Sorry for the delay.
After we finished packing up the Honkies gig around 3 a.m., the 18 hour day got the best of us.
Congratulations to J.P. Soars and The Red Hots from Ft Lauderdale representing the South Florida Blues Society!
Here are the finalists from the 25th International Blues Challenge. (reprinted from blues.org) The Band division finals begin at 2:00pm at The Orpheum Theater. Doors open at 1:00pm.
Sacramento Blues Society--The Aces
Polish Blues Association--Boogie Boys
Ottawa Blues Society--MonkeyJunk
Cascade Blues Association--Ty Curtis Band
South Florida Blues Society--JP Soars & the Red Hots
Boston Blues Society--Delta Generators
Diamond State Blues Society--The Roger Girke Band
Santa Barbara Blues Society--Pryor Baird & the Deacons
Capital Area Blues Society--6 Hands Down
Phoenix Blues Society--The Mikel Lander & Meridith Moore Band
The Solo/Duo Finals begin at 8:30 pm (doors one hour earlier) at the Orpheum. The final six are:
Blues Society of Tulsa--Little Joe McLerrran
Crossroads Blues Society of Mississippi--Alphonso & Richard
Triangle Blues Society--Jon Shain & FJ Venre
Blues Society of Western Pennsylvania--Bubs McKeg
Blues, Jazz and Folk Music Society--Austin "Walkin' Cane"
Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola--L.C. Ulmer & Chase Holifield
Darrell & George, Stoney, Josh Miller, & The Torps all turned in great sets Friday night but at the IBC, sometimes great is not enough. When your act doesn't make the finals it's a little depressing at first but also a reminder that the quality of all these bands and solo/duo performers at this level is tremendous. All of these acts that made it to Memphis are already winners before they get here as they have all either won a regional competition already or were deemed worthy enough by their local blues affiliate to represent them. One band from L.A. had to beat TWENTY other acts to make it this far!
And some of the main reasons for making this trip are to establish contacts, visit with old friends, make new ones and have fun listening to some of the greatest blues bands in the world! (not to mention the FOOD in Memphis...more on that later).
Best wishes to J.P. Soars and the Red Hots (Gary Rimmington & Chris Peet) in the finals. We will all be cheering them on as the only Florida representative still standing!
Also good luck goes out to Alphonso & Richard from Mississippi who won the bar that Darrell & George were in to make the duo/solo finals. They are two very talented musicians that were humble with their victory and extremely complimentary in their praise of Darrell & George's skills (and a little surprised that they beat them!). There was a lot of talent in that room, including Roger Wilson, a true pro and old school folk legend from the west coast of Florida.
Other Friday highlights included:
*walking outside in short sleeves! it was a beautiful sunny afternoon in the 60's!
*A pleasant surprise as Darrell Raines was named "Blues Artist on the Rise" by the Blues Festival E-Guide for this week (a huge honor!). The BF E-Guide is a great international Blues and Festival source that is sent out to 17,000 Blues fans weekly. Congrats to Darrell and the band!
http://www.bluesfestivalguide.com/
*The Nouveaux Honkies arrived in town after a Thursday night performance in Tuscaloosa, AL. They immediately got busy with a 2 hour recording session at world famous Sun Studios! The spirit of Elvis was in the air as TNH made Honkie History. A growing legion of fans can look forward to a few fresh new Honkie tunes coming soon to a bandstand near you (and digital outlets).
*TNH took the stage from 9:30-1:30 at the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium. The house was packed as very special guests Rich DelGrosso, Fiona Boyes (all the way from Australia!) and Josh Miller joined the band to jam throughout the night. Many Blues industry VIP's were in the audience taking notice.
Coming up today is the band finals, the solo/duo finals and The Honkies at Alfreds on Beale @ 9:30. And the return to the place where Bluzpik first met The Honkies, Rebecca's fantasy dream sequence for the last year and a George vs Tim battle for chicken eating supremacy at the best chicken place in the world recently feature on the Food Network:
GUS'S FRIED CHICKEN!
as Tim would say:
Peace & chicken grease!
more tomorrow from Memphis including the announcement of the champions!
Leo & Jim
Bluzpik Rekerdz
No comments :
Post a Comment