Triangle Blues Society Blues Heritage Challenge - Jazz & Blues Florida on the Road!

2015 Triangle Blues Society Blues Heritage Challenge Announces Competition Artists and Celebrity Judges

Durham, NC -  Triangle Blues Society (TBS) announces the competition artists and celebrity judges in the 2015 Triangle Blues Heritage Challenge taking place Sunday, August 16, 2015, 3-9pm at the Blue Note Grill in Durham, NC. Tickets are $12 for non-TBS members, $10 for TBS members, and are available at the door.

Solo/Duo:
Andy Squint

Harvey Dalton Arnold with Darrell Young

Clark Stern & Chuck Cotton

Kelly Howerton

Big Hope and The Mystkdog

Smart Alec Blues

Spider Mike

Sherman Lee Dillon

Mudbones Double Trouble

Neckbones

Seth Williams

Band:
Fat Bastard Blues Band

Good Rocking Sam

The Groovynators

Lawyers Guns & Money

Judges for the competition are Charles Boyer, Kitty Kinnin, and Tess Mangum Ocaña,

Charlie Boyer is the owner/publisher of Jazz & Blues Florida. JazzBluesFlorida.com is Florida’s online guide to live jazz and blues in Florida, providing news blogs, club/show listings, event photos, spot lights of new Florida music, a monthly online magazine, and previews of upcoming shows across the state. The business is in its tenth year, (operating as print publication under another name previously) before going totally online in January 2009. His competition judging experience includes multiple International Blues Challenge local competitions in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, and multiple times at the IBC semi-finals in Memphis. In a good year he will attend over 300 live performances across the state.

Kitty Kinnin is a legendary Triangle radio personality, host/producer of longtime Sunday Brunch on WRDU in Raleigh for more than a decade, during which time Rolling Stone Magazine named WRDU the “Radio Station of the Year.” She got her start as one of the state’s first female rock jocks on Winston-Salem’s WKZL. Over the last five years, she continued her “Sunday Brunch” show on the former WRVA in Raleigh, as well as the “The Kitty Kinnin Morning Show.” She has interviewed celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Eric Rupert and Thomas Keller, as well as N.C. culinary stars, such as Bill Smith of Crook’s Corner, Nana’s Scott Howell, Vivian Howard of Chef and The Farmer and The Angus Barn’s Walter Royal.

Her artist interviews are equally as varied–Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, Buddy Guy, Warren Haynes, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Amos Lee and the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, among others.

Tess Mangum Ocaña is a Durham resident and seventh-generation North Carolinian. Though she grew up in a musical family (her grandmother, Kate Mangum, taught Randy Travis how to play guitar and and great-uncle Homer Briarhopper was fortunate to call Doc Watson a fan), she always felt her role in the family business was behind the scenes. She holds degrees from UNC-CH and the University of Limerick, Ireland. Ocaña served as Concerts Director & Facility Rental Coordinator of The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, from 2002-2012 and developed the critically-acclaimed American Roots Series. A 2012 Indy Arts Award winner, Tess launched her own events, production and promotion company, Sonic Pie Productions in February. She lives with her husband, a citizen of Spain, and their two young, bilingual sons. When not talking, reading, writing or thinking about music, she likes to make a run for the nearest whitewater kayaking spot.

The Challenge kicks off with a special performance by local traditional artists Bob Margolin, Tad Walters, John Dee Holman, Boo Hanks, and special guest Nathaniel Pope.

Winners compete locally all over the world in two categories – solo/duo and band -  to win the right to travel to Memphis, Tennessee to further compete in the 32nd IBC (International Blues Challenge) sponsored by The Blues Foundation.  More than half (at least 51%) of any performing group must be legal residents of North Carolina as of August 16, 2015.

TBS sponsors the annual Blues Heritage Challenge and works with winners to raise the money to supplement their travel to the IBC.

Terry VunCannon of Lawyers Guns & Money commented on his experience representing NC in Memphis, "The Blues Foundation runs a Grade A event, with shows in 20 different clubs - and pulls it off in style." He added, "Our NC acts made this about friendship and support." Terri Robbins and Terry VunCannon made a special effort at the 2014 IBC to bring all the North Carolina blues societies together, working as a team, and hope the trend continues. That was a refreshing first step to a united NC blues front!

Triangle Blues Society (TBS), a 501 (c3) organization, is an all-volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to honoring and promoting traditional and contemporary blues in the Triangle region of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill). TBS has been an affiliate of the Blues Foundation since 1996.

The Blue Note Grill
709 Washington Street
Durham, NC 27704
919-401-1979