August Blues News
Friday July 26 @ 9pm, Big Al & the Heavyweights will be at Elysian Gardens. Always a good time with this New Orleans band. Highly recommended.
Sunday August 4th @ 5pm First Sunday Blues at Elysian Gardens with Duwayne Burnside. Duwayne is one of 14 children born to legendary North Mississippi musician R.L. Burnside and his wife, Alice. He has been a frequent performer with the North Mississippi Allstars since the early 1990s, when that group was fronted by Luther and Cody Dickinson.
In 1998, Duwayne traveled to Los Angeles to record his first album, Live at the Mint, as Duwayne Burnside & the Mississippi Mafia. In 2001, he joined the North Mississippi Allstars on-stage for the first time in Birmingham, Alabama, and that led to incessant touring with the band. He recorded with them on their third album, Polaris, and is featured on two of the group's EP's. His albums under his own name include Live at the Mint (1998) and Under Pressure (2005), both for B.C. Records. An album celebrating his father's life and music remains in the works. One of the last things he asked his father to do -- R.L. Burnside passed at age 80 in 2005 -- was sing with him at the massive, popular Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee. In 2023 he was nominated for a Blues Music Award for his album Acoustic Burnside. Burnside continues to tour, helping to keep the North County, Mississippi hill-style blues flourishing. Duwayne Burnside $10 door
Sunday August 18th @ 6pm BlueStages with Polly O'Keary & the Rhythm Method. www.pollyokeary.com Polly O’Keary is today’s blues woman, rooted in tradition, but informed by the 21st Century. Pulling in influences from zydeco, country, funk, jazz, rockabilly, surf and rock and roll, she and her trio, Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method, bring a searing and joyful performance of today’s blues to audiences across the U.S. and Canada.
The trio she built with her husband and drummer Tommy Cook, a highly sought touring drummer and three-time winner of the Washington Blues Society Blues Drummer award, and with whom she shared rhythm section duties for international touring act Too Slim and the Taildraggers for four years. Rounding out the trio is David Miller, who grew up listening to blues in Texas. At 17, then living in California, Miller met a piano player who was then working for Tommy Castro. The older musician recruited Miller to come play at several bars, and assured the young man that he could get him in, underage though he was. Miller became a regular in clubs in the Bay Area, sitting in with local and touring acts night after night. At 25, then living in San Luis Obispo, he assembled The Dave Miller Band, and for the next 18 years, he and the group went on to become one of Southern California’s most popular blues bands, leading one reviewer to describe his “jaw-dropping guitar licks” and praise his “extraordinary mixture of inspiring virtuosity both vocally and instrumentally.” Dont miss the show! Polly O'Keary BlueStages - REGISTRATION
Saturday October 5th Blues at the Ballpark will return to Rickwood Field.
Sunday October 13th is Battle of the Blues Bands. See below for more information and registration.
Remember out monthly open jams:
Jam at Ranelli's August 2 @ 7pm-10pm
third Thursday Jam at True Story Brewing August 15 @ 7pm-10pm
Do visit and support the Southern Music Research Center website www.southernmusicresearch.org Browse their collections where you will find lots of interesting music history of our area including live recordings from Gip's Place.