Tag Archives: Vinny Marini

May 6, 2013

Preview 2013 Blues Music Awards

Blues Music Awards

Yes indeed, it’s our time to shine.

On May 9, 2013 all eyes are turning to Memphis, Tennessee as the 34th Blues Music Awards will take place at the Cook Convention Center. The event brings together Blues performers, industry representatives and fans from all over the world to celebrate the best in Blues recordings and performances from the previous year. Each year, the Blues Foundation presents The Blues Music Awards to the artists selected by its members. They are universally recognized as the highest honor given to Blues artists. As always, a pre-party will immediately precede the Awards. To see the list of nominees visit here.

The Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Charter Members’ Dinner will be held the night before on Wednesday, May 8. Only Charter Members of the Foundation attend this joyous event, but there is so much going on you will surely enjoy the night before.

Without getting into too many words describing what is going on I will post these event posters so you can get the drift of the significance and scope of what goes on here. If you are a Blues fan, or casual dabbler, one visit to Memphis for this event and all that surrounds it will hook ya for life.

Blues Hall of Fame Tribute Jam & Fundraiser for the Raise the Roof Campaign and Music Heals Memphis
At B.B. Kings Blues Club, featuring performances by Russ Green, Zac Harmon, Big LLou Johnson, Bryan Lee, Maria Muldaur, Greg Nagy, John Primer, Jackie Scott, Eddie Shaw, Van Shaw and Redd Velvet. This is the Party After for the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Hosted by SiriusXM Bluesville Proprietor, Mr. Bill Wax, and the ‘voice’ of Bluesville, Big Llou Johnson. There will be a signed Gibson guitar auction ongoing so bring your checkbook,, credit card or cold hard cash to take this baby home.

This event will be broadcast as a live PPV event by VenMundi – visit www.venmundi.com for tickets and more info on the PPV portion.

For more info on event go to: http://blueshalloffamejam.eventbrite.com/#

Memphis Blues Society ‘Jammin’ On Beale Street’

Join the Memphis Blues Society for a night of sweatin’, stompin’ blues from around town and around the world at Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall right there on Beale Street.

At this point we have some insider information that folks like Shakura S’Aida, Kevin Selfe, Barbara Carr, Jeff Jensen, Ms. Ruby and a full tilt of others will be there to jam the night away and make you shake what yo’ mamma gave you.

Stop by after the Hall of Fame Dinner & Induction Ceremonies, no cover 7pm – till closing (whenever that may be).

For more info on The Memphis Blues Society click it!

Blind Raccoon/Earwig Music

The Blind Raccoon/Earwig Music Showcase

At the Purple Haze Nightclub, with a full bar and food for all yer cravings, Betsie Brown of Blind Raccoon, and Michael Franks of Earwig Music will be putting on a showcase featuring some of their finest talents. Featuring Andy Cohen, Leo Hull, Tommy McCoy, Guitar Mikey, RB Stone, Johnny Drummer and Chris James & Patrick Rynn.

These are always a joy to be at, there is such a wide variety of musical styles, and Purple Haze is a very cool place to catch live music and meet up with some friends. They make exceptional Bloody Mary’s (trust me on this one), perfect for the morning after, well the 2:00pm after!

Brandon Santini presents ‘The Beale Street Mess Around”

This is a benefit to help Raise The Roof for the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis. Featuring Greg Nagy, John Nemeth, Little G Weevil, Dennis Gruenling, of course the host, Mr. Brandon Santini himself, and many more that will thrill ya and make you do things ya didn’t know you could.

This will be at the (in)famous Rum Boogie Cafe, the seeming headquarters for all ancillary events at the BMA’s this and every year. It will be the first part of a two part party (see below).

The Vizztone Blues Party on Beale

At the aforementioned Rum Boogie Cafe, this is the event that many folks consider the highlight of the week, jus’ sayin’.

No this is not a jam, so leave those axes, 88′s, and mouth harps home and come down to watch the Vizztone collection of artists kick out the jams till they shut down Beale Street.

Featuring Mr. Bob Margolin, Doug Deming, EG Kight, Long Tall Deb, Gina Sicilia, Dave Gross..OK OK OK y’all get the picture here. If not just read the poster.

There are many other things going on these days. On Wednesday night Davina & The Vagabonds and Nick Moss will be in town at rum Boogie, The Blue South entertainment group will be tearing it up at the Hard Rock Cafe on Friday night. During the day on Friday you can mix baseball and the Blues as John Nemeth will play before the Memphis Redbirds take on the Sacramento River Cats (Big Llou will do the 7th inning sing along). Yellow Dog Records will have a showcase Wednesday at BB King’s featuring Colin Linden, Eden Brent and ‘daughter of a bluesman’ Cassie Taylor. Also check out the Center For Southern Folklore where Bill Sims, Jr & Mark Lavoie will be playing, and others thru the week.

So as you can see it’s gonna be a hot time in Memphis town, won”t ya join us – if not this year then plan on it for 2014. Can;t make it this year…..WAIT ….NEWS FLASH SiriusXM Bluesville #70 will be broadcasting the Blues Music Awards LIVE, Thursday beginning at around 7:30 on the East side of town straight thru till the final notes at some point on Friday morning. Listen in as Bill Wax, Tony Colter, Big Llou man the mic’s and special guests stop by to say hi. Too late for you? OK one last chance Bluesville will re-broadcast the musical portions of the awards starting that Friday every hour on the hour thru till Monday 3:00 am, now there is no excuse for not catching even a little bit of our day to honor all the great talent that we have here in the Blues world.

See ya there, stop me and say hi, get yo’ butts to Gus’s Famous Fried Chicken and try the fried pickles also! While there is almost too much to do, remember you can make it if you try, and too much ain’t never enough!

Love, Peace & Chicken Grease

chefjimi
©Blues411.com 2013
Where Blues Thrives
Photos: Courtesy of artists

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Update: 2013 Starts with Maintenance, Music on the Couch, Chicago Trip, Bluescruise and IBC’s

Dang that’s a pretty busy schedule for an old man like me!

As it turned out the ‘tech-bots’ went in and did some overhauling of the system this past week and tweaked and twaddled settings and stuff like that, hopefully it is clean and green for a while now her at the 411.

vinny marini

This past Monday was my first appearance for 2013 on Music on the Couch, sandwiched between Ray Bonneville and Tom Gray (Delta Moon), amongst others. This is the lead up for MOTC to broadcast live talks with IBC artists from Memphis the week of 1/29-2/2 or so. Check the web site for further information.
Quite excited that I now have a ‘theme song’ – HAH. Well Vinny Marini (from MOTC) wanted to have some music in the background for my segments and I reached out to a talented LA songwriter/piano player/teacher/singer and IBC competitor, Ron Tanski who did a bang up job and honored me with two versions of a song, an instrumental “Blues For Jimi” and a full out one with lyrics and a bridge and all that musical stuff titled “What’s Cookin’ (Blues for Jimi). It is playing in the background during Vinny and my talk time and then Vinny played the full version right after that. If ya want to hear what pearls of wisdom were exchanged please go to the link – my segment begins at 37:40 (though the whole show is chock full of insights from artists and great music from them). http://www.musiconthecouch.com/2013/01/010713-blues-411-report-with-chefjimi.html

A surprising turn of events – well, more like serendipitous orchestration, has led to be head to Chicago this weekend (1/10-11) to preside over the debut American CD release party of Italian Blues Singer. Ms. Linda Valori. She will be appearing at the famous Rosa’s Lounge with her band and featuring a great musician from our shores Mr. Sax Gordon on….sax (what else).
This event will be streamed live from www.RosasLounge.com both Friday and Saturday night, so stop by via internet if ya can’t make the scene in person. Hoping to see lots of my Chi-town peeps come on out to support this fine artist and event. Thanks to Frank Roszak Radio Promotions for getting me involved with this project

The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise #20 is upon us. Heading on down to Fort Lauderdale for the world’s only fully chartered blues cruise along with my cruiser framily. We hit the high seas Sunday and will be the envy of all cruise ships that come within hearing distance of the Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam. Stopping at Tortolla, St. Kitts and Half Moon Cay it is a life changing experience for sure. But remember what happens on da boat stays on da boat (or so it’s been said), but with the advent of Facebook well, not so much!

That takes us to the end of Janaury, and I plan on still being able to stand and party because it is IBC time in Memphis. That’s International Blues Challenge for the uninitiated, and it might be the closest thing to a bluescruise on land available.
Each January/February the Blues Foundation put son the event that features over 200 bands from around the world ‘competing’ in multiple categories for some really cool prizes and honors. For more info on this event check out https://www.blues.org/#ref=ibc_index and put this baby on your blues bucket list.

So all of this activity and travel has put a small dent in my regular routine of interviews and CD reviews, but all is not lost. Once February rolls around I will be more likely to stay local and get some writing done. I want to thank all the artists and others who have fed me some amazing releases that I plan on getting to, but when, ahh there’s the rub! As Tallulah Bankhead said, “There are only two geniuses in the world, Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare” I offer my apologies to the latter for bastardizing his writing.

Remember 2013 is the year of LIVE MUSIC, get out there and see it, bring a friend, try a different venue all this helps support the bands and keep our music thriving. To see the prior post on this subject and a call to arms please visit our final post of 2012 here:
http://blues411.com/opinion-new-years-resolution-support-live-music/

Until next time,

Love, Peace & Chicken Grease
chefjimi
©Blues411.com 2013
Where Blues Thrives
Photos by: Leslie K. Joseph

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Guest Blog: Concert To Help Raise The Roof for The Blues Hall of Fame

Back in July, I had the honor of Bernie Pearl Sitting On The Couch to discuss his career and his latest music.

We had a wonderful time as Bernie told story after story of the musicians he was able to meet, learn from and perform with during his late teens and early twenties.

A few weeks later, Bernie reached out to let me know he was going to be opening the main stage at The Biscuit on Friday and then he would be doing “Bridging The Blues” over the next two weeks, culminating in his appearance at the Bukka White Blues Festival and he had a few days open…would I be interested in his doing a live show in Memphis?

HELL YEAH!

After checking a few things, I decided to promote this special event myself. I partnered with Carson Lamm of Rum Boogie Cafe and we settled on Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall as the location for the event.

I arrived at Blues Hall at five to find Carson setting up the lights and making sure he had the cables needed.

Tim Thompson of Blackfoot Custom Amps arrived a short while later with a bass amp for Mike and two amps for Bernie to choose from. After some testing he selected the amp and began doing some warm-ups and sound check.

At 8pm, the show began and for the next four hours, Bernie and Mike transported us to the delta and shared their musical talents.

Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin Sam Hopkins, Muddy Waters and so many other great artists were honored by these two gentlemen with their musical selections. Bernie learned from and played with many of these great musicians, who he met at the Ash Grove Club in LA, which was owned by his brother.

Bernie moved between his old Mahogany acoustic (that he has played since he was 16), a National Resonator and an electric guitar that Bernie modified to a cross between a resonator and an electric.

Bernie interspersed the songs with bits of information on the artists he was playing, which added so much to the evening.

Throughout the evening, the patrons of Beale Street came in and listened and then a new group would come in and it happened throughout the evening.

Bernie and Mike have played together for some 20 years and it shows in their unspoken communications while on stage and through their constant banter and smiles throughout the evening.

Was the evening a success. Well, Carson (who has seen as many shows on Beale as anyone) stated: “It was hands down one of the best shows I have seen on Beale.” Many others who were there during the evening expressed their appreciation for the music and in the end, we raised some $300.00 which is being donated to the Blues Foundation to assist in the building of The Blues Hall Of Fame.

Was it as big as I dreamed…no…but I dream very BIG!

Never seen Bernie Pearl and Mike Barry play? Check the calendar on Bernie’s page and make sure you get to the next show close to you (hell, drive 2-3 hours, it is worth it!)

From Left:

Tim Thompson

Mike Barry

Vinny Bond Marini

Bernie Pearl

Carson Lamm

Note: Thank you Vinny Marini for sharing this report of a great event with us. I believe this could inspire others to do similar events. Terry VunCannon did a similar one in North Carolina earlier in the year, and I hope that I have missed some and they are a regular thing.

Until next time,
Love, Peace & Chicken Grease
chefjimi
©Blues411.com 2012
Where Blues Thrives
Photos provided by Vinny Marini.

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Filed under Blues, Charity, Entertainment, Guest Blogs, Music, Performance Review

Tagged as American Roots Music, Bernie Pearl, Betsie Brown, Bill Wax, Blues, Blues Hall of Fame, Blues411, Bukka white, Carson Lamm, Entertainment, IBC's, Lightnin' Hopkins, Memphis, Mr. Handy's Blues Hall, Raise The Roof Campaign, Rum Boogie Cafe, The Blues Foundation, Tony Colter, Vinny Marini, XM 70 Bluesville