Jeff Aker & the Delta Preachers10:00 - 10:30 am
Jeff Aker/guitar & vocals
Dave Allen/harmonica & vocals
Jeff Aker(guitar & vocals) and Dave Allen(harmonica & vocals) have been an active part of the Blues scene in Spokane for many years.
They're love for the original acoustic Blues has led them to adopt the playing styles of the old Delta and Piedmont masters who defined American music.
The DELTA PREACHERS have been nominated and have won multiple awards; most recently, they were recognized as Best New Blues Band for 2009 by The Inland Empire Blues Society. Entertaining and skillful, this duo, provides the Pacific Northwest with a taste of real traditional Blues.
Roberson, Beese & Flores11:00 - 11:30 am
Based in the Pacific Northwest, the acoustic trio Roberson, Beese, and Flores delivers an original and passionate brand of no-frill blues. They are: Ray Roberson, guitar, vocals and songwriting; Neil “BZ” Beese, stand-up bass, and Miah Flores on drums. Together they provide a unique form of acoustic blues, which, while paying obvious deep respect for the “traditional”, reminds one that the genre is open to interpretation, as long as it is blues from the heart and soul. This ain’t no disco.
Ritzville Blues Festival Line Up
Scott Holt12:00 - 1:00pm
Scott Holt started playing guitar when he was 19 years old. After a childhood of exposure to Southern Gospel, Country and 1950s Rock and Roll, Scott heard Jimi Hendrix and "somebody switched the light on."
While taking guitar lessons from Doug Thurman, Scott soon discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, Albert King, Freddy King and Buddy Guy. Once Scott discovered Blues, his path was set. "After I heard this music, I knew that it was all I wanted to try and play. I wanted to be Buddy Guy!"
Since he couldn't be Buddy Guy, Scott would soon have to settle for playing with the legendary Blues man.
In late 1987, thanks to his father, Jess, a chance meeting happened between Scott and Buddy Guy after a club performance. That night, backstage, Buddy invited Scott to come by the hotel the next day for a guitar lesson and the beginnings of a friendship were formed.
"Buddy and I got along from the start. I can't speak for him, but I think he saw that I wanted to learn and be a part of this music, that I was serious and he responded to that."
A year later Buddy Guy invited Scott to sit in with him. During the next year Scott would relive that experience many times, including the opportunity to sit in with Buddy Guy on the opening night of Buddy's club Legends in Chicago.
In early 1989 Scott joined Buddy Guy's band and for the next 10 years he toured the country with Buddy Guy.
Plenty of Scott and Buddy's conversations would start with Buddy saying "when you leave and go on your own..." So it was always sort of a foregone conclusion that someday Scott would have to leave the nest and make or break it on his own. It finally happened 10 years later, almost to the day, in 2000 with the release of "Dark Of The Night," Scott's second solo CD.
Featuring an amazing collection of musicians; Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox, from The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton and Reese Wynans from Double Trouble and produced by Eddie Kramer who engineered albums by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Led Zeppelin, it might be the best record you've never heard!
The original version also included a recording of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) with Mitch, Billy and Scott which was the first recording of that song by that rhythm section since they had last played it 30 years previously with its composer Mr. Hendrix himself!
Four more records have followed, including, "Angels In Exile," "Chipped Front Tooth," "Revelator" and the latest "From Lettsworth To Legend - A Tribute To Buddy Guy." These recordings have found Scott & Co. working with artists like Little Feat, Tab Benoit and even American Idol contestant Melinda Doolittle.
Scott's music is the Blues, it's real music, not music made by machines or computers. Its music played from the heart every time.
It's what Scott refers to as "A supreme form of prayer." Scott takes his musical lineage very seriously. As a disciple of Buddy Guy, his roots go directly back to Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Guitar Slim in a way that most of this generation of blues artists can't claim.
The Insomiacs1:30 - 2:30pm
Blues Wax writes:"The Portland, Oregon, group has that West Coast Swing sound down pat, performing tight numbers with original songwriting...There are no wasted notes and the music breathes with the palm trees."
Blues Revue writes: "The Insomniacs could become legendary."
The Insomniacs have a brand new release "At Least I'm Not With You," the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed debut "Left Coast Blues."
The Portland, Oregon, band led by 27-year old vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Vyasa Dodson, together with bassist Dean Mueller, keyboardist Alex Shakeri and drummer Dave Melyan, laid down an astounding set of material that had been finely tuned night after night out on the road over the last two years.
The Insomniacs expand on their original intoxicating formula - a mix of blues, swing, jump and roots rock - and deliver what is sure to become an instant classic.?? The Insomniacs seemed to literally explode onto the scene out of nowhere in 2007 as a fully formed and functional unit delighting audiences with their joyous, yet highly contagious musical sound and irresistible sense of swing.
Their self-produced debut release, "Left Coast Blues," recorded in the living room of bassist Dean Mueller's house, was quickly snatched up and issued on Delta Groove Music, hitting a peak position of No. 5 on the national Living Blues radio charts.
Critical praise and industry recognition from the blues community soon followed, garnering the band a 2008 Blues Music Award nomination for Best New Artist Debut, as well as a 2007 Muddy Award presented by the Cascade Blues Association for Best Contemporary Blues Act.
In 2009 the Cascade Blues Association delivered The Insomniacs a Muddy Award for Northwest Recording of the Year for "At Least I'm Not With You."
They play vintage instruments and channel a blues style from the 1950s, but there is a distinct new cyberspace bent to Delta Groove's blues award winning quartet, The Insomniacs. These musicians who have quickly jumped into the top tier of clubs tour endless highways in a beat up van, babying a gut-string upright, the 1951 Fender "Nocaster" guitar, the 1964 Framus Star Bass and their Magnatone and Ampeg tube amps.
But, they fill the long drives between gigs surfing the web on wireless laptops, looking at the MySpace and Facebook friends lists of the clubs down the road, and personally emailing blues fans to get them to listen to the band and come to the show. As a result, they get hundreds of plays per day on MySpace, a site usually focused on alternative, pop and hip-hop music. And they've enrolled a whole new generation of first-time young blues fans, as well as older ones who recognize the roots of their music.
Guitarist Vyasa Dodson, whose exotic name is a Sanskrit gift from his Northern California mother, had a revelation when he switched from emulating Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton to studying jump blues masters such as Junior Watson, Tiny Grimes, Charlie Christian and Little Charlie Baty.
"The Blues isn't dead," says Dodson. "It's just going in different directions. B.B. King and Buddy Guy got started when they were young. The same thing is happening today."
"Blues music just speaks to me," says bassist Dean Mueller, who had his mind blown teaching at Centrum's Port Townsend Country Blues Festival, where he jammed with John Cephas, Louisiana Red and Honeyboy Edwards.
Donna Angelle3:00 - 4:30pm
Donna Angelle is the "Zydeco Diva", without question because she is one of the hottest women in Zydeco!
Born in a southwest Louisiana farming community, Donna's love of music began at a very young age. Her musical style, which lends itself to Blues and R&B, has been greatly influenced by many pop and R&B artists.
As bandleader, Donna has fronted two bands, "Chapter IV" and "The Zydeco Posse." She has played with the Bobby Price band, Barbara Lynn, Archie Bell and the Drells.
Donna has opened for many musical greats including Boozoo Chavis, Denise LaSalle, Charmaine Neville, Irma Thomas, Beau Jocque, Chubby Carrier and a host of others.
From promoters to fans, Donna has earned the title, "Zydeco Diva" because of her sophistication and professionalism.
Very soft spoken with a charming personality, Donna is always striving to perfect her craft. Donna is one of the hardest working musicians on the Zydeco circuit and one of the few females fronting a Zydeco band today.
Donna comes to Ritzville straight out of Cypress Island, Louisiana, having been voted "Female Vocalist" of the Year (2003), and recently winning the "Wilson 'Boozoo' Chavis Heritage Award (2007) by C.R.E.O.L.E. Inc.
This "Zydeco Diva" is hot, Hot, HOT!
Beckie Sue & Her Big Rockin' Daddies5:00 - 6:30pm
Sultry, sexy and powerful, Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin' Daddies is a Blues band that refuses to settle for anything less than intense, exhilarating performances that will leave you spent yet hungry for more.
The award winning Texas/Chicago style Blues band packs a wallop loaded with high energy Blues and an unbeatable stage show. Blazing guitar, smokin' sax and blues harp, upright bass and a trio of vocalists make this band the complete package.
Becki Sue fronts the band and is without a doubt the consummate entertainer with sultry vocals and a steamy stage presence that will stop traffic and turn heads. She is joined on stage by some of the best Blues entertainers in the Pacific Northwest, which is confirmed repeatedly during regional awards presentations. This band always garners high praise from Blues fans and critics from Seattle to Portland and beyond.
The band's blazing guitarist Tom "T-Boy Neal" Boyle continues to set the standard among blues guitar slingers, winning his fifth Washington Blues Society "BB" Award for Best Electric guitarist in 2009.
The Cascade Blues Association in Portland continues to tip its hat to the band, a 2009 Nominee for Best Regional Act. Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin' Daddies captured that title in 2008.
King 5 TV's Evening Magazine dubbed the group "The Best Local Band in Western Washington" in 2008 in a viewer driven ballot.
The Washington Blues Society dubbed the band's CD "Big City Blues" as its 2008 "Best Blues Recording." This award cleared the way for the band to represent the state in The Blues Foundation's annual Best CD competition at the 2009 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, in February of 2009.
Drummer Jeff Hayes earned recognition of his own from the Washington Blues Society when he brought home the 2008 Best Blues Drummer award.
The band's roster includes: Becki Sue, vocals; Tom "T-Boy Neal" Boyle, guitar; Jim King, vocals, saxophone and harmonica; Les "WildChild" White, vocals and upright bass; and Jeff "Mr. Foundation" Hayes on drums.
Watermelon Slim & the Workers7:00 - 8:30pm
Bill "Watermelon Slim" Homans has built a remarkable reputation with his raw, impassioned intensity.
HARP Magazine writes: "From sizzling slide guitar...to nitty-gritty harp blowing...to a gruff, resonating Okie twang, Slim delivers acutely personal workingman blues with both hands on the wheel of life, a bottle of hooch in his pocket, and the Bible on the passenger seat."
Paste Magazine writes: "He's one hell of a bottleneck guitarist, and he's got that cry in his voice that only the greatest singers in the genre have had before him."
The industry agrees on all fronts. Watermelon Slim & The Workers have garnered 17 Blues Music Award nominations in four years including a record-tying six in both 2007 & 2008. Only the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray have landed six in a year and Slim is the only blues artist in history with 12 in two consecutive years.
In Spring 2009 he was the cover story of Blues Revue magazine.
Now, Watermelon Slim is making more waves with Escape From the Chicken Coop, his first-person account of the days he spent driving a truck. It is just one of many instances of a life spent changing gears.
Two of Slim's records were ranked No. 1 in MOJO Magazine's annual Top Blues CD rankings.
Industry awards include The Independent Music Award for Blues Album of the Year, The Blues Critic Award and Canada's Maple Blues Award for International Artist of the Year among others.
Slim has hit No. 1 on the Living Blues Charts, top five on the Roots Music Report and debuted in the Top Ten in Billboard.
One of Slim's most impressive industry accolades may be the liner notes of "The Wheel Man" eagerly written by the late legendary Jerry Wexler who called him a "one-of-a-kind pickin' n singing Okie dynamo."
Slim was born in Boston, his father was a progressive attorney and freedom rider and his brother is a classical musician. He was raised in North Carolina listening to the housekeeper sing John Lee Hooker songs. Slim attended Middlebury on a fencing scholarship but left early to enlist for Vietnam. While laid up in a Vietnam hospital bed he taught himself upside-down left-handed slide guitar on a $5 balsawood model using a triangle pick cut from a rusty coffee can top and his Army issued Zippo lighter as the slide.
In the following 30 plus years Slim has been a truck driver, forklift operator, sawmiller (where he lost a partial finger), firewood salesman, collection agent, funeral officiator and at times a small time criminal.
Due to aforementioned criminality, Slim was forced to flee Boston where he had played peace rallies, sit-ins and rabbleroused musically with the likes of Bonnie Raitt. Recently Raitt singled out Slim to her audience as a living blues legend during a summer 2009 performance.
From Boston Slim landed in his current home state of Oklahoma farming watermelons - hence his stage name. Somewhere in those decades since Vietnam, Slim completed two undergrad and a master's degree, started a family, painted art and joined Mensa, the social networking group reserved for members with certified genius IQs.
The big turning point was 2002 when Slim suffered a near fatal heart attack. His brush with death gave him a new perspective on mortality, direction and life ambitions and thus his second emergence as a performing musician.
Five albums later he says, "Everything I do now has a sharper pleasure to it. I've lived a fuller life than most people could in two. If I go now, I've got a good education, I've lived on three continents and I've played music with a bunch of immortal blues players."
When you watch him perform, you know every word is true.
Too Slim & the Taildraggers9:00 - 11:00pm
Blues Revue: "Tim ´Too Slim´ Langford writes melodies and especially lyrics that show him to be an under the radar talent who has gone unnoticed for far too long."
Southwest Blues Magazine: "Prolific composer, vocalist, blues harpist, guitarist (slide, acoustic and electric) Tim 'Too Slim' Langford strikes me as a sort of mystic southern cowpoke."
The 11 songs that appear on "Free Your Mind," the 10th studio album from Seattle-based Too Slim and the Taildraggers in 2009, are the result of a touring hiatus in December 2007 and January 2008.
"It was the first time I actually took time off specifically to write songs," remembers band leader Tim Langford (AKA Too Slim), "and I´m very pleased with the results."
The songs on "Free Your Mind" are a slice of American roots music, with Blues, Americana and Rock influences.
"The songwriting process is something that I really enjoy, but it can also drive you a little crazy," says the lead singer/guitarist. "I always try to write down ideas or phrases that I hear in everyday life that could be song titles. Some songs are inspired by personal experiences and some are just observations of life as I see it."
Tim Langford worked again with producer Todd Smallwood on the new album. Smallwood also co-produced the band's 2007 release, The Fortune Teller. "I really enjoyed working in the studio with Todd," says Tim. "He had great ideas, and has the recording process down to an art. He is an extremely talented producer and musician, and played Hammond organ and 12-string guitar on the recording, too.
Tim "Too Slim" Langford, with his band the Taildraggers, has created an eclectic style of roots-rock, Americana and blues that has become a genre all its own. Too Slim's ever-evolving musical direction cannot be classified into any box or category. The eclectic nature of the band allows Too Slim and the Taildraggers to easily crossover and appeal to audiences of various musical tastes.
Too Slim and the Taildraggers are headliners at theaters, festivals and concert stages. The band has shared the stage with the likes of Bo Diddley, Brian Setzer, The Doobie Brothers, Lucinda Williams, The Little River Band, Johnny Lang, .38 Special, Robert Cray, Otis Rush, Jeff Healey, Ted Nugent, Los Lobos, Lonnie Mack, Blue Oyster Cult, Heart, Travis Tritt, Junior Brown, Gatemouth Brown, Neil McCoy, Delbert McClinton, Blues Traveler, Steppenwolf, Johnny and Edgar Winter and Ronnie Milsap.
The band´s last CD "The Fortune Teller," charted as high as No. 9 on the Billboard magazine Top Blues Album sales chart in 2007 and 2008. "The Fortune Teller" was also nominated for "Best Contemporary Blues Album" at the 2008 "Blues Blast Music Awards" in Chicago.
This award-winning band has been voted "Best Regional Act" 11 times by the Cascade Blues Association, the largest organization of its kind in the USA.
Too Slim and the Taildraggers has received multiple awards from various North West Reader's polls and other Northwest blues societies for "Best Band" and "Best Album."
Founding member Langford has won multiple individual awards as "Best Guitarist," "Best Slide Guitarist" and "Best Songwriter." Too Slim and the Taildraggers is also in the Hall of Fame of three Northwest blues societies. Their devoted fan base has grown over the years into a national and international following.
As one reviewer explained the band: "Experiencing a Too Slim and the Taildraggers concert is like taking a journey through the history of American music. Too Slim's musical style ranges from down home blues, funky blues rock, Americana, southern swamp rock and instrumental guitar styles."