Peter Parcek's daring, incendiary, and soulful style -- the heartbeat that drives his national debut, THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE -- is a distinctive hybrid. He weaves threads of rock, jazz, country, folk, blues -- especially blues -- and more into a rick tapestry of melody, harmony and daredevil solo excursions that push all of those styles to their limits without sacrificing an iota of the warmth that emanates from Peter's own personality.

 

The resurrection of a long lost buried treasure, Willie Buck's THE LIFE I LOVE, a Chicago blues recording from 1982.  This blues collector's item features the dearly missed Aces (the swingin' blues brothers Louis and Dave Myers) along with Little Mack Simmons on harp, Big Moose Walkeron piano, and John Primer on 2nd guitar (in one of his earliest recorded appearances!)

 

Keep The Blues Alive features a bold display of raw, edgy, and mind-blowing emotionally-charged material. BBMA Female Blues Artist of the Year nominee is hot on the heels of her critically acclaimed Two Big Ms which caused the Living Blues reviewer to exclaim; ''Tuckers emergence into the front line of contemporary blueswomen''. An advance review from the Radioindy team declares: ''Tucker will reel you in with her exquisite voice as it is strong and soulful with an abundance of sincere emotions coming straight from the heart.'' Teeny has appeared on the same bill with great blues artists such as: BB King, KoKo Taylor, Etta James, Buddy Guy, The Holmes Brothers, Calvin Owens, Robert Cray, Keb Mo, Kenny Neal, Bobby Rush, John Mayall, and many others.

 

Gary Allegretto's Harmonikids recently provided music therapy to Haitian children who are not only earthquake survivors, but many who were also victims of domestic child slavery and extreme poverty.

 

From Gary -

 

              "The mission was a great success. I've recently 
returned from Haiti where I took 1000 harmonicas (donated by Hohner) and gave music therapy to children who are both earthquake survivors and victims of domestic slavery in the most desperate parts of Port  Au Prince. In each session I successfully used the Blues and the harmonica as a therapeutic tool to both entertain and teach the kids, restoring some childhood hope and joy into their incredibly difficult lives"

 

To experience this extraordinary mission, with its uplifting stories, photos, testimonials and more, please click on the link here

 

The 26^th Annual IH Mississippi Valley Blues Festival runs July 2 – 4, at LeClaire Park—a blues-inspiring outdoor venue located at the crossroads of U.S. Route 61 and the Mississippi River—in Davenport, Iowa. With three-day festival passes only $25, attendees can enjoy 28 acts for less than $1 per act.

 

The festival kicks off with “Blues in the Blood” Friday—all eight acts performing that day include descendants of blues legends.

 

 “Red, White and Blues” Saturday offers something for every musical taste and free admission that day. Two 2010 Blues Grammyâ nominees, Ruthie Foster and Billy Branch, bring the best in contemporary and traditional blues to the festival on Saturday.  

   

Other artists on Saturday’s bill include Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys; Vasti Jackson; Zac Harmon; Little Joe McLerran; Olga Wilhelmine with Cody Dickinson; Ana Popovic; Little Brother Jones; and Iowa Blues Challenge winner, Steady Rollin’ Blues Band. And special this year, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra will perform a W.C. Handy and  patriotic pops set, culminating with the fireworks display over the Mississippi River.

 

            On “RiverRoad” Sunday, Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitar player and one of the best guitarists of all time according to Rolling Stone Magazine, is honored with the MVBS RiverRoad Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Other featured artists playing the festival include The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue with Tommy Castro (winner of four 2010 Blues Music Awards), Debbie Davies, Magic Dick and Sista Monica; Bernard Allison; Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials; and The Nighthawks with Hubert Sumlin.

For more information about the festival, artists, ticket locations, transportation and lodging, please visit www.mvbs.org or call 563-32-BLUES.

 

 

The 19^th Annual Pocono Blues Festival slated for July 23, 24 and 25, is one of the biggest blues festivals on the East Coast located in the beautiful Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania is an annual pilgrimage for lovers of real deal blues and roots music. Customers travel 30 states and 10 countries.

 

This year’s lineup features 20 national acts performing over the three day period on three stages headlining Rock n Roll Hall of Fame inductee Mavis Staples, Chicago blues legends Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Bob Stroger, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Bob Margolin, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, CJ Chenier, Theodis Ealey, Johnnie Bassett, Chick Willis, Wanda Johnson, Johnny Rawls, The Campbell Brothers, Homemade Jamz, Lady Bianca, Jimmy Duck Holmes, Alabama Mike, Joe Krown Trio featuring Walter Wolfman Washington, Russell Batiste, Diana Braithwaite and Chris Whitely Band, Veronika Jackson, Marquise Knox and Roy Roberts/Barbara Carr/AJ Diggs.

 

The location is pristine over 50 acres encompassing lakes and mountain and making up a perfect amphitheater with plenty of free parking over 70 vendors, scenic chairlift rides and many southern soul food outlets. Plenty of nearby lodging and camping. The Pocono Blues Festival was the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s “Keeping the Blues Alive” award for excellence in promotion. For more information go to poconoblues.com.

 

“The Pocono Blues Festival rivals any blues festival in the country.” Johnny Meister-WXPN Philadelphia

 

“Pocono Blues Festival, I hear so much real, true and genuine down home blues music there every summer that it keeps me inspired until the next year rolls around.” Andrew Galloway-President Electro-Fi Records

 

Come, hear, see, smell, and feel beautiful Noxon, Montana on the river. Music line up includes: The Randy Oxford Band, LeRoy Bell and His Only Friends, The Stacy Jones Band, The Mike Bader Band, The Pros and Cons Band, The Wired Band, Romagossa Blue, Jumpin’ Josh and His All-Star Kid Band, The Ron Hendee Band and more to be announced. There will be a nightly Beer Garden, Jam Session, “‘til the Bears Hibernate!”  Free camping with advanced ticket purchase at brownpapertickets.com. Other lodging near by. For more information go to BigSkyBluesFestival.com or OxfordEntertainment.com

 

Portability is key

Openness to licensing

 

ChuckLawton/Wired.com - Weekend Warriors. Many of us musicians whom play music semi-professionally or rock out at home adopt this term. It’s a badge many of us wear with pride as we describe how, despite everything else going on in our lives – kids, careers and all challenges in between – still manage to play music. Finding time to rehearse or learn new music can be challenging, and if you live in an apartment, cranking your Marshall stack is probably not an option. But fear not, Weekend Warriors. The iRig for your iPhone may be the solution to a problem you didn’t know you had.

 

I’ve been a musician almost my entire life. I grew up learning guitar and bass from my dad who taught me the fundamentals of blues and early rock music. Fender guitars and amps were our mainstay and there’s nothing like the sound of a Telecaster ringing out crisp and clean from a Twin Reverb. Today I play bass and guitar in a classically-inspired acoustic folk trio and produce and engineer music in a small project studio in Milwaukee. Because of the nature of my current group, I have a few amps and electric guitars that are collecting a bit of dust. Not only is it hard to find time to escape to the basement to use my amps and stomp boxes, it’s not exactly convenient.

 

But a few weeks ago, IK Multimedia offered GeekDad a chance to review a pre-production unit of their upcoming device, called the AmpliTube iRig. I jumped at the chance and I’m happy to say that this changes everything. The iRig allows you to use your iPhone (and other compatible devices such as the iPod Touch and iPad) as a mobile effects rig for your electric guitar and bass using a custom version of their award winning AmpliTube software.

 

The hardware component, the iRig, is a dongle that plugs in to the headphone jack of compatible iPhones. IK Multimedia’s engineers adapted the headset capability of these headphone jacks to allow for connecting electric guitars and basses to the iPhone, an impressive feat considering what they were working with. The iRig also has a headphone jack so you can listen to yourself play. It’s compact and easy to use, especially when connecting to headphones.

 

Both the input and the output of the iRig is controlled by the AmpliTube app. AmpliTube is a modeling environment that allows you to take a clean guitar signal and route it through any number of guitar amps, speaker cabinets, microphones and effects. Their software is used in many recording studios as it allows engineers to access a huge arsenal of equipment in software instead of having to own each real component. Each component is modeled by IK’s engineers, capturing how each device colors the guitar signal. The effect is impressive in the studio but I was unsure how well it would translate to the comparatively underpowered iPhone.

 

After unpacking the iRig, hooking it up and downloading the app, I connected my Fender Stratocaster and plugged in some studio headphones. The app started up and defaulted to the amp selection. Imagine my surprise when presented with a Fender-styled guitar amp complete with realistic-looking knobs, vinyl covering and a silver mesh grill. The attention to detail is most impressive, and just the tip of the iceberg. Playing my guitar didn’t just sound full and clean, it sounded like a Fender Strat plugged in to a Fender Twin Reverb! Twirling the Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Reverb and Tremolo knobs faithfully adjusted the sound of my guitar. I could also cycle through a 1×12″, 2×12″, two types of 4×12″ speakers, a 1×15″ speaker cabinet, and two types of microphones, an SM57 and a large-diaphragm studio mic. Other amp cabinets complete with amp-specific effects include a VOX clone labeled ‘Crunch,’ a Marshall-styled amp labeled ‘Lead,’ and a final guitar amp labeled ‘Metal.’ There is also a generic bass cabinet for use with bass guitars.

 

Moving on to effects, you can daisy chain up to three stomp boxes that, out of the box, cover most needs. They include a few distortion pedals, delay, chorus, flanger, phaser and a wah among others. A novel feature of the wah pedal is being able to tilt the device to simulate rocking a wah pedal, however in practice this may be difficult while also playing the guitar. The attention to detail in the pedals themselves is outstanding. They are modeled after various real-world effects pedals and as a result are instantly recognizable. Spinning the knobs to change settings is surprisingly satisfying and only in a few instances is there artifacting as the effects are adjusted. Once an effect is in place, however, it sounds superb with no noticeable clicks or pops or undesirable distortion. You can also set up to 36 presets to quickly recall specific effect and amp combos.

 

The most surprising feat of all, however, is accomplishing this with such low latency. In general, there is a cost to doing some things in software, as there can sometimes be a delay as the effects are applied to the audio signal. As a result, in high-latency situations you may not hear the effected guitar until a split-second after you’ve played it, causing problems for the guitarist. While the iRig doesn’t offer zero-latency, it’s low enough to not be perceptible.

 

The killer feature, in my mind, is the ability to upload songs to play along with. The app allows you to upload up to 20 mp3’s via your web browser on your PC for use in AmpliTube. To satisfy my need to play some slow blues music, I fired up GarageBand and created a Magic GarageBand track, removing the lead guitar part, and saving the composition as an mp3. Once uploaded to my device, I queued up the track and started riffing along with the song. You can adjust the volume of the track, which helped get the guitar sitting with the accompaniment properly. With a library of songs created in similar fashion, I could relax on the couch with my guitar, headphones and iRig and practice over and over again without disturbing anyone.

 

Though the app performed well and has not crashed or become overloaded even on my slower iPhone 3G, there was one problem with the experience that I would like to highlight. In some instances when combining distortion effects and listening with my studio headphones, I heard what IK Multimedia’s engineers referred to as cross-talk in the iRig interface when using certain output devices. The net result was that the output mix bled into the high-gain input causing that mix to be processed by the effects. In instances where you are only playing guitar, this wouldn’t matter. However, when playing along with music tracks, the over all mix became distorted through the effects, making playing a distracting affair. I should also note that I was only able to detect the cross-talk when using my specific Sony Professional-series studio headphones. My Shure ear buds and a direct connection to my mixer did not produce the effect at all.

 

All together, though, the iRig and AmpliTube combo offer a simple interface for playing guitar through a number of great looking and sounding effects and amps that faithfully reproduce their real-world counterparts in a fairly inexpensive package. Consider comparable devices such as the Pocket POD by Line 6 which is at a minimum twice the cost and is not as intuitively easy to use, the iRig offers incredible value. With an iPad-specific version on the horizon and additional effects as in-app purchases, the iRig offers us Weekend Warriors a great way to keep up our chops wherever our guitar and iPhone happen to be.

 

You can download or listen to my brief audio tour or view the videos at IK Multimedia’s website.

 

 

NEW YORK — "Memphis," an interracial romance set against the backdrop of the 1950s rhythm 'n' blues explosion, has won the 2010 Tony Award for best musical.

 

The show of soulful sounds and a parade of engaging characters beat out "Fela!" — the innovative Afro-beat biography of Nigerian superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti; Green Day's rock musical "American Idiot"; and "Million Dollar Quartet," a fictional re-creation of a jam session of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis in a Memphis recording studio.

 

The Tonys were telecast Sunday by CBS, live from Radio City Music Hall.

 

Click for more

 

Blues icon Elvin Bishop had little interest for sunbathing or the demands of lawn care when he purchased his West Marin home in 1974, so he promptly dug up the "scraggy" patch of grass and dismantled the deck outside his 1915-era hunting cabin - attached to a more modern house - and used the wood to build a greenhouse. Thus began the legendary slide guitarist's exploration of his agrarian roots.

 

Today, his terraced garden on the sunny side of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard boasts a vibrant array of fruits and vegetables ranging from sugar snap peas and carrots to corn and 'Celebrity' and 'Sun Gold' tomatoes. Watered by an eight-station drip irrigation system he installed, Bishop's plants begin their journey to his garden in seedling flats in a room off his garage under a fluorescent light. From there he transfers them to six-pack containers in the greenhouse, and once they're sturdy enough for the great outdoors, out they go into the garden. Some crops, including his prized 'Costata Romana' and 'Ishtar' zucchini squash, get a little extra love under a tarp, which provides warmth and rain protection.

 

Growing his own is second nature to Bishop. Until age 10 in the 1940s, he and his siblings were given the hardest jobs - hoeing and weeding - on the family farm in southwest Iowa. But he really caught the DYI food bug with his dissatisfaction over the subpar food choices he faced out on the road. A traveling musician since starting with the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and later with his own band, which recorded the 1976 hit "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," Bishop's seen his share of strange food while touring - something he still does quite a bit of.

 

His attitude about road grub is best summed up by the last verse of his 2005 song "That's My Thing":

 

 

A devotee of Southern cuisine and his Japanese American wife Cara's Japanese cooking, Bishop, 67, likes to play it close to home when it comes to his diet and is also an avid fisherman. "If I could grow a pork chop tree, I wouldn't go to the store at all.

 

"Growing your own food is a win-win situation," says Bishop. "Some people buy their vegetables at the store and then pay money to get their exercise at the gym. I get plenty of exercise in my garden." He also knows exactly what goes into the food he grows and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn't.

 

On the road, getting to the gig and checking into the hotel with enough time to get a little rest is the main concern. That doesn't leave a lot of time to search out good food. "More often than not it's KFC or Burger King," says Bishop.

 

As he tromps around his decidedly unmanicured, less-than-an-acre plot in an untucked plaid work shirt and jeans, Bishop's infectious grin is ever-present - even when he's bending over to pick some weeds. Clearly his garden is his pride and joy, but he doesn't consider its constant upkeep a chore.

 

"It's not work if you like it," says Bishop who jokingly estimates his "day job" of performing takes up about two hours of his week so he's got the time to devote to the garden. And besides, what else would he do with all that free time? "I don't smoke, do drugs, play golf or have any of those bad habits," says Bishop, who studied physics on a National Merit Scholarship at the University of Chicago and taught himself Japanese.

 

Characteristically modest about his gardening accomplishments, the down-home Bishop has also gone to great lengths to acquire some plants, such as his mammoth kiwi bush. While kiwis can be had at just about any garden center now, 35 years ago they were a little more exotic. When Bishop spotted some on a farm near San Luis Obispo back in the '70s, he promptly pulled over and struck a deal for one.

 

Now he makes jam from the kiwis. He also puts up green beans, pickles, currants, applesauce and tomatoes and other homegrown fruits and vegetables in jars. He even makes his own hot sauce from red peppers he grows.

 

He's had success with plants that don't typically grow in a garden 8 miles from cool ocean breezes - ginger, for example - but like any gardener, he's also had his share of misses. They include lemon trees (victims of frost), melons ("harder than hell to grow"), okra and yard-long beans.

 

And while not a gardening evangelist - "I don't try to convert anybody," he says - Bishop's not above imparting a little wisdom to would-be Bay Area gardeners. First off, don't pay attention to the growing instructions on most seed packets, he says. That's because they're developed for gardeners in the Midwest and East where the ground freezes over in the winter, not our milder, Mediterranean climate. Bishop's other bit of advice is to "go find an old gardener in the neighborhood" and tap into their expertise. Who knows? It just might turn out to be a guy with a thatch of tousled hair, twinkly eyes and a guitar.

 

 

Steve Miller, whose popular blues/ art/ pop rock guitar playing dominated radio in the 1970s with hits like “The Joker,” “Rock ‘n Me,” “Fly Like an Eagle,” and “Take the Money and Run,” has been more than a little absent from the album scene in the past several years, having not released a new disc of music since 1993.  But, according to his interview with Jam! Showbiz, it’s not without good reason: “Nobody wants to hear new originals — nobody.”

 

That’s also the reason why, after 17 years of album-silence, the guitar virtuoso’s first new album in two decades, Bingo!, consists of blues and R&B covers, and why he no longer tries to write new hits that live up to his ‘70s pop masterworks:

 

“I’m 66 years old, and I don’t give a f— about that stuff anymore… I don’t even think about it.  If I wrote new originals, you’d just go, ‘Ehh, not as good as Fly Like an Eagle.’ That’s just the nature of the game. Nobody wants to hear new originals — nobody.”

 

As to why he chose the blues as the genre to cover on his record, Miller says he rediscovered the aging genre through new technology:

 

“I hired a bunch of 13 year olds and paid them $10 an hour to load my entire CD collection into my computer. That actually went on for a couple of years. Then one day, I hit the blues button. And 6,000 songs came up. I got fascinated… When people my age write their own stuff, you can smell the burning brain tissue. If I started writing songs, I wouldn’t be as optimistic as I was when I was younger. They’d be songs about politics and the IRS, and who cares? Whereas this stuff is really joyous, great music.”

 

Bingo!, produced by Miller and classic rock producer Andy Johns, is out on Roadrunner Records/ Space Cowboy Records.

 

Acclaimed Nashville vocal stylist Tracy Nelson lost her house and most of her belongings in a fire last Saturday (6/5).

 

According to friend JoAnne Gardner, Nelson’s home studio was destroyed. It was where she was recording an upcoming CD titled Victim of the Blues. Nelson, her boyfriend/engineer Mike Dysinger and most of their pets are safe. But the status of the computer files that stored her new music is uncertain.

 

“It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever been through, but we’re OK,” Nelson said yesterday. “We’re safe. People have been incredible. Our neighbor gave us a house across the street to stay in. We lost two of our 11 animals, but it could have been even more horrible.”

 

The house contained her grandmother’s grand piano as well as her extensive collection of mementos from the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. She did not have enough insurance to cover these and other losses.

A benefit fund has been set up at US Bank under the name “Rosehips Music/Tracy Nelson.” Since she hopes to rebuild on the site in Burns, TN, she says she would also welcome gift certificates to Lowe’s or Home Depot hardware stores.

 

Tracy Nelson began singing in coffeehouses when she was a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She recorded her first blues album, Deep Are the Roots, in 1964 for Prestige Records.

 

Relocating to San Francisco, she became the lead singer of Mother Earth in 1968. The group moved to Nashville in 1969, becoming one of the first rock bands to settle in the country capital.

 

Mother Earth recorded three LPs for Mercury and two for Reprise Records. Its 1968 debut collection introduced her classic song “Down So Low.” It has now been recorded by more than a dozen other artists, including Etta James and Linda Ronstadt.

 

There was also a Mother Earth Presents Tracy Nelson country album on Mercury in 1971, and she has returned to the country repertoire several times since. She went solo in 1973 and has recorded LPs and CDs for Columbia, MCA, Rounder, Flying Fish, Atlantic and other labels. In 1974 she had a country hit as the duet partner of Willie Nelson (no relation) on “After the Fire Is Gone.”

 

Her most recent release was 2007’s You’ll Never Be a Stranger at My Door on Memphis International Records.

 

Click for more

 

 

The 32nd Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival runs from the 30th July to the 8th of August. This innovative and unique festival has an eclectic mix of local and international blues acts. The festivals commitment to the blues is as strong as ever and this years line up is one of the best to date.

 

This year sees the long awaited return of ‘Canned Heat Woodstock Reunited’ playing their first Edinburgh date in 15 years at the Queens Hall on the 31^st of July. Eric Burdon and The Animals play The Queens Hall on the 6th of August. Local gravel voiced legend Tam White bring his unique Sermon Orchestra featuring guest vocalist Niki King to the Queens Hall on the 1st of August .

 

Blues legend Charlie Musselwhite plays The Jamhouse on the 7th of August. Nominated 6 times for a Grammy, he has collaborated with amongst others Eddie Vedder, Tom Waits, Ben Harper, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and the best man at his wedding John Lee Hooker. Described as the second coming of Led Zeppelin with Tom Waits on vocals.

 

Samuel L Jackson's guitar tutor, loved and admired by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor, multi Grammy nominated Alvin Youngblood Hart makes his first appearance at this year’s festival. His album 'Start With Soul' was one of the New York Times top ten albums of 2000 and the BBC’s No.1 Blues album. 

 

Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green and friends play at The Picture House on the 2nd of August. Blues ‘n’ Trouble singer Sandy Tweeddale and guitarist Tim Elliot play a tribute to Elmore James and Jimmy Reid,. This year see’s the return of Jon Cleary, a huge success at the 2008 festival.

 

The Jamhouse hosts a weekend of blues on the 7^th and 8^th of August, featuring ‘Blue’s n Trouble,’ The River Devils  King King, Gerry Jablonski Electric Band, John Hunt, Paul Lamb & The King Snakes, Barbara Morrison, the Lisa Mill's Band and the 'Violet Leighton Band'.

 

Festival Chairman Brian Fallon said' As a huge blues fan for many years I am delighted by this year's line up and look forward to all the exciting concerts that will enthral all lovers of great music and blues fans alike.'

 

For tickets and more info click here.

 

 

 Elwood celebrates Father’s Day, with some of the fathers of the blues. The country blues of Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Big Bill Broonzy (with Susan Tedeschi in the mix, saluting Robert Johnson). The Radio Hour moves from country to city with T. Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. With Big Daddies B. B. King, Little Milton, Charlie Musselwhite, and Buddy Guy for you as well. Plus, new music from Soul Papa Solomon Burke (produced by the late Willie Mitchell), and a chance for you to win a new biography: Raisin’ Cain: The Wild and Raucous story of Johnny Winter.

 

 

 

RBA Publishing Inc is based in Reno, NV with a satellite office in Beverly Hills, Florida. We produce the annual Blues Festival Guide magazine (now in its 7th year), the top-ranking website: www.BluesFestivalGuide.com, and this weekly blues newsletter: The Blues Festival E-Guide with approximately 20,000 weekly subscribers. We look forward to your suggestions, critiques, questions, etc.

Reach the E-Guide editor, Gordon Bulcock, gordon@bluesfestivalguide.com

or contact our home office at 775-337-8626, eguide@bluesfestivalguide.com
 

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