MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis’ claim as the
“Home of the Blues” will be indisputably evident the first week of February
when The Blues Foundation hosts its 33rd
Annual International Blues Challenge. Musicians from around the globe
will convene in Memphis to compete for cash, prizes, and bookings as they
are judged the best in IBC categories, among them Band, Solo/Duo, Electric
Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica Player, and Self-Produced CD. The
Challenge’s alumni include such acclaimed musicians as Susan Tedeschi,
Tommy Castro, Delta Moon, Trampled Under Foot, Sean Costello and Grady
Champion.
Historic Beale Street will be the site for each of
the challenge rounds, opening with the International Showcase on Tuesday,
January 31, 2017, quarter-finals on Wednesday, February 1 and Thursday,
February 2, and the Youth Showcase and semi-finals on Friday, February 3.
The finals round of the world’s largest and most prestigious blues music
competition will be held at Memphis’ grand Orpheum Theatre on Saturday,
February 4 beginning at noon. Besides the amazing live blues performances,
the five-day-long IBC will also present a variety of lectures, seminars,
workshops, film, networking events, a silent auction, and affiliated blues
society receptions that will appeal to blues professionals and fans
alike.
While the International Blues Challenge looks to the
future, The Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Awards honor those
individuals and institutions that have helped to keep the blues going
strong. As Blues Foundation President and CEO Barbara Newman proclaimed,
“Our 2017 Keeping the Blues Alive recipients are all wonderful examples of
blues flame keepers, each working in their own sphere of influence to move
the genre forward while honoring its past.”
The
2017 Keeping the Blues Alive Awards recipients are:
1. Baltimore
Blues Society
2. Blues
and Soul Records
3. Kathy
Bolmer
4. Briggs
Farm Blues Festival
5. Kyle
Deibler
6. Greaseland
Studios
7. Highway
99 Blues Club
8. Jay
Miller
9. Jacques
Morgantini
10. James
Nagel
11. Porretta
Soul Festival
12. Steve
Salter
13. Eddie
Stout
14. Suzanne Swanson
15. WGLT
radio
16. Wolf
Records
These honorees, who will be recognized
during a luncheon on February 3, represent a broad spectrum of the music
world: record labels, music festivals, recording studios, clubs, radio
stations, publications, and individuals with an undying passion to preserve
and sustain the blues. They include grassroots blues heroes like Steve
Salter, who created the nonprofit Killer Blues Headstone Project so that
blues musicians wouldn’t be buried in unmarked graves, and Eddie Stout, who
is known as the “Ambassador of Texas Blues” for his work single-handedly
running Dialtone Records. The KBA’s spotlight also shines on events like
the Briggs Farm Blues Festival, which has been bringing the Mississippi
Delta to eastern Pennsylvania for nearly 20 years, and Greaseland Studios,
the San Jose recording studio where Kim Wilson, Maria Muldaur, Elvin
Bishop, and Charlie Musselwhite have laid down tracks.
2017’s KBA recipients not only cover America
coast-to-coast — from the Baltimore Blues Society to Seattle’s Highway 99
Blues Club — but also reveal blues’ international popularity. Wolf Records
has been promoting Magic Slim and other Chicago blues acts for over 30
years, and they aren’t doing it from Illinois, but Austria. The Chicago
blues were also very important to 92-year-old Jacques Morgantini, known as
the Alan Lomax of Europe, who brought many American bluesmen to play in
France. The Porretta Soul Festival, meanwhile, has turned a small Northern
Italian town into a mecca of soul music, particularly the Memphis variety.
The International Blues Challenge is sponsored in
significant part by ArtsMemphis, AutoZone, Beale Street Merchants
Association, BMI, First Tennessee Foundation, Gibson, Lee Oskar Harmonicas,
Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Memphis Convention & Visitors
Bureau, Saint Blues Guitar Workshop, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company,
Tennessee Arts Commission, and VividPix & Design
Media sponsors include Beale Street Caravan, Big
City Rhythm and Blues, Blues Festival Guide, Blues Matters!,
Downtowner, Elwood’s Bluesmobile, and Living Blues
More information on the International Blues
Challenge can be found at http://blues.org/international-blues-challenge/.
Passes to the IBC for the entire week’s events are just $100 and add-on
tickets for the Keeping the Blues Alive luncheon are available online at www.blues.org or by calling 901-527-2583,
ext. 10
About The Blues Foundation: This world-renowned, Memphis-based organization holds a
mission to preserve blues heritage, celebrate blues recording and
performance, expand worldwide awareness of the blues, and ensure the future
of this uniquely American art form. Founded in 1980, The Blues Foundation
has approximately 4,000 individual members and 200 affiliated blues societies
representing another 50,000 fans and professionals around the world. Its
signature honors and events — the Blues Music Awards, Blues Hall of Fame,
International Blues Challenge, and Keeping the Blues Alive Awards — make it
the international hub of blues music. Its HART Fund provides the blues
community with medical assistance for musicians in need, while Blues in the
Schools programs and Generation Blues Scholarships expose new generations
to blues music. The recent opening of the Blues Hall of Fame Museum, in
Memphis, now adds the opportunity for music lovers of all ages to interact
with the music and the history. Throughout the year, the Foundation staff
serves the global blues community with answers, information, and news.
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