Blues Foundation News

Blues Foundtion Announces New Program: Generation Blues

The Blues Foundation announces the expansion of its youth education initiative with Generation Blues. This scholarship program will allow qualified applicants under the age of 25 to study their instrument of choice at reputable camps, seminars and workshop programs at Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, Augusta Heritage Center and Fernando Jones' Columbia College Blues Camp. Camps, seminars and workshops attended by Generation Blues scholarship recipients may take place throughout the ye...

Elvin Bishop helps Little Smokey; You Can Too.

Elvin Bishop has released an album with his longtime friend and musical mentor, "Little Smokey" Smothers to help during a time of need. Smokey has had declining health over the last few years and recently has lost both his legs to diabetes. Elvin met Smokey in Chicago in 1960 while attending regular college at the University of Chicago and "blues college" on the south and west sides. Smokey would have a steady mostly local career in the Chicago blues scene, while Elvin would gain prominence, fir...

Vote and Win!

The following members won our weekly drawing from among those who have voted so far by selecting their favorites from the 2010 Blues Music Awards online ballot: Thomas Crookshank, Jim Meythaler, F. Alan Johnson, Judy Dulaney and Rosalie Miller. They will receive a copy of ,i.Back to Back Llive, a DVD that got some BMA consideration. It features Mr. B and Bob Seeley in back to back pianos. Voting ends February 28. With the IBC behind us, the get out the vote effort will get serious. L...

Blues Grammy Winners Announced

The Grammy winners were announced on January 31. In the Blues catetories, the top prize in each category went to the first nominee in bold: Category 66--Best Traditional Blues Album --A Stranger Here by Ramblin' Jack Elliott [ANTI] --Blue Again by The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band Featuring Rick Vito [429 Records] --Rough & Tough by John Hammond [Chesky Records] --Stomp! The Blues Tonight by Duke Robillard [Stony Plain Records] --Chicago Blues: A Living History by Var...

30th Blues Music Award DVD Available Now

30th ANNIVERSARY STAR STUDDED BLUES MUSIC AWARDS DVD IS AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 1st The Blues Foundation announces the release of its 30th Anniversary Blues Music Awards DVD. There is no other place you will find such a stellar collection of today's blues music stars. The show itself is a more than six hour extravaganza but all the performers were captured on this two-hour DVD. There were great pairings like Taj Mahal and Maria Muldaur singing "What About The Soul of The Man," Curtis Salgad...

IBC Participant Randy Oxford IBC Summary

Here is just a little peek of the 2010 IBC from The Randy Oxford Band's point of view. WOW !! That was the most amazing International Blues Challenge (IBC) ever. With 111 bands and 83 solo/duo acts from around the world, performing in 19 different venues, this was truly an amazing event to be a part of. The Blues Foundation with it's hundreds of volunteers, pulled it off in world class style. There were so many great bands this year making the judging very difficult and they delivered some grea...

Bluesman Michael Packer on the 26th IBC

If you never attended the International Blues Challenge held in Memphis every year for the last 26 years, you are missing out on one of the truly great music events the world has to offer. The International Blues Challenge is the largest gathering of blues musicians and bands in the world representing blues societies from countries such as Poland, France, Italy, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and many more. The United States is also represented from practically every state in the union. Memp...

26th IBC Links

The stories, reviews, links are starting to roll in from the 26th International Blues Challenge. Check out Dave Beardsley's IBC take on STLBlues.net or WKNO-TV piece on contestant Alain Apaloo, from the Crossroads Blues Society, Rosedale, Mississippi. The top prize in the Band competition was awarded to Grady Champion of the Mississippi D...

More Random Thoughts About the IBC

Special thanks and recognition should go to a few volunteers who worked before and during the weekend: Carmen and Joey Weaver; Greg Johnson, Billy George and, of course, Sara Negri-Whitmer and Priscilla Hernandez. Fans in attendance included a few names you might recognize, past and present Blues Music Award nominees Janiva Magness, Bob Margolin, Zac Harmon, Homemade Jamz Blues Band, Candye Kane, Dave Riley & Bob Corritore Gina Sicilia, and Steve Marriner of Monkey Junk, just to name a few. ...

Happy 80th Bobby

Bobby "Blue" Band was feted Wednesday, January 27on his 80th birthday with family, friends and fans in Tunica, MS. People from all over the world wished they were in the house and indeed blues fans from France and Norway were. Love and respect filled the room, but a dose of good-natured roasting came from Bobby Rush and B.B. King. King and Shirley Brown each sang Happy Birthday to the greatest singer in blues history. Latimore, Floyd Taylor, J Blackfoot, Millie Jackson also paid tribute. Th...

Affiliate Spotlight: Connecticut Blues Society

The Connecticut Blues Society (2010 Keeping the Blues Alive Award recipient) has been taking part in The Winners Circle Blues Project. This is a collaboration begun by CTBS Board member Dom Forcella and involves the Connecticut Blues Society, Blues musicians and the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs. Blues musicians donate their time to provide a monthly concert at the main Veterans Affairs facility in Rocky Hill. The genesis for this project was the creation of the first Bluzapal...

Richard Flohil's Keynote Address at 26th IBC

The following is the the text of a keynote address delivered by Toronto music impresario, publicist and all-round enthusiast to the Blues Foundation's 26th annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. on January 22, 2010 is now available. Flohil was also a recipient of the Foundation's "Keeping the Blues Alive" award, a trophy that honours those that have helped to keep blues music in the public eye. Compliments of FYI Music News Weekly--Canada's Music Industry Source Weekly Digest...

FedEx International Showcase Huge Success

For those who attended (and the house was full), the FedEx International Showcase last night--Wednesday January 20--at the New Daisy Theater on Beale Street, you know what a night of varied and interesting and downright good blues music it was. It is safe to say that the Wednesday night before the IBC will continue for the foreseeable future to be owned by the acts from outside the U.S. Sixteen blues acts from outside the United States performed almost without interruption, alternating between ...

Festival Continues in Honor of KBA Recipient

Blues Foundation members Dar and Gerardo Lopez are trying to restart the legacy left behind by the late Don Cohen, a 2008 Keeping the Blues Alive Award recipient. In an effort to keep the music scene active in South Florida and to keep the memory and legacy of Don Cohen's Riverwalk Blues And Music Festival, Blueatheart Productions and The Downtowner Saloon have joined forces to pull together the 21st Annual Riverwalk Blues and Music Festival. "It will be more like a small bash with a great na...

David "Honeyboy" Edwards

The Recording Academy announced its Special Merit Awards today, and this year's recipients include: Leonard Cohen, Bobby Darin, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Michael Jackson, Loretta Lynn, Andre Previn, and Clark Terry as Lifetime Achievement Award honorees. The special invitation-only ceremony will be held during GRAMMY Week on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010, and a formal acknowledgment will be made during the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast, which will be held at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sund...

2010 Blues Music Award Nominees Announced

The Blues Foundation will present the Blues Music Awards at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN on May 6, 2010. Performers, industry representatives and fans from around the globe will have the chance to celebrate the best in Blues recording and performance from 2009. Among those heading the list of honorees for the 31st Blues Music Awards is Joe Louis Walker, who garnered five nominations, including Album of the Year, Contemporary Blues Album of the Year, and Song of the Year for "I'm T...

Beale Street Notes for Rosco Gordon and Gus Cannon??

Since 1986 the Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame has periodically honored performers and contributors to the rich musical heritage of Memphis and the Mid-South with cast brass notes embedded in the sidewalks along Beale Street. The over 80 honorees include performers of several genres but blues predominates with notes commemorating W.C. Handy, Lillie Mae Glover, Bukka White, Alberta Hunter, Furry Lewis, Little Milton, and many others. In April 2009 the Note Honoree Selection committee a...

2010 Keeping the Blues Alive Recipients Announced

Nineteen individuals and organizations will be honored with The Blues Foundation's 2010 Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award during a recognition brunch at the Downtown Doubletree Hotel Saturday, January 23rd, 2010, in Memphis, Tennessee. The KBA ceremony begins at 10:00 A.M. and will be held in conjunction with the 26th International Blues Challenge (IBC) weekend of events that will feature the semifinals and finals of the worldâs largest gathering of blues bands, as well as seminars, showcas...

Facebook and Twitter

Social Networking seems to be a growing industry. Not to be left in the 20th century, The Blues Foundation has stepped up our social marketing, please join our fan page on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/ykv85g3 and you can also follow us on Twitter at BluesFoundation. For those of you that are active on these networks, please help us spread the word and become active on our sites. We are all in this thing together! Just think, if each one of your friends on Facebook became a new member of T...

Blues on the Radio

Looking for Blues music on your radio dial. A very helpful website for finding Blues radio programs is Mary4Music. When you go to the Blewzzman's site, you might just find something more of bluesy interest to you. Smokin' Bluz out of Charlotte, NC is the sponsor of the Smokin' Bluz Youth Showcase each year at the International Blues Challenge. Check out Rick Ballew's Smokin' Bluz 24/7 at

Blues Festivals

For information on summer blues festivals. Visit Blues Festival Guide or check out the list at Blues Revue. The Blues Festival Guide lists 530+ Blues Festivals in 2007. In case you are wondering. Here's how they breakdown by month. January = 12 February = 16 March = 12 April = 20 May = 58 June = 99 July = 105 August = 102 September = 69 October = 22 November = 1...