Can't make it to Memphis? Don't worry! The Blues Foundation will be updating their website LIVE during the 38th Blues Music Awards tonight! Watch their homepage for real-time announcements of winners, backstage moments, and more! You can also tune in to their social media pages as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will all be updating with the latest news from the awards show as it happens. Check out Blues.org tonight, May 11th after 7pm CST."

By Wendy Lemlin
(San Diego, CA) - You might think that Gator By the Bay, San Diego’s largest good times music festival, is all about Cajun and Zydeco music, but you would only be partially right. Sure, there is plenty of top notch straight-from-Louisiana bayou music, but in recent years, the 16-year-old festival has grown to also showcase legendary Blues artists, along with rockabilly, roots, salsa and Latin music. In fact, the official name of the event is now Gator By the Bay Zydeco, Blues, and Crawfish Festival. Of the 100+ musical performances happening on seven stages throughout the May 11-14 festival, at least 30 fall squarely in the Blues category, with a number of others mixing the Blues in with other genres.

 

The festival will kick-off with a concert headlined by Grammy nominated boogie-woogie blues singer and pianist, Marcia Ball, on Thursday, May 11. Texas-born and Louisiana-raised, Ball ignites a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she strolls on stage.

(Memphis & Clarksdale MS) Tonite, May 11, 2017 the Blues Music Awards (BMA) 2017 are being held at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee. Once the awards gala is over there is still plenty to do in the Delta area, not to mention enjoying the clubs, friends, fans, shops, museums and food!

 

Down in Clarksdale the 11th Annual Caravan Fest will be held May 12-14, 2017 with free live music outside of Cat Head (252 Delta Ave), and the Rock & Blues Museum (113 E. 2nd Street) plus, on May 12 it's the 5th Annual Michael Burks Celebration at Hopson Plantation (8141 Old Highway 61, Clarksdale, MS) 4pm to benefit the HART Fund and Generation Blues. Also May 12 in Memphis there's the Bobby “Blue” Bland Statue Dedication at SE Corner of S. Main & Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. at 11am...

Doheny Blues Festival Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Launch of Doheny Blues Foundation! Kickoff Party May 17

Omega Events, Inc., the event production company behind the Doheny Blues Festival, launches the Doheny Blues Foundation in conjunction with the festival’s 20th Anniversary celebration.

 

On Wednesday, May 17th, there will be a pre-party at Mozambique in Laguna Beach for the Doheny Blues Festival that will serve as an initial launch party for the Doheny Blues Foundation with local blues artists performing and proceeds from that event benefiting the foundation. A 20th Anniversary Doheny Blues Festival commemorative book is being created and will be available for purchase at the 2017 Doheny Blues Festival, with proceeds also benefiting the foundation.

 

The Doheny Blues Festival will be held in Dana Point Harbor on May 20 & 21, 2017. Headlining this year’s anniversary celebration is the legendary Joe Walsh, Melissa Etheridge’s MEmphis Rock & Soul, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience, roots rocker Chris Isaak, and soul legend Mavis Staples. Single Day tickets are on sale now on the web.

(Clarksdale, MS) - In honor of Mississippi's 2017 Bicentennial, the Delta Blues Museum will present a monthly outdoor film series that reflects the state's rich musical heritage.  The monthly series, "Monday Movie Nights: Celebrating Mississippi's Music History and Heritage," begins on Monday, May 22nd and will run through September. This official bicentennial project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the Mississippi Development Authority. Films will be shown on the museum's outdoor stage, and will be free to the public.

 

Museum Director Shelley Ritter shares the idea behind the series: "Our goal is to help our audience understand the influence that musicians from our state and the Delta region have had on music and the arts, and this series will provide an outlet where the community can come together to celebrate this contribution. ...Find more about movie schedule at the Delta Blues Museum 

(Rentiesville, OK) - May 27th will be a celebration in Rentiesville, Oklahoma of this state’s blues tradition, and indeed it is a rich one. Seven artists with strong roots in the OK state, will be honored with music, trophies, Bar-B-Que and a good time at Oklahoma blues legend D.C. Minner’s time-worn juke joint, as their faces are added to the 100 already on the walls of the club's Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame! Those present to help celebrate the new inductees will be several Hall of Famers – Leon Rollerson, Miss Blues, Selby Minner, Wolfman Black and more.

 

The inductees this year include Roy Clark, Homer Johnson, Oklahoma Ollie, Frank Ray, Butch Russell, James Russell, and Tom Ware: - Roy Clark is a picker and humorist extraordinaire who started on TV's Hee Haw and has a surprising history of playing blues! This star of great magnitude did a CD with Gatemouth Brown and more.

(Memphis, TN) - Last night, May 10, 2017 was Big LLou's 5th Annual Blues Hall of Fame Tribute Jam and Fundraiser, a star-studded authentic blues experience and "After Party with a Purpose.” The best and brightest in blues paid tribute to the musicians inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame. "THE JUKE JOYNT" was held at a new location called "The Warehouse" (just a couple of blocks from the Blues Museum). Trollies and shuttles brought people from Beale Street and the Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Big Llou said, “It was our biggest, most well-attended event. We raised money for the Blues Hall of Fame and had a good time doing it. The patrons loved the new venue and the music kept everyone dancing until 2am. They all had a Wang Dang Doodle of a time.”
 
Over 22 musicians including Eddie Cotton, Barbara Blue, Victor Wainwright,  Trudy Lynn, John Primer, Janiva Magness, Biscuit Miller, Kenny Neal and his brother Lil Ray Neal (first time they played on stage together in long time), Annika Chambers, Anthony Geraci and many, many more.

The house band led by Jack Rowell and his Royal Blues band held it down for many hours in perfect synch.
 
The celebrity hosts, Teddy Johnson (pictured  here by Janine Harty) from Teddy’s Juke Joint started off the festivities in his colorful cape and flashy showmanship, and Jackie Scott from Virginia, known as the Virginia Volcano ‘meeted and greeted’ the VIP ticket holders, escorted them to the best seats in the house and fed them soul food and gave them swag bags.
 
The new venue, a 100-year-old post office cum juke joint with 1940’s-style leather booths, wooden floors, and music memorabilia galore was the perfect venue for this authentic juke joint experience and boasted two full bars and state-of-the-art sound and lighting. Eclectic food trucks just outside rounded out the festival vibe.

By Phil Hewitt
Northern Ireland’s multi award-winning, song-writing blues singer Kaz Hawkins offers hope through her music – her way through her own tough times in the past. Kaz [The Kaz Hawkins Band] is still enjoying the success of her second album Feelin’ Good which won the IBBA (International Blues Broadcasters Association) Album of the Year 2016.

“I think we created something that was fresh and new, plus I am not a natural 12-bar blues. The bar is higher. My music is blues and soul and rock ‘n’ roll. People like to tag you with one genre, but there is so much more to my song-writing. I write in a lot of different genres. For me, there are enough people doing 12-bar blues.”…

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