Blues Bank Collective

PORTSMOUTH BLUES FESTVAL 2004
Portsmouth Blues Festival

For information on volunteering at this year's festival, contact penglish1@comcast.net
DATE:.....Saturday August 28th 2004 TIME:.....Noon to 8PM LOCATION:.Redhook Brewery ..........TICKET AVAILABILITY (click here) DIRECTIONS -- Scroll Down SPONSORS:.Seacoast Newspapers ..........Red Hook Brewery ..........JP's Shellfish ..........Muddy River Smokehouse ..........Wire Magazine ..........Portsmouth Magazine ..........NH Magazine ..........NH Business Review ..........Randall Press ..........WUNH, WGBH, WXRV The River, WUMB, WMPG ..........Rockingham Electrical Supply ..........Atlantic Media ..........Blues Audience Newsletter ..........Isles of Shoals Steamship Company ..........LifeSize Graphics ..........Bicycle Bob's ..........Printed Matter ..........Jam Magazine ..........NH State Council on the Arts ..........National Endowment for the Arts
(Scroll down for performer Bios)

SCHEDULE OF PERFORMERS

The following is the schedule and lineup for this Saturday's, 8/28, Portsmouth Blues Festival, to be held from Noon to 8pm at the Red Hook Brewery, 35 Corporate Dr., Pease International Trade Center, Portsmouth N.H.

The festival is a fundraiser for the Blues & Diversity education programs of the Blues Bank Collective that are performed throughout N.E.,as well as the rest of the country & beyond.

Noon Jim MacDougall & the Funky Divas Of Gospel

12:45 Ken Clark Trio

1:30 TJ Wheeler & the Smokers w/the Funky River Band

2:50 Carl Rutherford

3:30 Son Seals & the James Solberg Band

4:45 Cootie Stark

5:30 CJ Chenier

7:00 The Holmes Brothers

Schedule is Approximate and subject to change without notice.Thanks for understanding!

The Funky River Band w/TJ will do a children's workshop on Jug Band music & the magic of music with special guest Mr. Diddy Wah Diddy! at 3:00pm (ask at info booth for exact location.) A children's Arts workshop will also take place at 1:30pm (also ask at info booth for exact location)

"Levon Helm - due to ill health has been forced to cancel. We're taking his allotted time and expanding the sets of the Holmes Brothers, C.J. Chenier and Son Seals! Now instead of 45 min teaser sets from these great artists, true blue roots & Blues lovers will get full "concert" sets from each artist."

SON SEALS

"If you really want to do something that's worth something," says guitarist/vocalist Frank "Son" Seals, "you've got to give it your all. I try to do that every time I play." Ever since his self-titled debut release in 1973 (the third-ever release on the then-fledgling Alligator Records), Seals has always given everything he has every time he picks up his guitar. Both in the studio and in live performance, Seals' feral guitar solos and gritty, passionate vocals make every song he plays his very own. Over the years, Seals has played literally thousands of gigs all over the world, and his unparalleled live performances continue to earn him new fans everywhere he goes.

THE JAMES SOLBERG BAND

Born in 1951, James first learned to play 5-string banjo, violin and guitar as a young kid. His real musical career began in the mid‘60s while performing in R&R cover bands around the Midwest. At age 15 he left school and headed for the source of the music he loved most…Chicago. He got to be friends with EDDIE TAYLOR, who showed him a lot of tricks on guitar. During this time, Solberg played with JOHNNY YOUNG, BIG WALTER HORTON and JIMMY REED, as well as with TAYLOR. Moving to Milwaukee in the early ‘70s he formed a rockin’ blues band with JOHNNY WINTER bassist JON PARIS. Also living in Milwaukee at that time was LUTHER ALLISON, just signed to the MOTOWN label, who would frequent the Monday night jams held at BROTHERS LOUNGE. SOLBERG and PARIS were soon opening for LUTHER on the college “showcase” circuit and before long JAMES became a member of LUTHER’S band. Touring together from ‘75 till ’79, they released “NIGHTLIFE” and “LUTHER ALLISON THE MOTOWN YEARS 1972-1976” (Motown- the latter released in ’94), “LIVE AT MONTREAUX ’76-‘94” (released in ’95), “LIVE IN PARIS” and “LUTHER ALLISON LIVE”.

The next three years, JAMES was touring with “Midwest legends” SHORT STUFF, including JUNIOR BRANTLEY, (THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS and JIMMY VAUGHN) and harp virtuoso JIM LIBAN and recorded the album “TALK IS CHEAP”, the title track later recorded by guitar legend, JOHNNY WINTER.

In 1981, after a decade of touring more than 300 one niters a year, SOLBERG packed it up and headed for the “North Country” to ride and build Harleys and Indians. As a machinist and mechanic at the local Harley dealership he began designing and fabricating his own innovative MC parts.

THE KEN CLARK TRIO
If you like soulful blues-jazz sounds of Jimmy Smith, Baby Face Willette and Brother Jack McDuff, then this group is for you. The KCOT has been lighting up clubs around the northeast for several years now with their high-energy and hard-grooving music. A superb addition to the festival line-up.

JIM MACDOUGAL & THE FUNKY DIVAS OF GOSPEL

The Funky Divas of Gospel is the collaboration of three-dozen talented soloists; musicians and choir members whose purpose is to share an uplifting and life-affirming message through traditional and contemporary spirit-filled music. We are Humanist, Roman Catholic, Baha’i, Baptist, Episcopalian, Unitarian Universalists, Pagan, United Church of Christ, Jewish, and God only knows what else. But the Spirit that flows through the songs that we sing is universal and tells a story as old as time.

T. J. WHEELER & THE SMOKERS
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS - THE FUNKY RIVER BAND
TJ Wheeler

T.J. Wheeler & the Smokers play an eclectic blend of music, combining Blues with influences from Jazz, New Orleans rhythm and blues, and various Caribbean rhythms and styles.

T.J. Wheeler has been a professional musician for over 20 years, and has been studying with blues masters since he was a teenager when he ventured to the deep south to learn the music from the likes of Bukka White and Furry Lewis.

The band can play as an acoustic or electric group, but either way, they are sure to provide a "soulful experience that will touch the minds, hearts, and feets of people of all ages," as their promotional material says.

CARL RUTHERFORD/COOTIE STARK/PAUL PRUE
Cootie Stark and Carl Rutherford come to us by way of our friends from the Music Makers Relief foundation. Both will give us a taste of the authentic, down-home Carolina style of blues. Their presence serves to remind us of the purity of this music in its most basic style. Paul Prue is another long-time contributor to this event. An incisive singer and guitarist, Paul also helps to keep the acoustic side of this music ever present in our minds.

C. J. CHENIER &
THE RED HOT LOUISIANA BAND
C J Chenier

When zydeco superstar C.J. Chenier stepped onto the main stage at the 2001 Chicago Blues Festival and looked over the crowd of 60,000 eager fans, he had one thing in mind: get them on their feet and make them dance. Almost immediately after launching into their first song, C.J. Chenier and The Red Hot Louisiana Band had people young and old shaking their hips and cheering in unison. With a solo career dating back to 1987 and five previous albums under his belt, C.J. Chenier is widely and wildly regarded as one of the genre’s best singers, musicians and live performers. According to The Boston Globe, “C.J. Chenier attacks the accordion with the tension and drive of James Brown...creating contemporary, turbo-charged dance music.” Living Blues magazine named C.J. Chenier “the best living zydeco singer and accordionist,” and Billboard called him “the heir to the zydeco throne.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE C. J. CHENIER INFO

THE HOLMES BROTHERS

The New York Times says The Holmes Brothers' sound is "deeply soulful, uplifting and timeless." The Chicago Tribune refers to the trio as "the undisputed masters of blues-based American roots music." The London Times says "their rhythms take over your body while their voices go straight for your heart." OffBeat declares the group possesses "great spirit and outstanding vocal harmonies with a jam band aesthetic that anticipated the 'sacred steel' movement by a decade." Ever since they first joined forces and started performing together in 1979, The Holmes Brothers (bassist Sherman Holmes, guitarist/keyboardist Wendell Holmes and drummer Popsy Dixon) have been bringing their brand of gospel-inflected, spiritually moving and funky music to audiences around the world. Their breathtaking harmonies resonate with a passion and conviction matched only by their inspired musicianship and their ability to perform sanctified gospel, low-down roadhouse blues, deep soul, barroom country and pure pop-all in one set. They've recorded with Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Odetta, Phoebe Snow, Jungle Brothers and Joan Osborne, and have gigged all over the world--even performing for President Clinton. They joined the Alligator Records family in 2001, and their label debut--the inspirationally stirring Speaking In Tongues (AL 4877)--amazed and delighted everybody who heard it. Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune called it a "joyous, foot-stomping carnival…a gift to the world of music."
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

ALSO FEATURING:
Week of Blues Workshops to be announced

TICKET AVAILABILITY:

BUY TICKETS ONLINE
Click & Print Tickets

Tickets are $25 in advance;
$30 (cash only) day of event.

Available in New Hampshire at:
Redhook Ale Brewery
The Press Room
The Music Hall Box Office (603-436-2400)
all in Portsmouth.

Also available at:
Dyno Records Newburyport Ma., Baldface Books and Earcraft Music in Dover NH, Ted Herbert's Music Mart, Elm St Manchester NH, Vintage Fret Shop, Ashland NH,and Exeter Music, Exeter NH

For credit card purchases
call the Music Hall Box Office
603-436-2400.

DIRECTIONS TO RED HOOK BREWERY
From Boston:

Interstate 95 to Exit 4 (Rtes 4, 16 & the Spaulding Tpke - White Mtns and Lakes Region) which is a left hand exit.

Take Exit 1 (Pease International Tradeport/Gosling Rd)
From North:

Interstate 95 to Exit 5 (Spaulding Tpke, Rtes 1, 4, 16 - Portsmouth/Dover).

Stay to the left as you merge off the exit (follow signs for Routes 4 and 16).

Take Exit 1 (Pease International Tradeport/Gosling Rd)

At the bottom of the off-ramp, take a left.

At the second light, take a left onto International Drive.

At the stop sign, take a left onto Corporate Drive.

Redhook is the second driveway on the left.

For more information, email:
T. J. Wheeler
Children 12 & under admitted free!
Photo ID required for admission to Beer Tent. No pets, please.

The Blues Bank Collective is a W.C.Handy Award
winning blues education organization whose mission is:

To further awareness of Blues Music and its African American heritage

To show the historic context that gave birth to the Blues

To use the music as a means of positive social change
And, whenever possible, to eliminate all forms of racism, intolerance and prejudice.

DRAWING: B. J. Johnson (1906-1986) was a great Portsmouth bluesman and teacher, as well as an inspiration to all who knew him. Art by Steven Lee.

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Blues Bank Collective
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