Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Anti-Freeze Blues Fest returns


Kim Simmonds

The Anti-Freeze Blues Festival returns to the Magic Bag in Ferndale this weekend.
The 19th annual festival opens Friday, Jan. 4, with headliners Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown, plus Laith Al Saadi, Mark Pazman’s Super Session, and Reverend Robert Jones and Tino. Pazman’s Super Session will include guitarist Mark “Pazman” Pasman, singer-guitarist Motor City Josh, singer-harp player Jimmy “Pickles” Nicholls, bassist Alex Lyon, and drummer Ron Pangborn. Tickets are $25.
Larry McCray
On Saturday, singer-guitarist Larry McCray headlines. Also performing will be guitar wizards Jim McCarty and Jeff Grand, The Rootsologists featuring Laura Rain, and The Boa Constrictors. Tickets are $20.
A portion of ticket proceeds benefit the Detroit Blues Society. Tickets are available on Ticketweb.com.

Lil’ Ed at Callahan’s
Alligator Records artist Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials are coming to Callahan’s Music Hall in Auburn Hills on Friday, Jan. 11. This is their first time through the Motor City since the release of their fine new CD, “Jump Start.” Slide guitar master Lil’ Ed recently received two Blues Music Award nominations, one for Traditional Male Blues Artist, and a second for his whole group, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, for Band Of The Year. They recently picked up the 2012 Living Blues Readers’ Award for Best Live Performer (they won the same award in the Critics’ Poll in 2011).
Other upcoming shows at Callahan’s include Jason Ricci (Jan. 12), and the Detroit Blues Society International Blues Challenge fundraiser concert featuring Detroit Blues Challenge winners Lady X and the Sunshine Band and Sweet Willie Tea (4 p.m. Jan. 13).
Lady X and the Sunshine Band and Sweet Willie Tea will be representing the DBS later this month at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Lady Sunshine and the X Band finished second at the IBC in 2004.

DBS Meeting and Jam
The first Detroit Blues Society monthly meeting and jam will be held Jan. 12 at Mario’s Of Troy.
The latest recipients of the DBS Lifetime Achievement Awards --  performers Sweet Claudette and the late Baby Boy Warren, and blues historian Fred Reif -- will be honored.
MotorCity Tones
The MotorCity Tones will be the host band and will perform a set to kick off the entertainment, followed by an open jam session.

Attic Dwellers
The Attic Dwellers acoustic blues jam returns from 1-5 p.m. Jan. 13 at Paycheck’s in Hamtramck.  You can bring your acoustic instrument and join in the jam, or simply listen and enjoy the music.

 Joan Osborne gets Grammy nomination
Saguaro Road Records artist Joan Osborne has received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Blues Album for her 2012 release “Bring It On Home.” Osborne is one of the most talented and versatile singers around, comfortable in the blues, rock, soul and bluegrass genres, and “Bring It On Home” is one of the finest albums I’ve heard in quite a while.

The New York Daily News named the album to its Top Ten music list, noting that “she recasts the blues with her own grind and shout” and the New Yorker delighted in her “voice containing a rich mixture of colors….now she’s come back to the blues.”  American Songwriter magazine added, "...Osborne injects tremendous passion into sides originally recorded by Ray Charles, Sonny Boy Williamson, Al Green, Otis Redding and others. When she digs into John Mayall’s slow blues ‘Broken Wings,’ the emotional torrent obscured in the original is brought to the surface through her fiery vocals."
Check it out.

Other nominees for Best Blues Album include: “33 1/3” by Shemekia Copeland (Telarc International), “Locked Down” by Dr. John (Nonesuch), “Let It Burn” by Ruthie Foster
(Blue Corn Music), plus “And Still I Rise” by Heritage Blues Orchestra (Raisin' Music).

To send info to JB Blues, please email Joe.Ballor@dailytribune.com


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