Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials to kick off HS Blues Festival

Alligator recording artists Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials will perform at The Big Chill,

910 Higdon Ferry Road, at 9 p.m. on Aug. 31 in support of their latest CD, “The Big Sound of Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials.”

The concert is part of the Hot Springs Blues Festival’s kickoff party.

Currently celebrating

30 history-making years together, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials ply their musical talents with skills that have been honed to a razor’s edge, a news release said. Mixing smoking slide guitar boogies and rawboned shuffles with the deepest slow-burners, Lil’ Ed Williams and his Blues Imperials, including bassist and Ed’s half-brother James “Pookie” Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton, deliver gloriously riotous, rollicking and intensely emotional blues. Ed guested on TBS Television’s “Conan,” with Conan O’Brien proclaiming Lil’ Ed as “the man who taught me to play the blues,” the release said.

The band recently won the coveted 2017 Blues Music Award for Band of The Year, the same honor they received in 2009 and 2007. They received the Living Blues Award for Best Live Performer three times in five years and in 2017 were named Blues Band Of The Year by Blues Blast Magazine.

Tickets are $10. Call 501-6245185 for more information.