(Memphis, Tennessee) With each succeeding year, the IBC improves in both scope sheer size and also quality. Above photo from Hammond Workshop, Joe Boogie, featured guest Tullie Brae, and Helge “Nick” Nickel of Bluesfest Eutin, Germany. This year’s big Blues week was highlighted by some cool new stuff: Bigger and better… Hammond Organ Workshop This [...]
Archive for Category: "Robert “Nighthawk” Tooms"
Planet Earth Records Beale Street Jam Coming Friday Night
(Memphis, Tennessee) After a hugely successful invitational jam last year, Planet Earth Complex is hosting another jam this year featuring all professional musicians. This will provide a contrast with most of the other events during IBC week which feature primarily up and coming artists. The Planet Earth Compex Jam starts at 11 PM Friday night [...]
Former B. B. King bassist Melvin Lee Green Passes in Memphis
Melvin Lee (far left) performs with Earl the Pearl and the Peoples of the Blues at the Southern Hot Wings Festival on South Main in Memphis (Memphis, Tennessee) It is with great sadness that we report the passing of a very dear friend and colleague, indubitably one of the world’s finest Blues musicians. Melvin Lee [...]
Four Roses Joins as Sponsor for IBC Hammond Workshop
(Memphis, Tennessee) We are proud to announce that our friend Dan Gardener of Four Roses Bourbon has announced that Four Roses will be a proud sponsor of this year’s IBC Hammond Workshop in Memphis at Club 152 on Beale at 11 AM Thursday, February 2 and Friday February 3, 2012. Four Roses joins Amro Music [...]
Mississippi Blues Trail Markers
(Memphis, Tennessee) Many Blues fans have taken the time to check out another facet of the Blues music experience, visiting some or all of the various Mississippi Blues Trail Markers. In fact an iphone app has been made available to further enhance the experience. The free app, currently available only for iPhones, has a variety [...]
UPDATED IBC Schedule – IBC Registration and Hammond Workshop have Changed!
IBC REGISTRATION LOCATION HAS CHANGED (Memphis, Tennessee) The following is the most recent updated IBC schedule which reflects some important changes. The location of Registration has changed to Club 152 on Wednesday. YOU WILL NEED TO COME TO CLUB 152 TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT…GO NOWHERE ELSE. HAMMOND ORGAN WORKSHOP MOVES TO THURSDAY at 11 [...]
Here Comes the Second Annual IBC Hammond Organ Workshop!
(Memphis, Tennessee) As January rolls around again, we turn our sights on the upcoming International Blues Challenge which will take place in Memphis starting on the last day of this month. Last year, with the help of our friend, Joe Whitmer, of the Blues Foundation, we produced the first Hammond Organ Workshop, an event designed [...]
Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame
(Memphis, Tennessee) In light of the passing of so many Blues friends this past year, it is only appropriate that we review some of the Blues musical greats and others who have been instrumental in preserving the music culture. Just a brief perusal of the 110 notes reveals quite a formidable collection of impressive individuals [...]
Memphis Mourns Two Blues Souls Sease and Galloway
(Memphis, Tennessee) Blues legend Marvin Sease died at 64. Sease started his career with a gospel group called the Five Gospel Crowns out of Charleston, South Carolina. After singing with them, Marvin then left at age 20 settling into New York. There he joined another gospel group called the Gospel Crowns. Marvin left the gospel circuit [...]
STAX Artist J. Blackfoot Dies Today in Memphis
(Memphis, Tennessee) Memphis soul singer J. Blackfoot, a member of STAX vocal group, the Soul Children, and a longtime solo artist, died today at Methodist Germantown Hospital. Blackfoot, who had been diagnosed with cancer, was 65. J. Blackfoot, who was born John Colbert in Greenville, Mississippi, earned his nickname as a youth. He and his [...]
Tallahatchie Flats Offers Real Delta Experience
(Memphis, Tennessee0 After a quick trip to Greenwood, Mississippi, to play a little Blues show with Danny Lancaster we explored the wonder of life in the middle of a cotton field…Tallahatchie Flats. like the Shack Up Inn at Hopson Plantation in Clarksdale, these good folks have made the once drafty and uncomfortable shacks quite cozy [...]
Patrick Dodd Future Blues
(Memphis, Tennessee) The first time I stumbled upon the sound of Patrick Dodd I was walking down Beale Street on the way to a gig. After walking past the Rumboogie Cafe at Third and Beale, a seasoned, well-controlled and downright raspy cool vocal swarmed into my ears. Wondering if Bob Segar or Joe Cocker was [...]
2012 Keeping the Blues Alive Award Winners Announced
The Blues Foundation will honor 17 individuals and organizations with its 2012 Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award during a recognition brunch Saturday, February 4, 2012, in Memphis, Tennessee. Each year, The Blues Foundation presents the KBA Awards to individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to blues music. The KBA ceremony will be [...]
Elvis Friend George Klein Rocks On
(Memphis, Tennessee) This week we travel to Elvis Presley Boulevard, across the street from Graceland mansion, home of Elvis Presley, to visit Memphis celebrity and lifelong friend of Elvis, TV and radio personality Georlge Klein. George was a good friend of Elvis back in the days before he was a household name, way back in [...]
Blues Foundation Cuts Ribbon on New Home
(Memphis, Tennessee) The Blues Foundation has had the ribbon-cutting ceremony and officially moved into their new home in the South Main Street Arts District in Memphis (photo by historian Jimmy Ogle). “In the printed program of the third annual Blues Music Awards in 1982, there are drawings of a proposed Blues Hall, so this indeed [...]
