Difficult times call for powerful songs, and Rich Man's War: New Blues & Roots Songs Of Peace & Protest is filled with music that cries out for change. Featuring some of today's best-known blues artists, Rich Man's War will go down in history as the first compilation of its kind. It's the only collection in existence of 21st Century protest songs that focuses on the blues genre.

Popular blues performers such as Guitar Shorty (brother-in-law of the late Jimi Hendrix), Michael Hill  and the W.C. Handy Award-winning Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater are paired with the occasional detour into other musical styles, such as bluegrass legend Norman Blake (from the Grammy-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack) and contemporary folk satirist Roy Zimmerman. The result is that rare album that holds your attention from start to finish. Its smart, wide-ranging songs will make you think, make you feel, and some cases, make you laugh out loud.

Rich Man's War: New Blues & Roots Songs Of Peace & Protest is a unique collection of songs hand-picked by Kenneth Bays, editor of Blues Revue magazine. It will be embraced by fans of blues and roots music as well as by social activists in America and around the world.

http://www.rufrecords.de/

Liner Notes:

A Night in Woodstock is a small part of a large project. It was recorded in 2005, when Todd Kwait was beginning work on his documentary about jug band music, Chasin’ Gus’s Ghost. We knew that Todd planned to film one of our shows for some footage of us playing with John Sebastian. We just didn’t know where or when.

Originally, we booked a gig at the Joyous Lake in Woodstock, New York precisely because we didn’t expect anyone to be there. We just wanted to run over some tunes with the band and stay limber. Our old buddy Bruce Katz had recently moved to town, and we were overjoyed that he would be able to join us on keys for the night. Soon after, Todd called and said he and John would be there with a film crew. It was just supposed to be a gig in a bar, but on this warm evening in late September, it would mushroom into a full-scale movie production

At the time we were too busy to notice, intent on making the transition from front porch duo to 7 musicians trading off on 14 instruments, without a net. “Don’t look down,” I thought. But the expected disasters never happened. Instead, Bruce played one tinkling note throughout “Blues on a Holiday” and it’s never sounded better. John’s harmonica energized the whole room. The band listened hard and played great. Candles flickered, glasses clinked, people talked and danced.

After the last encore, the equipment was packed up, the lights were switched off, the crew and bar staff headed home, and we and the band checked into a cheap motel on the outskirts of town. No trace of the chaos remained, not even shadows on the wall. The club closed down a few months later.

It was just a gig in a bar. It was also an evening with some of our favorite musicians, a few hours spent working and playing together that were captured by a topnotch film and audio crew. We are fortunate to have it and to be able to share some of the highlights with you. --Paul & Annie

http://www.paulandannie.com/content/about.php

NYC-based photographer Joseph Rosen sent in this picture of soldiers from a combat hospital in Tikrit, Iraq, getting an impromptu performance by singer Dustin Arbuckle of the blues band Moreland & Arbuckle.

BLUZAPALOOZA, the star-studded celebrity Blues concert tour is back in Iraq and Kuwait for its second tour. Created by Blues producers Steve Simon and John Hahn and presented by Armed Forces Entertainment, this 12 day BLUZAPALOOZA tour stars Blues icons Shemekia Copeland, Michael Burks, Deanna Bogart, Zac Harmon, Moreland & Arbuckle, Tony Braunagel, Aaron Trubic and The BLUZAPALOOZA All-Star Band.

“We are thrilled to be going back to Iraq and to have so many great Blues artists volunteering to go to a war zone. This is certainly an historic event for the Blues and for our men and woman who so proudly serve our country,” stated BLUZAPALOOZA founder and producer Steve Simon.

“Our October tour’s lineup would sell out any blues festival in the country. It's an honor to be able to bring it to our troops,” stated BLUZAPALOOZA co-producer John Hahn.

This historic tour will be documented by renowned New York photographer, Joseph A. Rosen, a recipient of the “Keeping the Blues Alive” award in photography from the Blues Foundation.

The BLUZAPALOOZA tour has been made possible with the help of Armed Forces Entertainment, The Blues Foundation, Blues Revue, NorthernBlues Music, Alligator Records, Yellow Dog Records, Blind Raccoon, Delta Groove Records, Blind Pig Records, Hohner Harmonicas, Telarc Records, Sony Corporation, Ruf Records and Entertainment Support Systems, LLC.

Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE) is the lead Department of Defense agency for providing entertainment to U.S. military personnel serving overseas. Founded in 1951, AFE brings a touch of home to more than 500,000 troops each year. BLUZAPALOOZA is proud to be working with AFE.

To read Chip Eagles Blog from the Bluzapalooza tour: CLICK

TORONTO - The former drummer for the Jeff Healey Band says he hopes fans will buy a new DVD and two-CD compilation set despite calls for a boycott.

Tom Stephen says the "Jeff Healey Band - Legacy: Volume 1" package highlights some of the group's best performances as it was developing into a world-renowned blues act, which eventually disbanded in 2002. But Healey's widow, Cristie Healey, has said she's "deeply and sadly disappointed" by the release of the package of hits and live songs.
She says the release was not authorized by the late guitarist's estate and called for fans to boycott it.

Stephen - who was also the band's co-manager - says he owns the material in the package and has a "legal and moral right" to release it.Healey died in March after a long battle with cancer. Cristie Healey said last week that Stephen had been embroiled in a longtime feud with her late husband over money and rights to the band's music.
"It should be clearly understood that I am not and have never been in any litigation with Jeff Healey," Stephen said Monday in a release. "To the contrary, I have always tried to be as respectful as possible of both the Healey family and estate."
"As a founding member, I am proud to have been a part of the Jeff Healey Band and believe this project is a respectful tribute," he said. "I invite fans and others to judge the project by its merit and the music itself."

The CD "Mess of Blues" was released with the estate's blessing in the spring, and other releases are in the works.

ATLANTA...This effort started with a phone call from a club owner where Atlanta ad agency Ames Scullin O’Haire (ASO) Creative Director Mike Bourne used to gig regularly in Kansas City. The club owner hooked Mike up with the director of The Blues Foundation in Memphis, Jay Sieleman and an effort was bourne. 

“Blues and blues artists have been struggling in the last several years – so Jay Sieleman wanted to get the perspective of someone who was both in advertising and in the music. Our idea was to create a viral/web campaign to breath new life into blues and attract new fans,” says Mr. Bourne. 

He continues, “The problem blues was having: people have a perception that it is only a sad-backs, my-girl-done-left-me, depressing music. They don't realize there are several flavors of the blues, and mostly it's a music that makes people happy when they listen to it (irony abounds).” 

ASO designed a web site – www.igetblues.com -  that would let people experience the many different styles of the blues -- and also find places to buy and see live blues. The hardest part is to attract people to the site so they have two plans to accomplish this mission. 

First they created viral videos. Since blues influenced all American music, they thought it would be interesting to let people see what music would be if blues had never existed.

 Two comic-situation videos came out of this effort with many more planned. In one video, the Rolling Stones appear to play polka. In another, Ray Charles appears to sing cheesy operatic music. At the end of the videos, an art card says: Without the blues, music wouldn't be the same.  

TO SEE LIFE WITHOUT BLUES: CLICK

Billy Branch


& FROM:C.S.M.

Chicago - Billy Branch steps off the stage and into the crowd, leaving his band to chug through a 12-bar blues. With a harmonica pressed to his lips, Branch sends light, flirty chirps to a woman, just inches from her face. For a single moment, the hundred or so people at Rosa's Lounge on Chicago's West Side fall silent.

The woman slips into the groove and joins Branch's musical conversation, and everyone around follows her cue.

Branch barks his biography – "I was born in the North, but my heart is in the South!" – and the band guns it. His heels spin to join them.

Here, on a Saturday night in October, it is a familiar conquest: Targeting lips to hips is what makes Chicago blues so enduring. But movement of a different sort, through geography and generation, is what also makes it deceptively complex.

That journey is threatening to jump the track. The music is largely silent in the Chicago neighborhoods where it originated, due to a shuttered club scene that moved audiences to the North Side, near the friendlier confines of Wrigley Field. But more alarming is the increased passing in recent years of aged blues luminaries, an inevitable loss of stories and techniques that connect the music to its fundamental roots.

Today, the Chicago blues scene is in stark transition. Younger blacks are failing to see the music as anything but a relic, leaving an entire tradition largely up for adoption by foreign-born players traveling halfway around the world to learn from the source. Their enthusiasm is helping move the blues from isolated neighborhoods to the global stage, evidenced by Chicago bands that very recently have come to resemble a United Nations portfolio.

TO READ THE REST: CLICK

Blues Blast Music Award Winners Announced At Buddy Guy's Legends

The winners of the 2008 Blues Blast Music Awards were announced Sunday
November 2nd, 2008 at a Gala Blues celebration at Buddy Guy's Legends in
Chicago, IL.

The award winners are:
Best Contemporary Blues Recording  - Holmes Brothers - State Of Grace
Best Traditional Blues Recording - Lurrie Bell - Lets Talk About Love
Best New Artist Debut Recording - John Németh - Magic Touch
Best Blues Song - Nick Moss - Mistakes from the Past 
Best Male Artist - Buddy Guy
Best Female Artist - Koko Taylor
Best Blues Band - Magic Slim & The Teardrops
Sean Costello Rising Star Award - John Németh

Blues Blast Magazine also awarded their first ever Lifetime Achievement Award to Delta Blues Legend David "Honeyboy" Edwards. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes significant contributions and a lifetime body of work in the field of Blues music.

 In this tale of sex, violence, race, and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, "Cadillac Records" follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry

To see the Trailer for the upcoming movie: CLICK

OTTAWA  -- For the third consecutive year, the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest organization has been recognized by the Recycling Council of Ontario with an award for waste minimization. The award is in recognition of Bluesfest's efforts—in tandem with Molson Canada and Rothsay Biodiesel, among others—to 'green' the festival.
Bluesfest was recognized for their use of compostable beer cups made of corn and disposed of through the novel use of Cupsuckers, using bio-diesel to power generators, encouraging people to bicycle to the event by providing supervised bike parking, and for their comprehensive recycling program.

Bluesfest organizers point to the diligent efforts of a superb team of volunteers that make up their Plasco Energy Group ‘Green Team’ and the Cupsucker, a simple plastic tube that helps stack and separate compostable beverage cups from the rest of the garbage. Cupsuckers reduce the environmental impact of a major event like Bluesfest by minimizing the volume of landfill-bound waste. Volume reduction is a great benefit of using Cupsuckers, and it has the added bonus of reducing waste removal costs. Cupsuckers really make a big difference on the environment when they are used with compostable cups, such as those used at the Ottawa Bluesfest. These cups can safely be diverted from the landfill waste stream and sent to a compost facility, not the dump.
 
Bluesfest enjoys an ongoing partnership with Canadian green fuel pioneer Rothsay Biodiesel to use bio-diesel fuel to power the festival’s on-site generators. Bluesfest also works with Citizens for Safe Cycling to provide a safe and secure bicycle check-in area, reducing the need to drive to the event. For the 2008 event, the Ottawa Bluesfest instituted a comprehensive recycling program that minimized waste created by the event. To better manage these programs, Bluesfest looked to their Plasco Energy Group Green Team volunteers to inform patrons how to best participate in these initiatives.

In other awards news, earlier this fall the International Festivals and Events Association announced the winners of their prestigious Pinnacle Awards. The Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest was recognized with three more Pinnacle awards to add to their growing collection. The festival was awarded for ‘Best Promotional Brochure’, ‘Best Commemorative Poster’ and ‘Best Promotional Poster’.

Reserve the date and tell your friends, the Stone Crab Jam is coming to Crystal River, FL. on November 15, 2008 from 4:00PM to 11:00PM. This event is being sponsored by Kings Bay Rotary Club of Crystal River with proceeds to benefit both the club's charitable foundation and the Save Three Sisters Springs Foundation. 

The festival will be held on Citrus Avenue west of US Highway 19. The local streets will be closed to traffic from US19 to the park on Kings Bay.

  Plan to come and enjoy a wonderful evening of music, food and fun. Kings Bay Rotary announced that continuous music can be enjoyed on Citrus Avenue-west side of Highway 19 in Downtown Crystal River. Side streets will have several band venues, vendors, food and beverages. Admission is $5.00 and tickets can be purchased in advance.  For your listening and dancing pleasure, you’ll hear blues, rock-n-roll, country and saxophones.  Kings Bay Park is at the west end of Citrus Avenue and provides a beautiful area for viewing Nature Coast beauty.

http://stonecrabjam.com/default.aspx


BURKE'S OF IRELAND TO HOST "BLUES IN THE BEER GARDEN"

While your at the Stone Crab Jam make sure to check out Burke's of Ireland's backyard beer garden area and catch DEJA BLUES playing their unique style of blues.

For more about Deja Blues: CLICK

The 2009 International Blues Challenge will be the 25th year of Blues musicians from around the world competing for cash, prizes, and industry recognition. The Blues Foundation will present the 25th International Blues Challenge February 4-7, 2009 in Memphis, TN. The world's largest gathering of Blues acts represents an international search by The Blues Foundation and its Affiliated Organizations for the Blues Band and Solo/Duo Blues Act ready to take their act to the international stage. In 2008, 100 bands and 60 solo/duo acts entered, filling the clubs up and down Beale Street for the semi-finals on Thursday and Friday and the finals at the Orpheum Theater on Saturday. There will be at least that many in 2009.


IS YOUR BAND COMPETING AT THE 2009 IBC"S?

Everybody knows that the IBC's are THE PLACE TO BE to network with the people that count in the blues world. Now is a great time to take advantage of the E-Guide to promote yourself or your band before you go to Memphis. The E-Guide goes out to 17,000+ confirmed blues fans every week and is a great way to let everybody know that you are going to Memphis.

For rates : CLICK

Once a decade or so a group of individuals comes along and together creates something unique that spring boards them much farther than any one individual could go. That group is 46. A product of a music theory class experiment, 46 is comprised of the soulful vocals and guitar playing of Steven Marcus, the smooth bass stylings of Matt Franke, and the precise drum skills of Jonathan Carter. Listening to Steven's guitar riffs and soulful voice one gets the sense that this guy might have some DNA from guitar greats Hendrix, Vaughn or Clapton, while Matt adds a totally different dimension rooted in his Jazz upbringing and Jonathan's contribution is one of a hard driving rock and roller. Together this recipe of original, yet commercial style of blues/alternative provides listener's of all ages with a tasty surprise that  leaves them craving seconds.

Steven Marcus - Vocals/Guitar
Matt Franke - Bass
Jonathan Carter - Drums

TO SEE & HEAR "46":CLICK

SONIC BIDS EPK: CLICK

DATE: Friday  November 7, 2008

 TIME:  8:00 pm - 11:00 pm

LOCATION: Blackbox Theater (in the Rail Walk Arts District)

407 N. Lee Street at Kerr Street

Salisbury, NC  28145

Featuring: Joe Robinson Jazz Band


MORE: RSVP via e-mail rbjs@carolina.rr.com by November 3, 2008

This event is FREE.  In addition, more RBJS items are available for a donation.  Light refreshments and beverages will be provided