Maple Blues Online - Loose Blues News

So long Sam's. Taj Mahal dropped in to offer his condolences to Sam The Record Man's Jazz/Blues manager (and MapleBlues CD reviewer) John Valenteyn on the closing of this venerable Yonge Street institution.

Guy Headlines Southside Shuffle: Five-time Grammy Award winner Buddy Guy is playing at the ninth annual Port Credit Blues & Jazz Festival (also known as "The Southside Shuffle) Sept. 7 to 9. In addition to Guy, performers include the Detroit Women of Soul, the Powder Blues Band, Downchild, Rick Fines & Suzie Vinnick, and Krista Blondin's Tribute to Janis Joplin. The South Side Sick Kids Stage will feature blues guitarist David Gogo and Juno-award winning pianist Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne. Kicking off the festival week, is the Sept. 5 New Orleans Gala www.southsideshuffle.com/gala2007.html featuring the Maple Blues Band. Don't miss the Beggars Banquet www.southsideshuffle.com/bbb2007.html on Sept. 6, which features Singing For Sick Kids starring Johnny Max and Chuck Jackson, the Beggars Blues Jam, and The Three Tenors. On Sept. 7 and 8 the Royal Canadian Legion will be jamming with the Johnny Max Band, Kenny Wayne, and Johnny Pennino. Weekend passes are $34.50. www.southsideshuffle.com

"Prime Minister of the Blues" Celebrated: Buddy Guy will join another stellar line-up when he plays at the first Dutch Mason Blues Festival, taking place Aug. 10 to 12 in Halifax. Other headliners are Grammy nominee and Blues Hall of Famer James "Superharp"Cotton, and blues-rocker Kenny Wayne Shepherd, whose latest recording features cameos by such blues giants as Hubert Sumlin and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Also on board will be singer and guitarist Sue Foley, who has won countless Maple Blues Awards and played the Toronto Women's Blues Revue many times. East Coast performers include Matt Minglewood, Theresa Malenfant, and Joe Murphy and the Waterstreet Blues Band. Also scheduled to play is guitarist Garrett Mason, son of the veteran Nova Scotian bluesman Dutch Mason, known as the "Prime Minister of the Blues," who died last year. www.dutchmason.com.

Groove Corporation brought home the trophy for "most popular blues/r'n'b group" at the 5th Annual London Music Awards. Representing the band at the awards were (R TO L) Hamilton's Alex MacDougall (Crowbar, Trailblazers, Harrison Kennedy and the Rockin' Hurricanes), Lily Sazz (Trailblazers, Women's Blues Revue), and London's own Cole G. Benjamin. Groove Corporation will be headlining the Canada Day Celebrations for the City of London on Friday, June 29th at 9pm at Ivey Park in the downtown of the forest city.

Mont Tremblant Bluesfest the Real Deal: Another tribute to Dutch Mason takes place at the Tremblant International Blues Festival July 10 in a show featuring Garrett Mason and friends. Other highlights in the 10-day festival include performances by the "Queen of the Blues" Koko Taylor, Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jonny Lang, recent Blues Award winner Janiva Magness, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, The Mannish Boys, and the Maple Blues Revue. Some of the International acts are Australian harmonica player Harper and UK guitarist Matt Schofield. An Acoustic Summit on July 9 features such musicians as Pat The White, Dawn Tyler Watson & Paul Deslauriers, and Paris-based guitarist Roland Tchakounte. The festival takes place July 6-15 in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. http://ww1.tremblant.ca/blues/en/
index.asp

Alberta Blues: There's also some big blues festivals out West. The Calgary International Blues Festival, slated to run August 23 to 26, features over 130 top regional and international blues acts. Musicians include blues-rocker Javier Vargas and his Vargas Blues Band from Spain; Toronto's young guitar phenomenon Jimmy Bowskill; Devon Allman's Honeytribe from St. Louis; the Edgar Winter Band fromTexas; the Duke Robillard Band from Rhode Island; and the Rick Derringer Band from Florida. www.calgarybluesfest.com. Topping the list of performers at the Edmonton Blues Festival (August 24 to 26 ) are Los Lobos, who will perform a rare blues set; Watermelon Slim and the Workers; and the legendary Elvin Bishop, who introduced electric Chicago blues to rock audiences during the 60s. www.bluesinternationalltd.com.

Indie Blues Show: This June IndieTalent.Ca www.indietalent.ca began a new series of blues programs that feature a different Canadian indie blues artist each month. Kicking off the series last month was The Jukes. Each Blues Hour will be repeated several times a week for one month. The schedule will be posted at IndieTalent.ca. For more information about the IndieTalent Blues Hour or if you are interested in getting on the show, contact Candi McNeil at candimcneil@rogers.com

Harry Manx Update: Saturday Night Blues listeners have chosen Harry Manx as winner of the 2007 Great Canadian Blues Award. Details are to be posted at www.cbc.ca/snb/bluesaward/index.html. Also upcoming for Manx, is a plan to release a CD of his concert performance held at the Glenn Gould Studio this past spring. The show featured an eclectic assortment of accompanying players: Kevin Breit on guitars, classical Indian vocalist Samidha Jogelkar, harmonica player Steve Marriner, bass player George Dilrubha, and Ravi Naimpally on tablas.

New CD on the Horizons: Montreal guitarist Steve Rowe is booked to record his fifth album in the fall of 2007, which will include many new originals. Rowe's fourth CD, Live ‡ MontrÈal, has garnered two nominations in the upcoming Quebec LYS Blues Awards. Tunes from Rowe's four-time nominated CD, Front Rowe Center, can soon be heard in the upcoming feature film Teddy Bear http://tbearfilms.com/. The anticipated premiere will be this winter and will also feature a song from Rowe's upcoming CD called "I Ain't Buyin", written and performed by composer/bass player Alec McElcheran. www.steverowe.com

King Wins International Prize: For the second time in four years, blues legend B.B. King has won the international Polar Music Prize. King's co-winner this year was composer Gy^rgy Ligeti. They each received one million Swedish Crowns (approximately US$ 130,000). The King of Sweden awarded the prizes during a nationally televised ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall, which is also where the Nobel Prize ceremony takes place. Previous Polar Prize winners include Sonny Rollins, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell.
The prize was founded in 1989 by the late Stig "Stikkan" Anderson, publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA. Its name stems from Anderson's record label, Polar Records. www.polarmusicprize.com/newSite/

More Recognition for B.B.: Organizers plan to build a museum to honour B.B. King at the site of an old brick cotton gin in Indianola, Mississippi. The Delta Regional Authority will provide $256,500 toward the B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center. The Economic Development Administration will give an additional $1 million, while the state of Mississippi has provided $2 million for the proposed 15,000-square-foot facility. The museum will tell King's "life's story of hardship, perseverance, talent and humility as a way to further the arts, youth development, and racial reconciliation in the Mississippi Delta and beyond." King was born on a Mississippi plantation in 1925 and went on to become a fabulously successful blues musician. www.bbkingmuseum.org

Zydeco Gets its Own Grammy: The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has announced that a new Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album category has been added to the Folk field. This brings the total number of GRAMMY categories to 110.

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