The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
More CTBS blues jams are in the offing
Well, it is looking more and more like old times. Blues shows are appearing more frequently, including last week’s very successful inaugural edition of the CTBS Blues Jam at The Chicken Shack in Marlborough.
The CTBS All Stars — River City Slim, Joey Primo, Phil Caron) joined by featured artist Mike Bloomer and talented jammers — are playing at a great venue, which will only get better as the warm weather comes along. There will be more outdoor seating. See you on the first Thursday in May, when the featured guest will be the incomparable Tas Cru.
Liviu Pop and friends, this time including Grayson Hugh, Polly Messer, and Tim McDonald, returned to the Simsbury Grange last Saturday for an outdoor concert.
Blues musician are beginning to send out their gig schedules. Mark Zaretsky tells us The Chicago Dawgs have an actual live gig on Sunday, as a duo, at Cafe Nine, for The Sunday Buzz by Cygnus Radio. Get there early, since space is limited to just over 30 people and another dozen or so outside. Please wear a
mask when you’re not eating or sipping. The fully-vaccinated Tom Crivellone and Mark Zaretsky will be playin’ the blues for you.
Chris Stovall Brown plays The Stomping Ground on Saturday. Brown, a guitarist/vocalist/ harp-player, has spent the better part of his life on stages around the world in more than 25 countries and three continents. He has
performed with many blues and soul greats, including opening the original House Of Blues with James Cotton and headlining the King Biscuit Festival in Arkansas with soul great Howard Tate, as well as leading his own Stovall Brown Band.
When you attend the show, expect to hear great high-energy blues & soul performed by consummate professionals who have performed this music for a long time. Copies of their CDs will be available for purchase at the venue so you can take a little memory of this show home with you.
Tower of Power is coming to town. Both the Ridgefield Playhouse April 12, and the Warehouse on April 13.
Stone Flower’s Santana Tribute with special guests New Rising Sun plays Friday at the Milford Mall Drive-In Sound Stage/ Outdoors. The Drive-In outdoor concert series opens at 7 p.m. Chairs, coolers and tailgating welcome..
Saturday, at 11 a.m., Hartford Harley Davidson presents Screamin Eagle Band live at their open house.
Sunday, at 2 p.m., hear Erin & Jim’s April Livestream on Facebook Live, for the next installment their monthly concert featuring the Country Blues Duo. Join them from 2-3:30 p.m. It streams four times a week as a free online concert series, “Wi-Five Live”. The schedule is Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m., Boston time.
A livestream music series honoring Piedmont blueswoman Elizabeth ‘Libba’ Cotton is on Facebook Live, at the following links: .www.facebook.com/ MusicMakerReliefFoundation/live, and YouTube Live: bit.ly/2Z1lSRE . The series will also be streamed on Soul Bag and Artarie.
Each installment opens with a rare archival performance from one of North Carolina’s Piedmont blues masters. These legends have either been showcased at previous Freight Train Blues performances or performed in Carrboro over the years.
Freight Train Blues celebrates the life and legacy of Piedmont blues legend Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten, born in 1893 in Carrboro, N.C. Some of her best known compositions, like the now-standard “Freight Train” and “Shake Sugaree,” have been canonized into the repertoires of American popular culture, with the latter interpreted by the Grateful Dead. Her enduring legacy was featured earlier this year in a piece from “Good Morning America,” which called her “a master storyteller.”
Due to the ban on singing indoors, all spring shows at GIMMELIVE are rescheduled to for the fall. Massachusetts has banned singing indoors, and officials have given no indication when that ban might be rescinded. They don’t like rescheduling any more than you do. That’s why spring shows are going to the fall.
Maybe Victor Wainwright said it best, “We’ve been confined to our studios and offices way too long and wish we could have busted out in April to relieve some of this cabin fever, but we all just need to be patient a little longer.”
Springing the Blues Festival, scheduled for April 9, 10, 11 2021 has been postponed to next year, April 1, 2, 3, 2022. The decision to postpone is out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety and well-being of attendees, volunteers, staff, sponsors, performers, and vendors due to the risks and uncertainties surrounding Covid-19 and its variants as well as Governmental Restrictions placed on large crowd gatherings in order to lessen potential exposure and slow the spread of this deadly disease.