The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Busy Mother’s Day weekend for music
Roomful of Blues is at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center on Friday. One doesn’t have to say too much about this group. Entertaining and always a pleasure to watch, they continue their award winning performances.
Black-eyed Sally’s has a busy Mother’s Day weekend. Friday, it is Carla Cooke, followed Saturday by Laura Rain & the Caesars. Sunday the traditional Mother’s Day Gospel Brunch takes place.
Carla Cooke is the youngest daughter of the legendary Sam Cooke. She crafted her sound in the church similar to her dad. The younger Cooke knows her father’s roots are so deep that she has become her own person and connects with her roots through her father’s music. Cooke’s style is diverse in gospel, Christian, R&B, soul, pop and the contemporary sound that embraces today’s culture. With a strong vocal range and warm personality, her stage presence commands the environment wherever she performs.
Detroit’s Laura Rain and the Caesars transform funky soul and r&b into their own unique vision. Inspired by the spirit of classic recordings of a bygone era, Laura Rain creates her own environment of expression with a powerful and soulful voice.
Café 9 has a Saturday show featuring Duwayne Burnside joined by Black Snake Boots. Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Duwayne Burnside is the son legendary North Mississippi musician R.L. Burnside. He has been a frequent performer with the North Mississippi Allstars since the early 1990s, when that group, fronted by Luther .Cody Dickinson, formed. The young Burnside learned his first few guitar licks and chords from his father, but proved a quick study and soon began playing with local club owner Junior Kimbrough and the Soul Blues Boys.
Growing up in Holly Springs, he was close to Memphis, and as soon as he was able to get to Memphis, he did, and soon had the chance to sit in with many stars. Burnside also began playing in his Dad’s band. He recorded for Hightone and Fat Possum Records with his father’s group before moving to Memphis, where he opened his own club, Burnside Kitchen and Grill, near Highway 61. He booked the music, cooked the food, sold the beer, and had his own band perform there on a weekly basis.
In 1998, he recorded his first album, as Duwayne Burnside & the Mississippi Mafia. After returning to Memphis, he decided to take a break from the bar business and settled back home in Holly Springs. In 2004, he opened another version of the Burnside Blues Cafe in Holly Springs and formed a new band that fused soul blues with hill country blues. Burnside continues to tour, helping to keep the North County, Mississippi hillstyle blues flourishing.
Black Snake Boots is a newer blues band, but they are all blues veterans and play a deep, raw, swampy and soulful blues.
Popa Chubby returns to FTC Stage One Saturday. A rough, gruff, and tough bluesman to the core, his sound is like the Stooges meets Buddy Guy. He knows no musical genre boundaries. He rocks. He funks. He goes from hard blues rock to B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby” to originals that feature his signature soul-shouting and those ballads that lead to soulful feelings.
The Mohegan Sun Wolf Den has Kim Simmonds & Savoy Brown. One of the earliest of British Blues bands, Savoy Brown, with founder guitarist Kim Simmonds at the helm, helped launch the 1967 U.K. Blues boom movement that brought Blues music back to the United States invigorating the style forever. In the process, the band became part of the framework that launched the Rock and Roll music of the 1970’s. After the successful run of the early to mid 70’s, Simmonds moved operations to the U.S.
Saturday, Smokin’ With Chris has The Deep Ellum acoustic duo. They play an “Americana” mix of blues, old jazz, folk music, bluegrass, and oldies. The duo is named for the historic red-light, musical entertainment, and recording district in Dallas that was immortalized in Blind Lemon Jefferson’s classic “Deep Ellum Blues.”
Mother’s Day is being celebrated at a number of venues. Reservations are recommended. At Blackeyed Sally’s it is the traditional Mother’s Day Gospel Brunch. It features a full Southern Buffet and the Mary Taylor Gospel Revue.
Infinity Music Hall both in Hartford and Norfolk have a Mother’s Day Brunch Buffet. You can hang out Sunday in Norfolk for Donna The Buffalo. Infinity Music Hall Hartford has Doyle Bramhall II on Thursday. You can also celebrate Mothers Day at Saltwater Farms Vineyard with Shawn Taylor.
Tipping Chair Tavern has its Sunday breakfast menu which can keep Mother happy. On Friday, the Kathy Thompson Band is there.
The Stomping Ground has a big week. The Eric Ducoff Band is there Friday and Saturday, The Rick Harrington Band takes the stage. Thursday, Big Jon Short returns.
Misquamicut SpringFest takes this weekend in Westerly Rhode Island. Friday, John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band will be playing.
The Blues Music Awards are taking place this week. It is more than a one night event. Many jams, get togethers happen along with induction into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Get the complete Blues Beat schedule on Thursday at the blog http://bluesbeat
news.wordpress.com/.