The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Looking ahead to 2022’s festival season
New Year’s Eve was a little different this year as venues reacted to the pandemic. But the festival season is coming, and Blues Beat is looking ahead with caution, hope and optimism.
There are two chances to see D.A. Foster & the Shaboo Allstars this week: Friday at Infinity Hall Norfolk and Saturday at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center. in Old Saybrook.
D.A. Foster has been singing professionally since he was 14 years old. Of all the genres of music he has covered, he says he loves singing the blues the most. The intricacy of the music, the connection to human feelings, and touching people's souls are what gives him the mojo and drive to get out and perform.
Saturday, Infinity Hall Norfolk has SoulShine: An Allman Brothers Experience. The band is a group of seasoned New York musicians who, through their mutual love of the Allman Brothers Band, have united for the sole purpose of creating the ultimate Allman Brothers experience.
Friday, Amy Helm is at Park City Music Hall in Black Rock. Albert Lee comes to FTC StageOne on Wednesday.
RGB, The Rob Glassman Band is at Stella Blues on Saturday for its first gig of 2022, and JC & JD Acoustic (Jonathan Chapman & Jonathan Seem) play Widow Brown's Café. Snake Hill Blues goes to Soft Tail Café & Grill and the Rich Badowski Blues Band will spend Saturday at the Hartford Road Café.
David Stoltz & Co. are doing Sunday Blues each week at The Flying Monkey Grill & Bar.
The Bijou Theatre will host WPKN's Environmental Film Series on Wednesday. The film “Seaspiracy” is a 2021 documentary film about the environmental impact of fishing, and examines various human impacts on marine life and advocates for ending fish consumption.
Thursday, JDs Jam at the Sugar Hollow Taproom will have Manny Foglio as a special guest; and Evan Goodrow plays The Stomping Ground.
Theodores’ BBQ on Friday has The Wildcat O’Halloran Band. They have been thrilling audiences in Western Massachusetts for more than 20 years.
Saturday, Professor Harp brings his educated harmonica to town, and Mystic Dead celebrates its third anniversary at The Knickerbocker Music Center. As the name implies they will be playing music of the
Grateful Dead.
Friday, the New Incredible Amplifires' are in Holyoke, Mass., at the American Legion Post 351. On Saturday, the Orb Mellon Trio heads to Great Awakenings Brewing in Westfield.
Wednesday. Donna the Buffalo return to Daryl's House.
The Blues Foundation Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to postpone the 37th International Blues Challenge, scheduled for Jan. 18-22. The past couple of weeks have shown a significant increase in positive cases of COVID-19, not only in the U.S. but globally. This week, Memphis saw its highest spike in positive cases since the start of the pandemic.
After consulting with the IBC partners, as well as with the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Department, and members of the blues community, the decision was made to postpone IBC until later in 2022. The Blues Foundation is actively working with its partners to determine a new event date, and will share it as soon as possible. For questions or concerns, contact The Blues Foundation's Board Chair, Scott Fitzke, at chairperson@blues.org.
It is worth noting that the Blues Foundation announced 2022 Keeping the Blues Alive Award Recipients.
Normally, The Blues
Foundation would celebrate the winners during IBC week, with a ceremony and brunch. While this is not going to happen, the recipients are worth a mention. They give a good indication of the support the blues receives.
Big Blues Bender’s HART Party is part of a 4-day music festival held annually in Las Vegas and a fundraiser that graciously supports the HART (Handy Artist Relief Trust) Fund.
You may have seen this recipient on the Connecticut Blues Society page. Can’t Stop The Blues was founded by Karen Gottheimer in March of 2020. The CSTB virtual concert series, streamed on Facebook and YouTube, created a groundbreaking and desperately needed virtual space during the lockdown for the blues scene plus an artist revenue stream.
If you have been to the IBC, you probably saw Tom Claypool. For the past three decades, Claypool has chosen to donate his time and talents to music organizations, music events, and public radio in order to give back to the community that first inspired him. He also hosts major IBC events.
The club, FitzGerald’s Roadhouse, has been a champion for all kinds of American roots music that has included a constant flow of top-notch blues artists since 1981.
Joe Bonamassa’s Fueling
Musicians Program is one of the most notable, funded by his Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation. It is designed to provide critically needed assistance to musicians whose income has been eliminated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jerry Mason from Jackson, Mississippi is an entrepreneur and promoter. “Boogie” Mason built a network of traditional and new media connections via email, print advertising, and social media, to promote blues, Southern soul, and other genres of music rooted in communities of color.
Phil Ranstrom is American documentary filmmaker living in Chicago and has been writing, producing, and directing awardwinning documentaries since the 1980s.
A journalist, cultural promoter and curator of the blues since 1964, Raúl de la Rosa organized Mexico’s first blues festival in 1978 and produced eleven more between 1978 and 2012.
Jack Sullivan, for over 30 years, has achieved national and international success as a magazine publisher (Blues Music Magazine), festival promoter, and online music store marketer.