
Waterfront Blues Festival Cancelled for 2020
As with many events scheduled for this coming summer, the Waterfront Blues Festival has been cancelled this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Though this was surely a hard decision, it is the correct one and the Cascade Blues Association…

2020 Sunbanks Music Festival
At the time of this writing, the 2020 Sunbanks Music Festival is still scheduled to occur, depending on Washington Governor Inslee’s decision whether the state’s stay-at-home and limited gathering size order is lifted beyond May 4. Please…

The Promise of the Blues – Anthony Proveaux
Book Review by Greg Johnson:
The Promise of the Blues
Anthony Proveaux
Pro-Arts Production 2020.
181 pages
“The Promise of the Blues” is a work of historical fiction that offers more than you’d expect from such a genre of writing. It does…

Little Albert
Swamp King
Aural Music
Little Albert is a side project for Italian heavy-doom-metal guitarist Alberto Piccolo that stands apart from his band Messa. Piccolo has always held a fascination for the blues, and before you start pointing out his…

Jimmy Johnson
Every Day Of Your Life
Delmark Records
“Every Day of Your Life” is Blues Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Johnson’s first recording for the Chicago-based blues label Delmark in forty years, and it’s actually his first in the past ten years.…

Jesse Mae Hemphill
Run Get My Shotgun
Big Legal Mess Records
I’m a sucker for the Mississippi Hill Country Blues of R. L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Fred McDowell, Ranie Burnette, and of course, Jessie Mae Hemphill. This particular genre of blues possesses…

Journey To Memphis Postponed
The Cascade Blues Association’s signature event, the Journey To Memphis competition to select acts to represent the organization and region at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, has been postponed due to the current coronavirus…

Musician and Promoter Gary Burford Passes On
Gary Burford, perhaps one of the best-loved members of the Salem and Oregon music community, passed away this past month after a long-term battle with cancer. He had worked with a number of the Northwest finest bands, including the Boyd Small…

Dom Flemons Prospect Hill
Dom Flemons Prospect Hill
The American Songster Omnibus
Omnivore Recordings
Prospect Hill was originally released in 2014, the third solo outing from Dom Flemons, the multi-instrumentalist founding member of the Grammy winning Carolina Chocolate…

Various Artists
Crawling Up A Hill - A Journey Through The British Blues Boom 1966-71
Grapefruit Records
This is an extensive look at the British Blues scene beginning with the release of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton and pushing through…