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Get your 19th Annual Blues Festival Guide Magazine!
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 Yay! We're excited to get back to the live music scene, and we know you feel the same. Plus... the 19th Blues Festival Guide is here!!
We're so thrilled to have the amazingly talented Kevin Burt gracing our 19th annual cover featuring the amazing photography of Marilyn Stringer!
Our magazines are shipping so get your orders in to have and to hold and refer too throughout the year!
If you are a festival, venue, blues society, etc., please contact our distribution manager or your sales rep.
The magazine is now digital as well on our website.
Along with our festival, artist and blues related features, here’s some of the cool editorial featured in our 19th annual!
Keeping the Blues Alive During a Pandemic By Irene Johnson
What’s Cookin’ with Larry Garner
The Lore of the Train By Michele Lundeen
Blues Against Hunger Society ...feeding thousands in the last decade while supporting, promoting and preserving the blues
Living Legend: Miss Lavelle White By Pam Cosel
The Blues Foundation Welcomes New Leadership... an interview with the new CEO and President
Ladies Sing & Play the Blues By Reverend Billy C. Wirtz
Thanks for digging and supporting the blues!
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Photo Moments with the New 19th Annual BFG Magazine!
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 Here's Dana Rumburg Walker showing off her BFG at Ebullition Brew Works in Vista, California "Summer Mardi Gras" for their grand re-opening.
A staunch music fans who also loves to dance, Dana also got in the spirit and dresses festive for the occasion and even won a free gourmet dinner!
Photo: Michele Lundeen
Want your picture here with the Guide? Order the 19th annual now!
*ONCE YOU GET YOUR 9TH ANNUAL BLUES FESTIVAL GUIDE MAGAZINE, SEND US A PIC WITH IT! Are you are a BFG client? Reach out to your sales person so they can send to you!
Anyone can also Order one here! Once you receive, have fun, get creative and SNAP A PHOTO of you, your friends, and/or artists, etc. with the BFG magazine and EMAIL photo, caption (120 words or less), URL if applicable, and photo credit to e-Guide editor!
The Blues Foundation is official sponsor of our 2021 Blues Festival Guide!
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19th Annual Grassroots Blues Festival set for July 9-10
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 (DUCK HILL, MS) - The Grassroots Blues Festival will be held July 9-10 at Elliott Field in Duck Hill, Mississippi. This annual event takes place on the 2nd Saturday of July (4-10pm) and now includes the Friday evening preceding it from 6-10pm. Artists performing include Bobby Rush, RL Boyce and more on Friday and Little Nellie Mack Project and Little Willie Farmer and more on Saturday.
The Grassroots Blues Festival is a celebration of our rich cultural heritage of blues music and the artists who demonstrated mastery of their artistic discipline. Our goal is to educate and preserve this traditional art form of music for future generations to come.
The Grassroots Blues Festival is a project of Action Communication and Education Reform, Inc., that began in 2003 to implement its program of work in the community and to provide a platform for traditional and obscure blues artists to cultivate and celebrate a musical art form that is unique to our Mississippi heritage.
For more information contact Al White by phone (662) 809-7002, via email, or look us up on Facebook.
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Antone’s Blues Club 46th Anniversary Celebration thru July
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 (AUSTIN, TX) - Antoine Blues Club’s 46th Anniversary series is chock full of top artists in the genre through July. Antone’s Blues Club, Austin's Home of the Blues Since 1975, is located at 305 E. Fifth St., Austin, Texas. This year's anniversary is dedicated with love to the memories of Denny Freeman, Riley Osbourn, Paul Oscher, Lloyd Price, Eleanor Sutherland, Gene Taylor and Mary Wilson.
- June 25 is Walter “Wolfman” Washington with Shamarr Allen & The Underdawgs opening the show.
- Sunday, June 27 is a tribute to the late Doug Sahm and The Tornados tribute with his son, Shawn Sahm, and guests including Kevin Russell of Shinyribs.
- July 3rd is a Gene Taylor Tribute starting 1pm with Carolyn Wonderland, Guy Forsyth, Don Leady, Hunt Sales, Dale Spalding, Nick Connolly, Chris Ruest, Johnny Burgin and more (lineup subject to change). Proceeds benefit the Taylor family. This show is followed at 8pm (CDT) by C.J. Chenier with Jivin' Gene and The Texas Horns.
- July 10 is Chicago Blues Legend John Primer with Lou Ann Barton.
- July 11 is Miss Lavelle's B’day Bash with Matthew Robinson, The L Men and more
- July 14 is Kim Wilson and friends.
- July 16 is the Sue Foley Band featuring Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith, Bob Stroger, and special guests.
-July 17 is Jimmie Vaughan & the Tilt-A-Whirl Band with Lindsay Beaver & Brad Stivers.
- July 23 is W.C. Clark with Tommy McLain + CC Adcock.
- July 24 is Twang Bang - A Celebration of Denny Freeman, the Texas multi-instrumentalist who was a member of Antone’s house band and also played, toured and recorded with everyone from both Vaughan brothers to Taj Mahal, to James Cotton, to Bob Dylan and many more.
Tickets and full lineup at Eventbrite.
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Black Joe Lewis on Chasing, Living and Playing the Blues
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 NPR/Mira Kaplan
Photo: Connor Beital
Like so many musicians during the pandemic, bluesman Black Joe Lewis asked himself, "What now?"
Growing weary of the industry, and having faced the challenges of touring during the beginning of the pandemic, Lewis and his band, The Honeybears, returned to his hometown of Austin amidst a slew of cancellation calls.
When a buddy called him up to offer a gig in construction work, he didn't hesitate. After releasing four albums of soul-stepping, hip-swinging tunes and building a dedicated fan base in Austin, he traded in his cowboy hat for a hard hat. This was a new type of gig, with early rising and power saws instead of late nights and electric guitars, something Lewis says "many wimpy musicians would never do."
"They think they're above that work," he says.
You can hear the pride and his belief in the dignity of labor. It's what the blues are all about, working through the grind. Through those 12-bar songs, hard work is tied to humanity. With guttural growls, Lewis' music proves that he's always lived a life of hard work.
Calling from his back porch in Austin, comfortable in a fuzzy, navy bathrobe, Lewis pieces together the way his consciousness and life experiences have untethered his identity from the expected image of a Black man — what he should sound like, listen to and be. The bluesman reflects on his early musical moments as a Black youth in 1990s Austin. He remembers when a friend found Soundgarden in his Walkman and told him to "turn that white boy s*** off."
He also heard the voice of his father, "an old schooler" warning him: "Don't listen to that rap s***." A fan of Prince and Rick James — "the brothers who played instruments" — his old man claimed that rap was a talentless prison pipeline, and a "conspiracy to get Black boys to kill each other." …Read full story
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 (MERIDIAN, MS) - The Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing will present Shake & Holla Oct 1, featuring the North Mississippi Allstars, Rebirth Brass Band, and Cedric Burnside. The Shake & Holla tour showcases foot-stomping Mississippi Hill Country blues and the funky, syncopated sounds of New Orleans brass, two great Southern musical traditions.
The North Mississippi Allstars, featuring brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson, have won a Blues Music Award and have been nominated four times for a Grammy Award. The Grammy-winning Rebirth Brass Band has been a New Orleans institution since its founding in 1983. Mississippi blues guitarist, vocalist, and drummer Cedric Burnside, a three-time Grammy nominee (and grandson of the late blues singer-guitarist R.L. Burnside), will also perform. The three artists will play separately as well as collaborate throughout the show, exploring the musical connection between the Mississippi Delta and Bourbon Street.
The performance at the Riley Center (2200 5th Street, Meridian, Mississippi) starts at 7:30 p.m. Concessions include wine, beer and bottled water. Tickets range from $25-$75 and can be found here.
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Sony Music Disregarding Unrecouped Balances for Heritage Catalog Artists
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 For some time, influential voices in the industry have called for the unrecouped balances of heritage artists to be written off by record labels. This would see modern-day royalty earnings of these acts get paid into their pockets, rather than being swallowed by a record label with whom they may have ended dealings decades ago.
That is especially true, in many cases, for heritage Black artists. Last summer, during industry-wide discussions surrounding Blackout Tuesday, veteran US artist manager and attorney, Ron Sweeney [pictured here], called on the major record companies to implement a number of new policies in a strong op/ed for MBW. Sweeney wrote: “With respect to Black artists signed to you prior to 2000, that are no longer signed to your companies, zero out their unrecouped royalty balances and let their royalties flow to them so they can support themselves.”
Many in the music industry never thought we’d see a day where a major record company openly embraced such a plan. Those people were wrong.
In a letter sent to thousands of artists [June 11, 2021] and obtained by MBW, Sony Music Entertainment (SME) has announced the launch of a new initiative called “Artists Forward”, which it says focuses on “prioritizing transparency with creators in all aspects of their development.”
SME’s landmark new policy under “Artists Forward” is called the Legacy Unrecouped Balance Program. The letter confirms: “As part of our continuing focus on developing new financial opportunities for creators, we will no longer apply existing unrecouped balances to artist and participant earnings generated on or after January 1, 2021 for eligible artists and participants globally who signed to SME prior to the year 2000 and have not received an advance from the year 2000 forward.“
Through this program, we are not modifying existing contracts, but choosing to pay through on existing unrecouped balances to increase the ability of those who qualify to receive more money from uses of their music.”
What all this means in practice: Sony is effectively writing off / disregarding unrecouped balances going forward for qualifying artists. …Read full story
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CD, Single & DVD Releases
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Clarence Spady :: SURRENDER
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"Surrender"
Website
It is perfectly poignant that veteran bluesman Clarence Spady chose to include his version of Z.Z. Hill’s hit song “Down Home Blues,” on his album Surrender, as the Pennsylvania guitarist has followed the footsteps of the soul-blues pioneer, who created a combination of blues and contemporary soul styling that helped to restore the blues to modern black consciousness. This is the first release for Spady since 2008 and it is a profession of faith and declaration of determined recovery from an artist whose life has been full of dramatic ups, downs, and sidetracks since breaking into the scene in the mid-90’s and receiving his first W.C. Handy award nomination in 1997.
The very personal collection of nine tracks includes seven original songs and three previously unreleased recordings from 1999 captured at the River St. Jazz Café in Plains, PA. The songs written and recorded over a 20-year period include collaborations with William “Wes” Weller and new mentor Andy Pace, as well as his protégé Adam Schultz. The album also features material and performances from lost friends, Lucky Peterson and drummer Shorty Parham, and a special song he wrote for his son, whose life was cut short at only 25, creating a highly emotional landscape. Remarkably, Surrender is only Clarence Spady’s third release in a quarter century.
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Charlotte Blues Society call for Talent Competition
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 (CHARLOTTE, NC) - The Charlotte Blues Society 2021 Blues Talent Competition will he held virtually due to Covid 19, and mandates from the State of North Carolina. To enter, all performance entries must be pre-recorded and submitted to CBS to distribute to judges for review and scoring by September 15. Here are the instructions, and registration form.
Entry fee is $40 per Act, which includes Band membership in the Charlotte Blues Society. The membership covers all band members for one year and offers each all the privileges awarded any member of the Society.
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John Primer "She Do The Right Thing All Of The Time"
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Which Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise Hits Your Groove?
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Our Artists & Headliners Stay & Play, They Don’t Hit & Run!!
Announcing #35 New Date Nov 6-13, 2021 + band updates!
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 NEW DATE! LRBC#35 Southern Caribbean: Nov 6~13, 2021 From Ft. Lauderdale, Fl To Willemstad, Curacao; Oranjestad, Aruba and Half Moon Cay (Bahamas Private Island) on Holland America’s Ms Nieuw Amsterdam. Cabins & Info HERE
SOLDOUT!
Join Waitlist!
LRBC #36 Eastern Caribbean: Jan. 29~Feb. 5, 2022 From Ft. Lauderdale, Fl To Tortola, St. Thomas & Turks and Caicos on Holland America’s New Flagship Ms Rotterdam. Cabins & Info HERE
Visit Reservations Or Call (816) 753-7979 To Reserve Your Cabin!
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LEGENDARY RHYTHM & BLUES CRUISE 313 Lawrence St., Kansas City, MO | (816) 753-7979 | BluesCruise.com
- More Than A Cruise… More Than A Festival… More Than You Can Imagine! -
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Independent Artists, Producers and Venues Streaming with HowLive.TV
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 HowLive, leading live event streaming platform, has announced “Producer,” a new product that enables artists, producers and venues to stream using the HowLive built in features to sell tickets, bundles, merch, accept donations, sponsor placement and open up new revenue channels.
Artists and venues are now the center of the virtual music experience and have full control with the HowLive platform. Deliver with confidence a front row seat with amazing 1080 video, hi fidelity and scalability to millions of viewers globally.
“Artists and venues use their existing camera gear or a variety of all-in-one solutions from HowLive” said, Gino Padua, CEO. “Rich features, our flexible pricing model, and production support keeps the process simple, removes risks and lowers costs compared to other approaches.”
As venues begin opening with limited capacity, HowLive streaming solutions can be implemented quickly to generate incremental revenue and remove geographic boundaries for live performance events.
HowLive has streamed 500+ live events across all musical genres and now is serving up live Blues weekly at HowLive.TV. Check out live events from artists such as Fantastic Negrito, Alvon Johnson, Keb’ Mo’, Tommy Castro, Chris Cain, Terrie Odabi and many more.
Head on over to Howlive.tv to check out upcoming events. To learn more about how to live stream your next event contact Howlive.
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Chasing The Blues Podcast is Back!
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Tom the Suit Forst is Chasing The Blues!
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 We're back for our 3rd season! We've produced over 100+ shows to date with more to come! Look for upcoming show announcements and special giveaways! This will be an amazing year for festivals and we will be talking to many of the top acts as well as with the people behind the scenes who bring you the music.
Join the over 10,000 fans who get the inside story and the behind-the-scenes information that make the Blues come alive.
Go to the Chasing The Blues Podcast website, Spotify or Apple.
Hosted by Tom the suit Forst and sponsored by The Blues Festival Guide.
Tom the suit Forst is a Connecticut and New York Blues Hall Of Fame recording artist and podcaster.
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Holidays, Birthdays and... Just In Case
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 "Hard times ain't nothing that music won't help heal..."
4th of July 4 - Independence Day
Birthdays upcoming of note:
Jun 24-Jeff Beck (1944), Tad Robinson (1956); Jun 25-Clifton Chenier (1925-1987), Eddie Floyd (1935), Roger Naber (LRBC CEO); June 26-Big Bill Broonzy (1903-1958); Jun 28-David "Honeyboy" Edwards (1915-2011), Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon (1892–1964); July 1-Willie Dixon (1915), James Cotton (1935-2017), Syl Johnson (1939); July 3-"Mississippi" John Hurt (1893-1966); July 4-Champion Jack Dupree (1910-1992); July 5-Smiley Lewis (1913-1966); July 7-Pinetop Perkins (1913-2011); July 8-Louis Jordan (1908-1975), Johnnie Johnson (1924-2005), Larry Garner (1952), July 9-Jack White (1975); July 10-Mavis Staples (1939), Bruce Iglauer, Alligator Records guru (1947), Casey Bill Weldon (1909-1970), Barrelhouse Chuck (1958-2016), Blind Boy Fuller (1907-1941), Charlie Baty (1953-2020)
Just in case:
 June 27th is "National Sunglasses Day"... Everyone appreciates a good set of shades... or even just a cool set of shades.
Their history actually goes back a very long way! In the 12th century the Chinese wore sunglasses with lenses made from flat panes of smoky quartz. By the 1900s sunglasses become widely used.
*Photo art of Sam Lightnin' Hopkins © Copyright Jude Kane of Freakoutville
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Missed your copy of the Weekly e-Guide? Find back issues in
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BFG Twitter-Instagram-Facebook
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Join Blues Freaks at our Tweeter feed & on Instagram
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Hey, come on over and Join 13,900+ Blues Freaks at our TWITTER feed @BluesFestGuide
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  Also Follow us on INSTAGRAM with 8,900+ BluesersSee awesome, bluesy festival photos
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Get your Face in our Book
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Then please drop on by and "LIKE" us to get
a daily dose of blues related stuff!
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Radio Submit Roots Blues Airplay Chart (click chart for more)
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Billboard Blues Album This week
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Billboard's Top 2 Blues Albums - Week of June 26, 2021
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 #1
THE BLACK KEYS
Delta Kream
 #2JOE BONAMASSA
Now Serving Royal Tea
Live from The Ryman
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To view entire calendar of festivals & Live Streams, click here!
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ATTENTION:
FESTIVAL PROMOTERS
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LIST YOUR FESTIVAL ON OUR
WEBSITE FOR FREE HERE
To ensure that your festival also appears here in the e-Guide Festival Calender EMAIL |
Not all upcoming blues festivals/events are listed here at certain times of the year due to space constraints. Unless highlighted, festivals are no longer inked due to increasing spam
For a complete list and links see our comprehensive website.
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NOTE: Highlighted/Linked events are paid "Featured" ads. For complete list & links go to our website Festival page!
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*CORONAVIRUS UPSETS:
Please click the festival links on our site for CURRENT UPDATES
Broad Street Blues & BBQ Festival
Jun-25-2021 - Jun-27-2021
Griffith, Indiana, USA
4th Annual
Baton Rouge Soul Food Festival
Jun-26-2021 - Jun-27-2021
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Torrita Blues Festival
Jul-02-2021 - Jul-03-2021
Torrita di Siena, Italy
Spirit of Kansas Blues Festival
Jul-04-2021
Topeka, Kansas, USA
20th Annual
Greenwood Blues Cruise
Jul-08-2021 - Jul-10-2021, Greenwood, South Carolina, USA
Briggs Farm Blues Festival
Jul-08-2021 - Jul-10-2021
Nescopeck, Pennsylvania, USA
Vallemaggia Magic Blues
Jul-09-2021 - Aug-05-2021
Vallemaggia / Ticino, Switzerland
Grassroots Blues Festival
Jul-09-2021 - Jul-10-2021
Duck Hill, Mississippi, USA
Canton Blues Festival
Jul-09-2021 - Jul-10-2021
Canton, Ohio, USA
VIRTUAL
North Atlantic Blues Festival
Jul-10-2021 - Jul-11-2021
Rockland, Maine, USA
Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival
Jul-16-2021 - Jul-18-2021
Winthrop, Washington, USA
RESCHEDULED TO JULY 16, 2022
Cincy Blues Fest
Jul-17-2021
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
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please go to our website
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Blues & Soul Legends
"The Relief Sessions"
Jul-23-2021 - Jul-25-2021
Burnsville, Minnesota, USA
Notodden Blues Festival
Aug-05-2021 - Aug-08-2021
Notodden, Norway
25th Annual Mammoth Festival
of Beers & Bluesapalooza
Aug-05-2021 - Aug-08-2021
Mammoth Lakes, California, USA
Magic City Blues
Aug-06-2021 - Aug-07-2021
Billings, Montana, USA
RESCHEDULED TO NOV 13, 2021
New Blues Festival
Aug-06-2021 - Aug-07-2021
Long Beach, California, USA
Lebanon Blues Festival
Aug-06-2021 - Aug-07-2021
Lebanon, Ohio, USA
Blue Ribbon Blues Fest
Aug-07-2021
Fairfield, Iowa, USA
In The Market for Blues
Omaha's Blues Fest
Aug-07-2021
Omaha, Nebraska, USA
20th Annual
Heritage Music BluesFest
Aug-13-2021 - Aug-15-2021,
Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
Waukesha Rotary BluesFest
Aug-13-2021 - Aug-14-2021
Delafield, Wisconsin, USA
Joliet Blues Festival
Aug-14-2021
Joliet, Illinois, USA
Prairie Crossroads Blues Fest
Aug-14-2021
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA
Blues from the Top
Aug-14-2021
Winter Park, Colorado, USA
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Please stay safe and optimistic!
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We are thinking of you and wishing you good health!
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 RBA Publishing/Blues Festival Guide
P.O. Box 920, Arcata, CA 95518
Call 707-630-3304
RBA Publishing, Inc. in business since 1993, is a boutique blues-specific PR and marketing firm based on the West Coast. We help musicians, festivals, labels and music-related brands. Our digital campaigns target fans, industry and influencers. We are masterful at email marketing, social media, fan acquisition and long-term marketing plans. Our media services are supported by people who understand and love the blues genre. Publishers of annual the Blues Festival Guide magazine, our top-ranking website, and e-Guide newsletter with approx 30,000 weekly subscribers, we have been blues industry leaders for over 18 years. Please contact us at 707-630 3304 or EMAIL to findout how we can help you!
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 do CD/DVD reviews nor write the news... we just share and report it.
We also welcome your e-Guide suggestions, critiques and questions. You can reach our E-Guide editor, Michele Lundeen (pictured) via EMAIL.
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Hey blues lovers! Got 
