Festivals

Delmark artists Tail Dragger and Syl Johnson will perform at The Ponderosa Stomp Music Festival. Ponderosa Stomp celebrates and pays tribute to the unsung heroes of rock ‘n roll, rhythm & blues, and other forms of American roots music. April 29 & 30, House Of Blues, New Orleans.

New Releases from Delmark, April/May 08

Dave Specter - Live In Chicago: Recorded live at Buddy Guy’s Legends and Rosa’s Blues Lounge, Live In Chicago features special guests Jimmy Johnson, Tad Robinson and Sharon Lewis. DVD/CD Release Parties on Wednesday, May 21 at Buddy Guy’s Legends, 9:30-1:00 and Thursday May 22 at SPACE (Society for Preservation of Arts & Culture in Evanston) Featuring Tad Robinson & many special guests.

Mississippi Heat - Hattiesburg Blues: Harmonica player Pierre Lacocque, vocalist Inetta Visor with guests Lurrie Bell, Carl Weathersby, The Chicago Horns and Ruben Alvarez. Release party Friday May 30, 10pm at Buddy Guy’s Legends. Special guest Carl Weathersby.

Technorati Tags: blues, Chicago blues, Ponderosa Stomp, Delmark

Electrified and Cheat You Fair have been added to film lineup of the Deep Blues Film Festival, part of the Deep Blues Festival in Lake Elmo, MN July 18-20, 2008.

More info on the Festival on The Deep Blues Blog.

Technorati Tags: Electrified, Cheat You Fair, Deep Blues Festival

I was able to make it down to Austin, Texas for the Red Gorilla Music Festival, March 10-12, and it was a wonderful experience. Del Breckenfeld, of Fender Guitars (a sponsor of Red Gorilla) had suggested that we show “Electrified” and “Cheat You Fair” at this relatively new festival, which runs concurrently with South By Southwest, and hooked us up with Roger Martinsen, one of the producer’s of the event. We decided we’d show both films, back to back, at a venue called The Chuggin’ Monkey in downtown Austin.

On the first day I arrived, I met with Roger, a fast-talking, former New Yorker, also sporting a shaved dome, and we immediately sprang into action. Our promotional postcards had already arrived — 5000 of them — and we had lots of “passing out” to do. About 1000 into it, Roger noticed a minor problem — there was no date on the postcard! Ever the undaunted promoter, Roger immediately suggested that we go to Office Max and purchase a date stamp, collect all of our postcards, stamp them and distribute them again. So, we did… and we did. At times like this, there is no time for feeling defeated or down, and we both gleefully sprang into action to make the best of what proved to be a minor obstacle.

Throughout Austin, from bar to bar we hoofed… from the Civic Center, to restaurants, and to public places of all kinds. There were mountains of fliers and postcards for films and events of all kinds, promoted mostly by exhibitors at the gargantuan South By Southwest Film/Music Festival. There were rockers from around the world, filmmakers, auteurs and fans. Billy Bob Thorton and his band were playing that night; there were rumors that REM would be playing at some local dive. In any case, Roger and I had a great time together and walked almost every inch of Austin on that first day. Five Starbucks coffees later, by evening, my dogs were blistered and battered, but I felt a great sense of achievement having passed out a good (properly stamped) 3500 postcards, promoting my film screening the next day.

On the day of the event, not a whole lot happened. Roger had some preliminary things to take care of, but our work had already been done. At around 1pm, we made it down to The Chuggin’ Monkey.

The screening was at 3pm. A photographer name Nikki Paschen was at the bar, already taking pics of people in the club and passerbyers. She had a great story how her boyfriend, a professional charter boatman, had recently captured a 600 lb. Mako shark with a tiny hook.

The screening was about to begin.

A group of guys from Sweden (one of whom had visited Maxwell Street) showed up, along with several other locals. Nanci Walker, Director of Creative Affairs from Universal Music Publishing, was also there.

It was a typical hot afternoon in downtown Austin, except for the fact that Maxwell Street was now being rediscovered at the Chuggin’ Monkey!

Nanci had to leave before the end of the film, but she gave me her card and asked that I call her about producing similar documentaries for Universal in the future. She thought my Maxwell Street film was very powerful and, potentially, marketable.

When it was over, I left for my hotel to take a nap and Roger and I planned to hook up later in the evening and hit some local clubs. From my hotel window, I could see the convention center, which was the focal point of South By Southwest.

That night, Roger and I met up and hit several places in downtown Austin, enjoying the local flavor along the way.

We discovered one little bar where 95 yr. old Chicago blues icon, Pinetop Perkins was playing the piano with his band.

Before we left, Roger and I were lucky enough to get our picture taken with Pinetop, a true, blues legend and generous man.

See you next year, Austin!

Phil Ranstrom Writer/Producer/Director

“Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues” “Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street”

Technorati Tags: Red Gorilla, Pinetop Perkins, Fender, Austin, SxSW

We’ve added a new category to our blogroll for Festivals. So far, we’ve got the Chicago Blues Festival (June 5-8) and the Congressional Blues Festival (April 23, Washington DC). We’ve also included a link to Festival Preview, a website that reports on music festivals across the country.

If you’d like us to list your event, please send an email to electrifiedblues@gmail.com

Technorati Tags: blues, music festivals

In our Electrified t-shirt giveaway — details here — we asked you to tell us who your favorite blues artist is and why. There’s just over a week left to enter, and we’d really appreciate your help in spreading the word about the giveaway and Notes of the Urban Blues. Leave your comment here, on the original post or on your own blog. If you do it on your own blog, which we’d love, please leave a comment here. When I use the random number generator to pick a winner, it helps to have everything in one place.

I found my dream blues team on YouTube yesterday: Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Here’s a clip from YouTube.

That Same Thing

Technorati Tags: Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Montreux, Electrified, Chicago blues