughter is the best medicine."
Well, while this thought put a smile on my face, I thought of some songs that might make me laugh outloud... a few came to mind right off like Saffire The Uppity Blues Women's classic "Middle Age Blues:"
"Now an old woman don't yell, an old woman don't tell, an old woman don't swell and she's grateful as hell. I need a young man to drive away my middle age blues."
Of course there's the razor-sharp wit of Rick Estrin telling stories about his "My Next Ex-Wife," advising us to "Dump That Chump" and the story of a tattooed girl that gets around in, "I Met Her On The Blues Cruise:"
"On the left cheek of her rear, I'm reading "Taj Mahal was here" and on the right was a life-sized portrait of Tab Benoit." Oh, go check it out the video!! There's a million more so find what makes you laugh outloud and go ahead and share the good times.
Birthdays of Note: April 10 John Brim (1922), Roscoe Gordon (1928), Shemekia Copeland (1979), April 11 Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson (1939), April 12 "Hound Dog" Taylor (1915), April 15 Tommy Castro (1955), Smith, Bessie (1894), April 16 Sean Costello (1979), April 18 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (1924), "Little Ed" Williams (1955).
Your ever-grateful editor,
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Special Advertising Opportunities
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Time to Order Your Print Ad in the 12th Annual
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 Time to order your print ad in the 12th annual Blues Festival Guide magazine.
Once-a-year marketing opportunity!
100,000 copies distributed for free throughout U.S. and Canada.
Thousands more will read it in Digital Format.
Affordable and effective. Use this link below to order your ad
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Thanks To You Blues Fans and Industry Folk Who Have Made Us Blues Industry Leaders for Over 12 Years and Growing Stronger Every Day!
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Blues Festival Guide is the very BEST way to have your message seen by tens of thousands of blues fans and industry professionals around the world through our 8 Media Products. As other blues music magazines come and go or scale back, The Blues Festival Guide is proud to be entering into its 12th year of publication. Publisher Kaati Gaffney says, “We have created the largest blues music network of Blues Media Products and Blues Databases in North America. Our original media product was the print magazine and now we offer something for every budget and on several different platforms.
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Send us fave photos with the Annual BFG Magazine
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 Washboard Jo is pictured here in Memphis showing off her BFG magazine. Photo: Mary Ann Haskell
 You can enjoy the magazine in digital format! Click on cover at right for our online digital version!
Want a hard copy? Check with your local blues society, look for one at a blues festival or find order info here. ...
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Jim Byrnes :: ST LOUIS TIMES
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 Jim Byrnes lives and breathes music. For nearly fifty-years he’s crooned, drawled, belted, hollered and sweet talked more songs into a microphone than most people ever get to hear in a single lifetime. He’s vibrated the rafters of saloons, pool halls and dance floors from one end of the continent with more styles of music than you could shake a stick at. It doesn’t matter whether it’s (he’s doing) low down blues, gospel, R&B, old time, swing, country or good old rock and roll – when Jim Byrnes sings, it’s the real deal. Even so, he’s never recorded an album like this one – St. Louis Times – is Byrne’s most personal record to date. Read all about it here
 "The Duck's Yas Yas Yas" |
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Blue Lunch :: BLUE LUNCH SPECIAL
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 Blue Lunch hails from Cleveland, Ohio and is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the release of a compilation album, Blue Lunch Special. Blue Lunch belongs to a rare breed of roots bands.
Singer and guitarist Bob Frank, a band member since 1995, explains, “It’s harder to define the sound for us than anybody else. We do everything from doo-wop harmonies to close to straight-ahead jazz to the most low-down gutbucket Chicago blues. And we explore different periods of R&B (like 1940s jump-blues and 1950s New Orleans-style) but we do them all authentically.”
Singer and harmonica player Pete London, a founder of the Cleveland-based band back in 1984, adds, “To call us a blues band is accurate, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.” Read more here...
"Cuttin' Out"
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Blues & Bayou at Gator By the Bay May 8-11
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  Blues lovers will be anything but blue at this year’s Gator By the Bay Festival! Happening May 8-11, 2014 at Spanish Landing Park in San Diego, CA, the festival not only features the hottest Cajun & zydeco music around, but also one of the strongest blues, jazz and swing lineups in the festival’s history, including Tab Benoit, Mark Hummel, Nick Gravenites, Johnny "V" Vernazza, Deanna Bogart, Janiva Magness, S teve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums, and many more. There will be a full contingent of favorite local blues bands as well as some very special, one-time-only collaborations.
Kicking off the newly expanded event on Thursday, May 8 is Louisiana blues guitar legend Tab Benoit, who has chalked up...
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Buddy Guy, Michael McDonald & Irma Thomas Headline 20th Tampa Bay Blues Festival April 11-13
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 The Tampa Bay Blues Festival returns to the sunny shores of Tampa Bay on April 11, 12, & 13, 2014. This festival will be our 20th year anniversary and we have a spectacular line up of blues talent – Michael McDonald, Buddy Guy, Irma Thomas, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tommy Castro, James Hunter, Coco Montoya, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Shemekia Copeland and others round out three great days of "Blues by the Bay."
We have advance purchase discount VIP packages with front stage seating, free drinks and food and a large shade tent. The festival also features a Kick-Off Party on Thursday night and two After-Shows at the historic Palladium Theater on Friday and Saturday following the shows.
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Gregg Allman, Buddy Guy and the Doobie Brothers to Headline 17th Annual Doheny Blues Festival May 17 & 18 at Doheny State Beach
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 Celebrating the 17th year of Blues On The Beach in Southern California, Omega Events is proud to announce that Gregg Allman, Buddy Guy And The Doobie Brothers will headline the Doheny Blues Festival on May 17-18, 2014. Joining these three legendary artists will be Gov’t Mule, Keb’ Mo’, Vintage Trouble, James Cotton, Ruthie Foster, Charles Bradley And The Extraordinaires, John Nemeth and The Bo-Keys, James Intveld & Rosie Flores, The Mannish Boys, Roy Gaines and much more.
Recognized as one of the top blues music festivals in the nation, the Doheny Blues Festival features 24 sets of music on three alternating stages, plus tasty food, microbrew sampling, eclectic...
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Annual Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Music Festival
Performers Spotlight: Guitar Shorty
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Among those performing is legendary guitarist/vocalist Guitar Shorty, a giant in the blues world. Credited with influencing both Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy, Guitar Shorty has been electrifying audiences for five decades with his supercharged live shows and his incendiary recordings.
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Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas Sept 25-29
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 The Big Blues Bender (September 25-29 2014) features the legendary and Grammy award winning B.B. King, as well as George Thorogood & the Destroyers. The line-up also features the soul-stirring Gospel harmonies of The Blind Boys of Alabama, the masterful accordion sounds of Buckwheat Zydeco, Louisiana infused blues from Tab Benoit, Charlie Musselwhite’s legendary harp, Ana Popovic’s powerful vocals and Coco Montoya’s blues rock to name just a few. These heavyweights and 30 more are performing at the fabled Riviera Hotel & Casino.
Festival packages start at under $600 per person (based on double occupancy) and include music for 4 days and 4 nights hotel. Anyone who books during the month of April will have the option to stay an extra night for free!
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here. ...
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Home on The Highway with Bart Drolenga (Part V)
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Po' Monkeys by Bart Drolenga
Photographer, blogger and traveler, Bart Drolenga and his wife Saskia are from Amsterdam, but travel the world looking for inspiration. Bart has agreed to take us along on their journey through the Delta via writings and photos. This week is our 5th stop...
"Not all is history along highway 61. In some places the blues is still very much alive. Such a place is Po Monkey’s in Merigold. This is one of the last remaining juke joints.
Po Monkey’s is nothing more than a wooden shack in the middle of nowhere. Outside a warning is written on the wall: “There will be no rap music inside.” Inside the joint is filled with smoke and the air is sticky. A couple dances intimately to the down home blues of Terry “Harmonica” Bean. The crowd is a mixture of locals, students from nearby Delta State University and blues aficionados. The juke joint is furnished with a pool table, jukebox, beer posters and Polaroid photos stapled to the walls. Saskia and I feel very welcome here and we really enjoy the “real deal” atmosphere."
Continue on the journey in next week's issue.
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#24 Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise SOLDOUT!
Join Waitlist... More cruises announced!
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The January LRBC #24 has already SOLD OUT! We can't stress the importance of pre-booking cabins ENOUGH for those of you who have missed the cabin selection process for January 2015. The cabin Wait List for LRBC #24 started Monday, April 7th, so please signup asap if you are wishing to sail.
A new contract for LRBC #25 has been signed with Holland America to sail Oct 24-31, 2015 aboard the ms Westerdam! The ship will sail from Ft. Lauderdale thru Key West (Fantasy Fest Finale) to New Orleans, LA, and then over to Cozumel. This itinerary was extremely popular last year and this cruise promises to be even more exciting aboard the Westerdam.
Pre-booking for LRBC #25 begins June 24th at 11am CDT so please mark your calendars if you plan to go Bluesin' with 20 plus bands and 1800 of your closest music friends.
Pre-booking for January 2016 will begin sometime in September.
LEGENDARY RHYTHM & BLUES CRUISE
313 Lawrence Ave., Kansas City, MO 64111
For reservations & info see:
More Than A Cruise... More Than A Festival... More Than You Can Imagine!
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Colorado Blues Society Movin’ n’ Shakin’
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 This was an exciting year for the Colorado Blues Society, the 2013 Blues Foundation KBA Blues Organization of the Year. We presented 13 BITS programs to over 500 kids in Colorado. CBS was involved in promoting and supplying volunteers to ten Festivals and involved in numerous flood benefits helping our community as floods ravaged Colorado late last summer. CBS donated $1750 to the Blues Hall of Fame Raise the Roof campaign. At the Blues Foundation’s 1st ever Health Fair at the IBC Finals in Memphis we supplied a nurse volunteer and helped promote the event.
The past three years our KBA nominees received awards in Education, Blues Venue and this year our nominee, Blue Star Connection, received a special KBA for their outstanding work providing music therapy for at-risk kids. At the 2014 IBCs, CBS had our 4th Memphis IBC Finalist in the last 4 years, and we are kicking off our 2015 Colorado Blues Challenge in April 2014 in hopes of sending our next IBC Finalist to Memphis.
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BMA seating finalized April 17... act now for tickets!
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 Hello Blues Fans...Many of you have already purchased your Blues Music Award tickets, we look forward to seeing you in Memphis! Those of you who have NOT:
It is never too late to buy a Blues Music Award ticket but now is the time to do what you have been meaning to do.
Why is now the time? Because we will be finalizing the seating by April 17 in order to mail tickets on Friday April 18. In order to get the best seat possible you should not delay longer!
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April 12-13 Radio Show: Music to Do Taxes By
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Tax time again, my friends. Let us relieve the pain with some fine music! Crank up your calculator and we will crank up the music - B.B. King and The Stones, Keb Mo, Slim Harpo, Duane Allman, and much much more.
Music to do your taxes by. We will keep you awake, next time in the Bluesmobile.
For a list of stations where you can find BluesMobile Radio Click Here |
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Shemekia Copeland :: Mississippi Mud
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Happy Birthday April 10th
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Did you know that I do Custom Comic Strips & Comic Pages as gifts?
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Roots Blues Airplay Charts
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To view our entire calendar of more than 500 festivals, click here! |
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ATTENTION:
FESTIVAL PROMOTERS
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LIST YOUR FESTIVAL WITH US FREE!
Website - E-Guide - Magazine
If you host or know of a Blues Festival & don't see here or in our online listings...
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FOR TONS MORE FESTIVAL LISTINGS SEE OUR COMPREHENSIVE WEBSITE
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Thursday - Sunday
April 10th - 13th 2014
Clarksdale, Mississippi USA
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| | Friday-Sunday
April 11th-13th 2014
Tampa Bay, Florida USA
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Saturday
April 12th 2014
Baton Rouge, Louisiana USA
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| | Sunday-Saturday
April 13th-19th 2014
Clemson, South Carolina USA
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Friday-Sunday
April 25th- April 27th 2014
Lugano, Switzerland
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| | Saturday
April 26th 2014
Moorpark, California USA
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Saturday
May 3rd 2014
York County, Virginia, USA
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| | Saturday
May 3rd 2014
Chesterfield, Virginia, USA
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Saturday
May 3rd 2014
Newhall, California USA
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| | Thursday - Sunday
May 8th - May 11th 2014
San Diego, California, USA
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Saturday
May 10th 2014
Topanga, California, USA
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| | Friday - Sunday
May 16th - May 18th 2014 Stourbridge, West Midlands
United Kingdom
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 RBA Publishing Inc is based in Reno, Nevada USA. We are woman owned and operated.
We produce the annual Blues Festival Guide magazine (publishing our 11th annual in 2013), affiliated with the top-ranking website: www.BluesFestivalGuide.com, and this weekly blues newsletter: The Blues Festival E-Guide with approximately 28,500 weekly subscribers.
Contact our home office to find out how to advertise in this e-weekly newsletter. Call 775-337-8344.
Information both editorial and advertising in the Blues Festival E-Guide is believed to be correct but not guaranteed. Double check info carefully before you attend any event or send money for anything. We do not write the news... we just report it.
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