Tag Archives: Jay Sieleman

While at the International Blues Challenge this January/February we were all privileged to hear some outstanding music by bands from around the world. But at the Finals held in the stately Orpheum Theater, we were all treated to a rousing – calling it a speech wouldn’t do it justice – call to action by Mr, Rattlebones Jones concerning the mission of erecting a Blues Hall of Fame as part of the Blues Foundation home in Memphis. To see this speech visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwHKxJq9Pjo .

Well the first folks to step up and get something going to help raise awareness and, raise some greenbacks is V-Muse Productions. V-Muse is the brainchild of Terry VunCannon and Janice Hamby. Scheduled for June 3, 2012 at Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem NC, it features the legendary Mr. Bob Margolin and his band (Chuck Cotton, & Tad Walters). The King Bees, and Lawyers Guns & Money and Randy McQuay who was the winner of the 2012 Lee Oskar Harmonica Player Award from the IBC. This is a serious band line up, thanks tot hem all for participating in this event.

The Blues Foundation has officially endorsed this event, and in doing so are providing promotional material about the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame Project. Hoping for this to be the jumping off point for many more of these blues music fund raisers for the cause. Also at this time there are two of North Carolina’s Blue Societies who are engaged at the Sponsorship level. The Piedmont Blues Preservation Society of Greensboro at the Silver Level, and the Cape Fear Blues Society of Wilmington is holding down the Bronze level. To see blues societies join together for this cause is a very encouraging sign, and hopefully other societies will create an event similar to this one. The Gold Level sponsorship is from YES ! Weekly, who will provide advertising to help get the word out there. You know ya can’t have an event if no one knows about it, so thanks to YES ! Weekly for stepping up on this event big time..

Where does that leave us, how can we help? Specifically for this event you can buy tickets – $10 at the door or through Ziggy’s website – http://ziggyrock.net/. You can make donations to the cause; checks, auction items, signed guitars and such. Cash donations go directly to the Blues Foundation and all proceeds from this show will go to the Blues Foundation also, everything helps. I recently discovered that many corporations have a matching charitable fund source, so find out if your company does and use it to get matching funds for the Blues Foundation. The Foundation is currently conducting the Campaign for the Blues Hall of Fame, a $3.5 million capital campaign to add Hall of Fame exhibits to our offices at 421 South Main. For complete information about the Blues Hall of Fame please click on this link http://www.blues.org/#ref=halloffame_capital . To find out how you can be a part of this project, contact Executive Director Jay Sieleman at 901.527.2583 ext. 12.

I have to give a shout out to Terry and his band “Lawyers Guns & Money” who have a release out titled Make Up Another Lie on VM Productions. Having recently laid claim to the #1 hit on Cashbox Magazine charts with Hook, Line and Sinker, and now the title track Make Up Another Lie charting well makes this release worth checking out. Terry and the band were contestants at the 2012 IBC’s and it was there that he got inspired to go home and make this event happen. Their site is: http://www.reverbnation.com/lawyersgunsmoney

We need more artists like Terry to step up and create events to help build the Blues Hall of Fame. Just think there were 250 bands (or so) at the IBC’s this year and if each band put on a show with the help of the local Blues Societies and made $2,000.00 that would be $500,000.00 a great step to the goal of $3.5M. But it goes beyond the money raised, it is about getting the word out about the Hall of Fame project, getting people interested in it both inside and outside our circle. Think how glorious it will be when we can have a home for Little Milton, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith and all the inductees in one place. It would be a place for pilgrims to flock to and see the history of these great Blues artists and learn more about the mother of all American popular music. THINK ACT ENGAGE

Until next time,
Love, Peace & Chicken Grease
chefjimi
©Blues411.com 2012

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