Bill Rhoades

   
Bill Rhoades broadcasting for KBOO at the 1999 Waterfront Blues Festival

    Anyone and Everyone that listens to Blues in Portland is familiar with Oregon Blues icon Bill Rhoades, host of Blue Monday, every Monday Afternoon from 1:30 - 3:00 PM on KBOO   FM 90.7.   Rhoades has been hosting this well-loved radio show since 1986!!!  That's 14 years of keepin' those Blues alive in Portland.  Prior to working at KBOO, Bill spent another 8 years hosting the Blues at KLCC 89.7 FM in Eugene for a Blues radio career spanning over 2 decades.  Prior to hosting Blues shows, Bill worked at KYTE 101-FM dishing out Classical music, and he's even worked for OPB in Corvallis, Oregon.  

    Bill has been involved with the Waterfront Blues Festival as a performer (you should hear him play that harp!), as a DJ (KBOO broadcasts the entire festival every year), and as an organizer.  Rhoades has also worked on the Underground Blues Festival and the Portland Blues Bash.  Currently, Bill organizes two popular annual events, the Harmonica Blow-Off (summers) and the Harmonica Summit (winters).

    Bill was a co-founder for both the Oregon Blues Society (now defunct) and the Cascade Blues Association, currently the largest non-profit Blues organization in the entire country.

    When asked what he does, he'll reply "The Blues, the Whole Blues, and Nothing But the Blues, so help me BB King!"  Bill's Blue Monday radio show is severely committed to delivering REAL Blues, regardless of where it comes from or who played it.  If it's Blues, Bill sends it out over the air waves.  He spends considerable time researching the Masters of the Genre, from any part of the world or from any point in time, so he can give us what we all need: a healthy dose of Blues and Roots music.

    This Top 20 Recordings list was compiled by Bill Rhoades for the 1999 Holiday season.  This list was first published in the December 1999 BluesNotes.

© 2000 Cascade Blues Association