- Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy play Bisbee Blues Festival on Saturday and the Tucson Rhythm & Roots Series tonight! Diunna Greenleaf is one of the most sensational vocalists around and her 2011 album Trying To Hold On has earned her much critical acclaim. Diunna (pronounced Dye-U-Nah) will make the rounds in Southern Arizona with an appearance on Friday, September 14th at Rhythm & Roots Plaza Palomino concert series and then headlining the Bisbee Blues Festival on Saturday September, 15th. Diunna will bring her Texas-based band Blue Mercy plus special guest Bob Corritore. For those unfamiliar with Bisbee it is one of the most picturesque towns in Arizona and each year they throw a Wang-Dang-Doodle of a blues festival! Also appearing at the Bisbee Blues Festival will be Eddie Turner & The Trouble Twins, Bad News Blues Band, Sean Trackman & The Copper City Rail, and Leon J. Festival gates open at noon with music from 1pm until 8pm. For more info on the Bisbee Blues Fest click here. For more info on Tucson's Rhythm & Roots Series click here.
- Blues Blast Music Award winners announced! Mud Morganfield and Janiva Magness each receive multiple awards! Congratulations to all the winners and nominees of the 2012 Blues Blast Music Awards. Note the because of the awards ceremony being canceled (Blues Blast could not come to terms with their normal venue of Buddy Guy's Legends) we have an earlier announcement of the winning results. And the winners are:
Traditional Blues CD: Mud Morganfield / Son Of The Seventh Son
Song Of The Year: "I Won't Cry" written by Janiva Magness & Dave Darling
New Artist Debut Release: Sena Ehrhardt Band / Leave The Light On
Female Blues Artist: Janiva Magness
Male Blues Artist: Tab Benoit
Blues Band Of The Year: Tampled Under Foot
Sean Costello
Rising Star Award:
Mud
Morganfield
Thanks to Bob
Kieser and everyone at
Blues
Blast Magazine for providing
this reflection point to
celebrate the blues community
and its endeavours.
-
Dave Riley & Bob Corritore to open for Jimmie Vaughan! Texas blues guitar slinger Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt-A-Whirl Band with guest Lou Ann Barton will appear at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix on Wednesday, September 26. Opening the show will be the downhome blues duo of Dave Riley & Bob Corritore. To see the beautiful concert poster designed by Amy Brat click here.
-
Kid Ramos update. West Coast guitar master Kid Ramos' recent cancer news sent shock waves through the blues community. Randy Chortkoff sent this report earlier today "Found out yesterday that Kid has a very rare form of cancer normally found in kids called Ewing's sarcoma. Kid will have to start months of heavy chemo and radiation therapy. Very expensive and intense". Kid just found out that he will begin treatments next week and that his full program of procedures will last for about a year. He feels strong, supported, and ready for this fight. Delta Groove Records has set up a web-page for donations at http://www.deltagrooveproductions.com/music/kid.html. There are 4 benefits set up so far that we are aware of:
Sunday, October 7,
Nick's
Taste Of Texas, Covina, CA,
1pm to 9pm, with
The Blasters,
Los Fabulocos,
Mike Eldred Trio,
The Delgado Brothers,
The Blazers,
Dale Peterson,
Tremloco,
Miguel Gracia & The
Vaquetones.
For more info click
here.
Saturday, October 13, Italian
harmonica
champion
Marco Pandolfi
is
organizing
a benefit in Italy.
Information will be posted
soon at
http://www.marcopandolfi.com/marcopandolfi.com/Home.html
Friday, November 2, and
Sunday, November 4, The
Rhythm Room
in Phoenix is
hosting 2 benefit shows,
with a Friday night blues
presentation and a Sunday
afternoon rockabilly
oriented benefit. Friday
will feature
The Nick Nixon / Andy T.
Band,
Markey Jeanette,
Randy
Chortkoff,
Sugaray Rayford
(Of The
Mannish Boys),
Lil' Ronnie,
Rocket 88s,
Bob Corritore,
with many more still being
added. The Sunday afternoon
Rockabilly show on November
4 will be coordinated by
Brenda
Lee Pinup
with the
lineup forthcoming.
That Saturday night,
November 3 will feature
Candye Kane
who has had her own cancer
battles.
Saturday, October 6,
Dutch harmonica sensation
Big Pete
hosts a benefit at La Bonne
Source, in Fleurus, Belgium.
with
Paul Size,
Kirk Fletcher,
Sugaray Rayford,
Gene Taylor, Tia Gouttebel,
Dusty Ciggaar,
Sander Kooijman,
Big
Pete, Marc Tee, Nico Duportal,
Big Dave,
Erkan
Özdemir,
Willie ‘Wuff’ Maes,
Jody van Ooijen, René
Stock and others.
Randy Chortkoff
states that he and
Kim Wilson
will be setting up an
additional benefit show in
late November or early
December with details TBA.
-
Southwest Musical Arts Foundation will release a CD to benefit Kid Ramos. It will be called The Kid Ramos / Bob Corritore Phoenix Blues Sessions and will have an initial limited run of 1000 copies of which 100% of CD sales go to Kid Ramos. This CD will be culled from 4 recording sessions Kid and Bob did in the mid to late 1990s with Henry Gray, Nappy Brown, Big Pete Pearson, Chief Schabuttie Gilliame, and Chico Chism. Most of this collection has been previously released on multiple CDs but this is the first time that the sessions will be presented in one package with this focus. The selections will showcase a simply beautiful body of work. It will be released mid to late October and more details are forthcoming. Special thanks to Kathy Bolmer, Delta Groove Productions, Bluebeat Music, Tempest Recording, and Sonorous Mastering for their parts in making this happen.CDs will be available through The Blues Foundation's Hart Fund, Bluebeat Music and at various benefits with all proceeds going to Kid Ramos.
-
Virginia and North Carolina thanks. Special thanks to Lil' Ronnie & The Grand Dukes for hosting a harmonica showcase at the Blues On The Beach festival at Virgina Beach and for booking additional support dates at Loafers in Raleigh, NC and The Capital Ale House in Richmond, VA. The harmonica showcase featured Lil' Ronnie, Bob Corritore, Mitch Kashmar, and Kurt Crandell with backing by the Grand Dukes (Ivan Appelrouth, John Sheppard, John Fralin, and Stu Grimes). Also thanks to Reverend Billy C. Wirtz, Tad Walters, and Andy Poxon who guested at the club shows. It was also great to stop by the home office of Hohner Harmonicas in Richmond and to meet USA marketing chief Derek Crowder. Thanks to Cleve Baker of WPTM and WTRG for the radio interview. It was a great time for all of us harmonica players to have this time together and feed off of each other's music and share stories and jokes. I was very impressed with Lil' Ronnie's southern playing and singing and Mitch and Kurt were masters of that jazzy style of chromatic that features octaves. Great to see so many friends from far away places, and meet so many good people. Great to meet Watkins Ellerson who is Lil' Ronnie's partner in EllerSoul Records (check out the label website at http://www.ellersoulrecords.com/). Thank you Lil' Ronnie for making this happen!
- Bob Corritore -
Chicago's Artis's Lounge Closes. Chicago Blues Guide reports that Artis’s, a mainstay blues club on Chicago's South Side, has closed its doors after nearly 30 years. Artis’s was known as the home of Billy Branch’s Monday night blues jams which attracted blues artists and fans from around the world. Owner Artis Ludd opened the venue , located at 1249 E. 87th Street, Chicago, in 1982. She didn’t own the building and was renting the space. The owners didn’t renew Ludd’s lease and the club was forced to close last month.
-
Professor Longhair on YouTube! Please enjoy this 1973 clip of the infuential New Orleans piano master Professor Longhair performing his song "Big Chief" with a tight, groovin' band at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Click here, to see.





The
first thing you notice about Shaun is her voice: she is equally
captivating belting out a blues song in her own powerhouse style as she
is softly singing a more introspective ballad. You listen and you are
swept away; and this not an easy task to be authentic and mesmerizing on
both sides of the genre. The second thing that jumps out is while her
history shines with continuous successes singing rock, blue-eyed soul
and r & b, currently Murphy is devoting herself totally to emoting in
the style she loves best; the blues. And like usual, her incredible
voice and strong focus differentiate this top talent from every other
act on the scene.
Shaun
moved to Detroit as a teenager and was first inspired by Detroit's
red-hot blues world with her early appearance at the 1969 Ann Arbor
Blues Festival. "I left Omaha when I was ten years old and moved to
Iowa, then Michigan, so I'm a real mid-Western gal! I actually got
turned on and inspired, bitten etc.on that 1969 Ann Arbor Blues
Festival. Before that I "traveled" in the mainstream rock family in
Detroit. It was just by accident that I was included in the Ann Arbor
Blues Festival that first year. Back then, the "norm" was to include as
many local acts at all festivals as possible, which is where we came in.
Why they thought we'd make a good fit is anybody's guess; we were
strictly rock. But as I said, listening to all these greats was all it
took to take another turn and I instantly expanded my library to soak it
all up. God works in mysterious ways....along with the bumps comes many
gifts too.. Around that same time I also discovered the inimitable
Aretha Franklin on Atlantic Records and all the other artists at Stax."
Murphy
again returned to live in L.A. in 1985 to work with Eric Clapton on his
"Behind The Sun" album and after hearing her sing, the best blues
guitarist of his generation offered her a full-time position in his band
for the whole tour. The Behind The Sun tour was featured at the first
Live Aid Concert in 1985. "While on tour with Eric, we actually didn't
have many blues artists or anyone come onstage and sitting in with us. I
remember one time we were in Chicago, and we all went to Buddy Guy's
place "Legends", were Eric sat in with Buddy there. But other then that,
throw in Phil Collins at Live Aid...and Lionel Richie sat in once.
Eric's shows were quite cohesive."
Shaun
Murphy's career as a vocalist has been both as a band lead singer and
session singer throughout her many years in the music industry. She has
sung, toured and recorded with The Moody Blues, Bob Seger, Herbie
Hancock, Phil Collins, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, Maria Muldaur, Bruce
Hornsby, Michael Bolton, J.J.Cale, Coco Montoya, Alice Cooper and Little
Feat. Just listen to her studio work with Collins, Jack Hiatt, Leon
Russell, Cooper, Ted Nugent and Albert Hammond. And with a career
spanning Rock, Blue-eyed Soul and R & B, she is now back to doing what
she likes best singing the Blues. Best of all, she can be both a real
blues belter or she can softly sing blues ballads with equal grace and
power; no easy task. "I've been very fortunate to have many fans that
like both of my styles, which suits me to a "T". I love to go back and
forth, to grind out a blistering delivery and chase it back with
something so soft and tender it makes you wanna cry. The bigger my reach
gets, the more "likes" I get, so I need to get out on the Blues Festival
trail and open up the whole world. I just love to get out there and see
and meet all the folks that love the blues as much as I do."
Interstate
Buffalo - One Step Away
Charles
Walker Band – Resouled!

Eddie
Shaw and the 757 Allstars - Still Riding High
Joanne
Shaw Taylor - Almost Always Never
J.
Sintoni – A Better Man