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The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra

With Featured Vocalist

Shakura S’Aida

 Blues in G Minor

April 20, 2012

Capital Theatre

Wheeling, West Virginia

Photographs by Dusty Scott

On Friday, April 20, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, based in Wheeling, West Virginia, presented “Blues in G Minor” with dynamic Canadian vocalist and entertainer Shakura S’Aida.

S’Aida was a hit at the Heritage Music Blues Fest in Wheeling in 2010 and the festival promoter saw the possibility for a collaboration with the WSO’s Pop Series. Fellow Canadian, composer Rob Teehan was brought in to do the arrangements for the blues-oriented program, along with Lance Anderson and Jeff Christmas. Anderson was also the guest conductor for the concert. The Tridelphia Middle School Jazz Band performed in the lobby prior to the concert.

Known for her high-energy performance and soaring vocals the combination of Shakura S’Aida had to be a treat for blues and symphony fans alike.

Blues Revue and BluesWax Photographer Dusty Scott was lucky enough to attend and on this week’s Photo Page he shares some of his photographs.

As always, our writers and photographers share their work with you for your enjoyment; if you wish to share photographs or use them for any other purpose, please contact the photgrapher or our offices.

Enjoy!

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Blue Star Nashville

March 1, 2012

Photos  by Mark Goodman

BluesWax photographer and writer Mark  Goodman attended a fundraiser concert in Nashville for Blue Star Connection. You can read more about Blue Star and Mark’s review of the concert on this week’s Blues Beat page. On this week’s Photo Page, Mark shares some photographs from the event.

As always, our writers and photographers share their work with you for your enjoyment. If you wish to use them for any other purpose please contact the writer or photographer or our offices.

Enjoy!  

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Springing The Blues

April 13, 14, and 15, 2012

Jacksonville, Florida

Photos by Ton-E Watson

Springing The Blues is a free outdoor blues music festival designed to celebrate America’s indigenous musical form and promote support of the arts. The three-day oceanfront event features a number of renowned blues performers as well as numerous displays and activities geared for the entire family. It is held at Jacksonville Beach, Florida’s Oceanfront SeaWalk Pavilion on the first weekend of April each year.

Local photographer Ton-E Watson was at the festival for BluesWax and on last week’s Photo Page he shared some of his photographs from the festival. This week he shares some more.

As always, our photographers and writers share their photographs with you for your enjoyment, if you wish to share them or use them for any other purpose, please contact the photographer or our offices.

Enjoy!

For The Best Video Links In The Blues Follow Us On Twitter!

Follow @BluesRevue

Springing The Blues

April 13, 14, and 15, 2012

Jacksonville, Florida

Photos by Ton-E Watson

Springing The Blues is a free outdoor blues music festival designed to celebrate America’s indigenous musical form and promote support of the arts. The three-day oceanfront event features a number of renowned blues performers as well as numerous displays and activities geared for the entire family. It is held at Jacksonville Beach, Florida’s Oceanfront SeaWalk Pavilion on the first weekend of April each year.

Local photographer Ton-E Watson was at the festival for BluesWax and on this week’s Photo Page he shares some of his photographs.

As always, our photographers and writers share their photographs with you for your enjoyment, if you wish to share them or use them for any other purpose, please contact the photographer or our offices.

Enjoy!

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Blues Weekend

Riverside Casino and Golf Resort

Riverside, Iowa

March 23 – 25 , 2012

By Phillip Smith

You can read about Phillip Smith’s experience at the Riverside Casino’s “Blues Weekend” on our Blues Beat page. He sent over some photos from the weekend. Be kind, Phillip is a writer and reviewer and not one of the master photographers who we are privileged to regularly feature. We hope that you will get some of Phillip’s excitement for this fun event from his review and his photos.

Enjoy!

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South by Southwest Music Conference & Festival

March 13 – 18, 2012

Austin, Texas

Photographs by Richard Skelly

Each March the musical behemoth that is the South by Southwest Music Conference & Festival takes place in Austin, Texas. What is in essence the largest gathering of bands and music industry people is also an awesome treat for music fans offering up a vast array of music. As usual, Blues Revue‘s Richard Skelly was there this year. You can read some of the highlights of his experience in this week’s Blues Beat page. On this week’s Photo Page, Richard shares some personal pictures from South by Southwest.

Enjoy!

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Kenny Neal’s Family & Friends

Heritage Blues Festival

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Story and Photos by Joseph A. Rosen

Artwork by Robert Korhonen

Kenny Neal’s Family & Friends Heritage Blues Festival sounded good to me. When I found out that my friends Kenny Neal and his manager, Paul Benjamin, were putting it on I knew I wanted to be there. As much as I love blues in any venue, I find it especially good down south, where the music is part of day-to-day life and close to its roots. It’s just different down there.

Baton Rouge has long been a blues center. Slim Harpo broke national hits like “Scratch My Back” and “King Bee” from there. Tabby Thomas, father of Chris Thomas King, ran his club, Tabby’s Blues Box, there. Rayful Neal was the patriarch of both the Baton Rouge blues scene and the Neal family. Kenny is the oldest of the ten Neal children, and along with his, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, and nieces, keeps the flame of Baton Rouge blues alive.

The festival was held at the Louis A. Mouch Jr. Multi-Purpose Facility in Port Allen, Louisiana, just across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge. This covered arena had a dirt floor, bleacher seating, and is used as much for rodeos and stock shows, as it is for concerts.

The festival had an array of local gospel, soul, and blues talent on both the smaller Discovery Stage and the main stage, which featured national headliners like Luther Kent, Chris Thomas King, Henry Gray, Ray Neal Jr., and, of course, the Neal Family Band, fronted by Kenny himself. All the bands were Baton Rouge and/or Louisiana based: close to their roots.

Original members of Slim Harpo’s band were inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and then shared the stages with the bands. There were vendors of all sorts and the food booths featured lots of regional tastes from barbeque to catfish po’ boys to crawfish étouffée, and more.

The weather, unfortunately, did not fully cooperate. The day before and the day after were great, but there was rain in the skies on Saturday morning. That probably held back some early attendees, but the crowd grew as the day cleared and since the venue was covered everyone stayed dry and comfortable.

What I found so special about this festival was the sense of community, friendship, family, and, yes, heritage. The audience was multi-generational, multi-ethnic, and universally friendly. There was very little separation between the audience and the performers. Everyone seemed to be greeting old friends, giving a shout out to the musicians, catching up on news and gossip, and generally sharing in the good time.

I met Kenny’s mom Shirley, his grandkids, a lovely lady with a big beehive hairdo who introduced herself as “Grannie,” real-deal cowboys, a couple who said “We’ve been together 25 years” and then kissed as I took their picture, and many, many more nice folks.

In addition to the music, it was all these folks and the good feeling that made this a special event. I hope that the photos of these folks, and those of the musicians, will tell the story of the day. It’s a story of the music, the event, the people, and the faces in the crowd.

If you’re looking to attend a blues event that captures the real deal southern heritage and hospitality, as well as great music, I strongly recommend you check out the 2013 Kenny Neal Family & Friends Heritage Blues Festival. It is going to be an annual event.

Also, there will be a California version of the Festival on April 15, 2012, in Sacramento, California. Check out Kenny’s website for details on that event and future festivals.

Joseph A. Rosen is one of the most recognized, published, and awarded photographers in the blues.

As always, our photographers share their work with you for your enjoyment. If you wish to share or use the photographs for any other purpose please contact our offices or the photographer.

Enjoy!

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Robert Johnson at 100

A Musical Tribute to Benefit The Blues Hall of Fame

Apollo Theater

New York City

March 6, 2012 

On Tuesday night, March 6, New York’s famed Apollo Theater hosted a diverse lineup of artists paying tribute to blues legend Robert Johnson.  Johnson would have been 100 years old this year. The show was a benefit for the building of the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis, Tennessee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnXx61EnJcU

It is hard to overstate Johnson’s influence on popular music and how diverse that influence has been. This was evidenced by having two artists perform completely different versions of the same some, “Kindhearted Woman Blues.” Otis Taylor offered up a country blues version featuring his banjo, while Todd Rundgren rocked it out.  Rundgren would come back later in the show with another rocker, “Stop Breakin’ Down.”

There were many highlights during the evening. Elvis Costello was a last-minute addition to the  sang “From Four ‘Til Late” while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.

The diverse television band The Roots played “Milkcow’s Calf Blues,” with guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas taking the lead vocals. Public Enemy‘s Chuck D offered up a rap version of ”Last Fair Deal Gone Down.”

Living Colour brought their huge rocking energy to Johnson’s blues and played backup to several artists, including Shemekia Copeland on “Stop Breakin’ Down” and Sarah Dash (Labelle, Keith Richards‘ X-Pensive Winos) on “Little Queen of Spades.”

Other highlights from the night included New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint‘s piano-driven version of “Cross Road Blues,” actor Jeffrey Wright (who played Muddy Waters in the film Cadillac Records) with blues singer Keb’ Mo’ doing “Stones In My Passway,” Macy Gray‘s take on “Come On In My Kitchen,” Bettye Lavette with Taj Mahal on “When You Got A Good Friend,” and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave) doing “Sweet Home Chicago.”

Of course, award-winning photographer Joseph A. Rosen was there. In this week’s Photo Page, Joe shares some photographs from this soon-to-be legendary show.

As usual, our photographers share their work only for your enjoyment. If you wish to share or use them for any other purpose, please contact us or the photographer.

Enjoy!

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Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

Photographs by Mark Goodman

After you have read Richard Ludmerer’s review of Shaun Murphy‘s new live CD, Live at Callahan’s Music Hall, we thought you might want to check out Ms. Murphy working her “day job” as backup singer in Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, courtesy of BluesWax and Blues Revue photographer Mark Goodman.

As always, our photographers share their work with you for your enjoyment, if you wish to share, download, or use them for any other purpose, please contact us or the photographer.

Enjoy!

For The Best Video Links In The Blues Follow Us On Twitter!

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January Blues Cruise Memories

Photographs by Dan D. Harrell

All the cruisers are home, the musicians are back on the road, and all that is left of the January Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise in the Caribbean is memories, photographs, and maybe a few odd scars. The Blues Cruise will be sailing again in October and as we think of that faraway time we thought we would share a few photographs from BluesWax contributing writer Dan Harrell.

As always, our writers and photographers share their photographs with you for your enjoyment. If you wish to share or use them for any other purpose, please contact our office or the photographer.

Enjoy!