The 3rd annual Big Sky Blues Festival has just added David Raitt (Bonnie Raitt's brother) and his Baja Boogie Band, to the line-up. Also appearing will be The Randy Oxford Band, The Brooklyn Blues Project, Big Daddy & the Bluenotes, Franco Paletta & the Stingers, Yellow Dog & the Jubilation Singers, The Rafael Tranquilino Band, The Sara Brown Band, VIBE, Ravinwolf, Yabba Griffith and more.

The Big Sky all-star jam session hosted by Randy Oxford on Sunday evening will close out the Festival.

With unlimited space for Camping and RV and held on the River, in the mountains under the Big Montana Sky, The Big Sky Blues Festival is rapidly becoming a Festival circuit favorite in the Pacific NW region. Family friendly with lots of outdoor activities available.

Festival dates are August 4th and 5th, with a pre-festival kick off party on August 3rd at the Naughty Pine Saloon in near by Trout Creek, MT. There will also be a raffle going all weekend for a 3 day Sail Boat Cruise on the "San Juan Full Moon" for 2 adults, with Randy Oxford and Friends around the San Juan Islands off the Washington state coast.

Festival attendees who are staying at the festival site are welcome to come a day early and stay a day later to take in this beautiful vacation area.

Located just 2 hours NE of Spokane,WA in Noxon, MT.

Tickets and info at www.bigskyblues.com or call 406-827-4210

(Standard Speaker)    Alison Briggs didn't want a Woodstock-like concert in her family's backyard, when her husband, Richard, proposed the idea well more than a decade ago. Now, she sees the Briggs Farm Blues Festival as a legacy for her grandchildren - the 11th generation living on the working family farm which dates back to 1760.

Across the road and down the hill from the Briggs' 135-year-old farmhouse, a grassy farm field acts as a natural amphitheater for the legendary performers taking the main stage and introducing a new generation to the blues.

Headlining the 15th anniversary festival July 6 and 7 will be Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater on Friday night and Bernard Allison on Saturday night. Also featured on the main stage will be Moreland & Arbuckle, Rory Block, Linsey "Hoochie Man" Alexander and crowd-favorite, The Alexis P. Suter Band.

Paul's son, Gabriel, handpicked performers coming together in this tribute, which is the first in a series of shows beginning at the Briggs farm and ending in the Catskills of New York, where the Butterfield Blues Band took the stage in front of a half-a-million people at another music festival on Max Yasgur's farm in 1969. "Paul Butterfield created the first integrated band of the 1960s and when the first Butterfield album came out, they bridged the gap bringing white audiences to black music greatly changing the course," Gabriel Butterfield said in an email interview. "All the members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band to this day still keep changing history."

He hopes a documentary on his father's life, part of which will be filmed at Briggs, will tell "a story that needs to be told about a musician who played a pinnacle role in music history, including the first electric band that backed Bob Dylan."

...On the Back Porch, the more-intimate, second stage at the festival, performers often chat with the audience, sharing blues-born tales of life on the road.

Lonnie Shields, no stranger to the Briggs festival, will perform on the Back Porch both Friday and Saturday nights as well as cooking up Mississippi Delta-style barbecue the way his family did in his native Arkansas. "The secret is love," Shields said of his family's slow-cooked meat and his own "Lick the Bone" barbecue sauce.

Pulled pork, baby-back ribs, smoked chicken wings, homemade cole slaw and roasted sweet corn are on the menu along with fresh, hot macaroni and cheese - a first this year, Richard Briggs said. But for those with a sweet tooth, desserts such as stacked-high strawberry shortcake and pecan pie will also be included ...

... The festival which attracts more than 4,000 people from around the world and has featured more than 170 regional, national and international blues artists since its inception that almost never materialized.

"In the beginning, he wined and dined me to let me know this was what he was asking," Alison Briggs recalls. "This is our backyard. It took some convincing ... But Richard had a vision." Fifteen years later, that vision has become a family business that the couple is passing onto the next generation of Briggs, their grandchildren. 

... "It is a legacy."

For more information or to order tickets, visit www.briggsfarm.com.

HISTORIC ST. FERIOLE ISLAND & PRAIRIE DOG BLUES FESTIVAL!

The Prairie Dog Blues Festival is held every year on historic St. Feriole Island, right on the Mississippi River, nestled between jagged cliffs and green hills untouched by the Ice Age... one of the most beautiful venues anywhere. 

This year's festival features: Shemekia Copeland, JJ Grey & Mofro, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, Trampled Under Foot, Indigenous, Harper, The Steepwater Band, Tweed Funk, Gerome Durham & The All-Star Band, Matthew Curry & The Fury, Terry Quiett & Alex Wilson Band.

Once you get that cold drink in your hand, great tunes in your ear and good, friendly people all around! You’ll soon be calling yourself a Prairie Dogger! Blues and Roots music from Chicago Blues to West Coast Jump, hard-driving Mississippi Hill Country Blues, New Orleans horns and Texas Boogie, Zydeco, Gospel, Blues Rock – We’ve got it all!

The Prairie Dog is one of the most laid-back blues festivals out there! It is located on St. Feriole Island in a beautiful city park right on the Mississippi River. Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin founded in the late 1600's has a ton of history. Wisconsin's most toured historical site, The Villa Louis (a stunning, fully restored Victorian mansion), is located on the island next to the fest grounds. 

There are some hard choices to be made at The Prairie Dog! You can either get up out of your chair, stretch and walk a few yards to the beer tent or you can have one of these lovely ladies bring your drink to you! Decisions, decisions!

Pittsburgh Blues Festival is the largest fundraiser of the year for Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The 18th Annual Pittsburgh Blues Festival, presented by People's Natural Gas, takes place July 20-22 at Hartwood Acres, a fabulous county park just outside Pittsburgh.

This year’s spectacular line-up features the “Kings of Boogie,” Canned Heat, the first lady of the blues, Mavis Staples, the legendary Bobby “Blue” Bland, 8th generation Creole, Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience, Bernard Allison (son of the late great Luther Allison), Jimmy Thackery & the Drivers, Anthony Gomes, Albert Cummings and Barbara Blue, plus great local bands. KidZone (with arts, crafts, healthy snacks), raffles (more than $10,000 worth of raffle prizes!), merchandise vendors, and plenty of food!

 

Admission on Friday is FREE with bag of groceries to donate to the Food Bank! Kids 12 and under always free – free parking too! Personal cooler donation fee: $10.00 (feeds a hungry kid for a week!). All proceeds help to feed hungry people in South Western Pennsylvania.

More info & tickets: www.pghblues.com or 412-460-BLUE. 

(wafb.com) Bogalusa, La  The Bogalusa Blues and Heritage Festival (BBHF) has tagged the blazing hot Tab Benoit as its inaugural year headliner on Saturday, Sept. 29.  The complete lineup includes acclaimed representatives from throughout the region and across the blues music spectrum.

Taking the main stage with Tab Benoit for the 2012 BBHF will be Kenny Neal, Luther Kent, Homemade Jamz, Carolyn Wonderland, Wes Lee and Big Daddy O.

The festival will kick off with a tribute to native son and music legend Professor Longhair, so there’s no telling what other special guests might show up for the September 29 event in Cassidy Park.

South Louisiana’s Benoit is on fire. The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame musician has nearly a dozen Blues Music Awards with multiple current nominations, three Grammy nominations and a long list of other awards, his music is featured on numerous television shows, and his Voice of the Wetlands initiative is making the importance of coastal preservation memorable by giving the message a rhythm and a beat.

According to BBHF chair Malinda White, Benoit plans to bring some of his VOW band to Bogalusa.

By the time they get to the stage, it will be well warmed up.

Kenny Neal, another Louisiana Music Hall of Famer with many performance and songwriting awards under his belt, is known as a modern swamp-blues master.

The son of singer and blues harmonica master, Raful Neal, was born in New Orleans, raised in Baton Rouge and grew up steeped in the live music of his father and family friends like Buddy Guy.

The multi-instrumentalist plays guitar, bass, trumpet, piano and harmonica, all to the accompaniment of a voice described as “gruff before its time.” His sound is deep-rooted and soulful, with heartbreaking blues relieved by uplifting, swamp-based funk.

Big Easy native Luther Kent, yet another Hall of Famer and the voice of New Orleans tourism, is widely noted for his commanding soulful singing voice that provides a rich and powerful grounding force for a surrounding big horn sound.

Kent was the lead singer for Blood, Sweat and Tears during world tours from 1974 into 1976. After that, he helped form Luther Kent and Trick Bag, a band so hot that artists like B.B. King, Jimmy Page, Greg Allman, Etta James, Joe Cocker, Dr. John, Wilson Pickett and many others stopped by to sit in during visits to New Orleans.

Kent’s attraction hasn’t waned and he’ll bring it to Bogalusa.

Homemade Jamz can’t boast that depth and range of experience, but that’s OK. The Perry siblings, from Tupelo, Miss., are still in their teens. But that didn’t keep blues great B.B. King from saying he believes “they’ve got a great future ahead.”

The trio made music history as the youngest blues band to land a record deal in 2007 when the kids’ ages ranged from nine to 16. Since then, they’ve played throughout the U.S. and in Europe, and won awards and competitions all along the way.

Though the band might not have the experience to have lived them, they can perform the Delta blues. Two of them even do it on homemade instruments, a guitar and bass fashioned from automobile parts.

Carolyn Wonderland, an Austin, Texas-based singer, songwriter and musician who lived out of her van for a while, does know just what the blues feel like, and she likes to mix that sound with country, swing, zydeco, gospel, soul and whatever else might come through.

Also a multi-instrumentalist and multiple-award winner, Wonderland is reportedly one of music legend Bob Dylan’s favorites

The Texas representative to the BBHF is noted for her throaty, near contralto voice, her powerful originality and a social conscience that should fit in nicely with Benoit’s VOW.

Local audiences are already familiar with Hattiesburg, Miss., bluesman Wes Lee, who proved that his own emotions run deep and that he can pass them on to the crowd during the first big BBHF fundraiser just before Mardi Gras.

Lee, who is noted for his soulful songs, “brilliant songwriting,” and for making personal connections with his audiences, was such a hit at the February event that he earned a ticket back for the big show.

The musician who has said, “I didn’t choose to play the blues, the blues chose me,” was also chosen by the BBHF to be among its first year main stage performers.

Owen Tufts, alias Big Daddy O, rounds out the list.

“O” started out singing in his family’s barbershop quartet as a child in New Orleans, and when he got older, he took to the streets of the French Quarter with his guitar.

Now towering 6 and a half feet tall and sturdy, Big Daddy O is known for the beauty of his voice, the comfort he instills in his audiences and his undeniable talent.

Blues lovers who don’t own any of his critically acclaimed CDs are still almost certainly familiar with his music. Radio stations around the world love Big Daddy, who ranked above Eric Clapton one year on Dan Aykroyd’s House of Blues Radio Network.

The BBHF will also feature some up-and-coming talent on its second, Heritage, stage where winners of contests around the region will vie in a Young Guns competition.

For more information on the festival, check out the event’s website, www.bogalusablues.com.

The Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival is unique!  Outside of being one of the premier festivals in the country, it is the only festival, blues or otherwise, of its size that donates 100% of the net proceeds to charity.  Not only are the proceeds donated, but there are no salaries paid to any of our staff. 

This year’s festival features: Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jonny Lang, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, JJ Grey and Mofro, Ruthie Foster, Shemekia Copeland, Philipp Fankhauser, Delta Guitar Slingers with Michael Burks, Lurrie and Bernard Allison, Janiva Magness, Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, Michael Williams Band, Honey Island Swamp Band, Albert Cummings and The Chesapeake Bay Blues Band with Patty Reese, Tom Principato, Gaye Adegbalola, Ron Holloway and Tommy Lepson.  Most of the performers are either Grammy or Blues Award winning.

As if this lineup wasn’t enough, the festival also features delicious food from local vendors, beer and wine, a large crafter village and plenty for the kids to do including moon bounces, a playground, face painting and a large sandy beach all on the beautiful shores of the Chesapeake Bay.

Charities that will benefit from the festivals attendees are: Special Love, Inc., which puts on a camp for kids with cancer, Camp Face, which is a summer camp for kids with facial anomalies, We Care and Friends. which helps the less fortunate of Annapolis and End Hunger in Calvert County. which provides not only food to those in need but the opportunity to become self-sufficient.

The festival is held at the beautiful Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis, Maryland on May 19^th and 20^th 2012.  Tickets and information are available at www.bayblues.org

It’s a great event with great music, food, scenery and people all for a great cause. 

Join us on June 9th for our seventh year of presenting the finest in Blues on the river in the friendly community of Coloma, 1hr East of Sacramento in the Mother Lode of Gold Country.

Gracing this year’s stage is El Dorado County’s home-grown national sensation Jackie Greene, the amazing guitar slinger.. Laurie Morvan, the San Francisco Bay Area Blues Band of the Year…the California Honeydrops, slide guitar prodigy…David Jacobs-Strain with guest Joe Craven, and the big band sound of the Sacramento Blues Revue.

Henningsen-Lotus Park is the venue, and the perfect place to get your blues groove on. Grab your low back chair, swim trunks, hat and dancing shoes! Music goes from 11:00 am – 6:00 pm. Gates open at 10:00am. Enjoy freshly prepared food, craft beers and local wine.

El Dorado Arts Council presents this annual party, and proceeds of the fest benefit EDAC’s mission of nurturing “More Arts in More Places”.

There are Early Bird, Late Bird and Later Bird ticket prices, and can be purchased on-line at www.colomablueslive.com or at the EDAC office on Main Street in Placerville. For more information: (530) 295-3496