Blues News

The Blues Foundation is very proud to announce that the 30th Blues Music Awards—that you loved so much on DVD—is coming to public television. Memphis public television station WKNO is making a 90 minute version featuring the winners available via the NETA satellite. The HD feed is Thursday, August 19 at 1230 ET/HD 04. We need all affiliates, members, Facebook friends, blues fans and to contact your local public televison station to make sure it captures the program from the satellite on...

The 2nd Annual Vermont Blues Festival slated for August 27, 28 and 29 at beautiful Mount Snow Ski Area in Southern Vermont, produced by the Mount Snow Ski Area and the management team of the Pocono Blues Festival, which for 19 years consistently is the biggest blues festival on the East Coast. This year’s lineup features 13 national acts performing over the three day period on two stages headlining Grammy Award winner Johnny Winter, Marcia Ball, Kenny Neal, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Aven...

Memphis, TN August 2010 - The Tenth Anniversary of the Jus' Blues Music Awards was simply "OUTRAGEOUS!" Memphis will never be the same. While attending, there were so many magical moments that I can't possibly note them all here. But I'll try! The Night of the Living Legends attracted a large audience that paid homage and were entertained by Blues & Soul music legends William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Mable John, Chick Willis, Harvey Scales, Barbara Carr and Toni Green. The performances were...

The winning bid for the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award honoring the King of the Blues and autographed by B.B. himslef is $500. Thanks to B.B. for signing the poster, thanks to new Board President Bill Wax for asking B. B. to sign it and thanks to the winning bidder for supporting The Blues Foundation.

SoundExchange, the non-profit performance rights organization appointed by Congress to pay digital royalties, began sending out payments totaling $54.8 million to recording artists and sound recording copyright holders. The quarterly distribution, the organization’s largest to date, includes royalties earned through play on Internet radio, satellite radio, cable TV music channels and increased revenue from foreign societies from which SoundExchange now collects. Digital royalties are on the ri...

You are probably a subscriber, but regardless, check out the new Blues Revue website. It now features reviews of Blues Hall Of Fame albums. Since 1980, the Foundation has honored albums, singles, performers, non-performers, and literature. Some of Blues Revue writers have contributed their thoughts on a few of their favorite Hall Of Fame albums.

In recent issues of Parade magazine, found in many Sunday newspapers around the country, readers have asked Walter Scott about both Kenny Wayne Shepherd (July 11) and Bettye LaVette (July 25). In addition, the online version notes that Hugh Laurie, the pill-pop...

The title track from Eden Brent's upcoming album "Ain't Got No Troubles" is now featured on the home page of NPR.org as NPR's Song of the Day. Critic Marc Silver writes, "The recording sounds as if it were bootlegged in an obscure juke joint back in the 1920s... although her vocals, honed in clubs where she had to sing over the piano without much amplification, sound irresistibly fresh." To read the review and hear the track at NPR Music, visit her...

Check out the 8 minute Chicago TV news story on Fernando Jone's Blues Kids Camp. The page on local ABC 7 is entitled Heart and Soul: Maestro Paul Freeman, but the first story is about the camp and includes the first recipients of our Generation Blues scholarships--Cale Hawkins and Hunter Wolfe. A promo trailer for the Blues Kids Camp can be downloaded

Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, best known as the longtime bass player of the Muddy Waters Blues Band, a Greenwood, Mississippi native, passed away last night of complications from lung cancer. He was 84. "Fuzz" was the definitive blues bass player, a stirring vocalist, and a wonderful human being. Here is the email that Bob Margolin, his longtime friend, and fellow Muddy alum, wrote this morning: Calvin “Fuzz” Jones passed away early this morning at Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto in Southaven, Mi...

CNN's Tom Foreman explains how the Mississippi Blues are cheering up an economically depressed region. See the report here.

Charlie Frazier, a long-time Blues Foundation member from Burlington, Vermont, hosts Blues for Breakfast on WIZN 106.7 Sunday mornings from 9-11 am. The show can also be heard at and you can get more information at . Charlie just hosted his 1000th show and will celebrate 20 years in March 2011. He attended the 2010 Blues Music Awards and does not plan to miss another.

and many more!

KidsROCK Blues Camp will present Lunchtime Blues, a five-concert series, from noon -1 p.m. June 28 - July 2 on The University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg campus. Campers ages 9-15 will learn, prepare and perform blues songs on stage with performers. The public is invited to bring a brown-bag lunch to enjoy during the free concerts. Lunchtime Blues is a presentation of KidsROCK Blues camp, a senior capstone project created through the Southern Miss Interdisciplinary Studies Program, ...

Rick recently signed a number of LPs that will soon find themselves in silent auctions to raise funds for The Blues Foundation. His latest release is Knighted by the Blues. He is currently on tour with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band. Check out Rick at www.rickderringer.com.

Singer and harmonica player John Németh has been turning lots of heads lately in the music world, and now he's been discovered by Hollywood. He will sing and appear in "Memphis Beat," a new television series on the TNT network. Note: Németh appears in the episode entitled "Suspicious Minds," which will be broadcast on Tuesday, August 3rd. Evyen Klean, music supervisor for the program, was looking for someone to sing a Howlin' Wolf song. After hearing Nemeth's recording of "Daughter of...

Online voting for The Blues Foundation Board of Directors is open now and will be through the end of the month. To vote click here. There are five constituencies in which elections are being conducted, but only one that is contested. Whether contested or not, an election must be held for each open seat. Members may vote in the constituency in which they are listed in the Blues Foundation database. Elections are being ...

What a Lifetime of Achievement!! So far....

Courtesy of Blues Crtic Media, you can find the July Southern Soul Top here.

The first of the photo slide shows is in from Mako Funasaka. Click on the 2010 Blues Music Awards Slideshow to view the images. Dusty and Val Scott's pics can be found at Dusty Blues. Use the pull down menus on the their home page for more great pics from past award shows, The International Blues Challenge and many other great events!...