Bob Corritore Blues News

• Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy play Bisbee Blues Festival on Saturday and the Tucson Rhythm & Roots Series tonight! Diunna Greenleaf is one of the most sensational vocalists around and her 2011 album Trying To Hold On has earned her much critical acclaim. Diunna (pronounced Dye-U-Nah) will make the rounds in Southern Arizona with an appearance on Friday, September 14th at Rhythm & Roots Plaza Palomino concert series and then headlining the Bisbee Blues Festival on Saturday September, 15th. Diunna will bring her Texas-based band Blue Mercy plus special guest Bob Corritore. For those unfamiliar with Bisbee it is one of the most picturesque towns in Arizona and each year they throw a Wang-Dang-Doodle of a blues festival! Also appearing at the Bisbee Blues Festival will be Eddie Turner & The Trouble Twins, Bad News Blues Band, Sean Trackman & The Copper City Rail, and Leon J. Festival gates open at noon with music from 1pm until 8pm. For more info on the Bisbee Blues Fest click here. For more info on Tucson's Rhythm & Roots Series click here.
• Blues Blast Music Award winners announced! Mud Morganfield and Janiva Magness each receive multiple awards! Congratulations to all the winners and nominees of the 2012 Blues Blast Music Awards. Note the because of the awards ceremony being canceled (Blues Blast could not come to terms with their normal venue of Buddy Guy's Legends) we have an earlier announcement of the winning results. And the winners are:

Contemporary Blues CD: Janiva Magness / Stronger For It
Traditional Blues CD: Mud Morganfield / Son Of The Seventh Son
Song Of The Year: "I Won't Cry" written by Janiva Magness & Dave Darling
New Artist Debut Release: Sena Ehrhardt Band / Leave The Light On
Female Blues Artist: Janiva Magness
Male Blues Artist: Tab Benoit
Blues Band Of The Year: Tampled Under Foot

Sean Costello Rising Star Award: Mud Morganfield

Thanks to Bob Kieser and everyone at Blues Blast Magazine for providing this reflection point to celebrate the blues community and its endeavours.

• Dave Riley & Bob Corritore to open for Jimmie Vaughan! Texas blues guitar slinger Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt-A-Whirl Band with guest Lou Ann Barton will appear at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix on Wednesday, September 26. Opening the show will be the downhome blues duo of Dave Riley & Bob Corritore. To see the beautiful concert poster designed by Amy Brat click here.
• Kid Ramos update. West Coast guitar master Kid Ramos' recent cancer news sent shock waves through the blues community. Randy Chortkoff sent this report earlier today "Found out yesterday that Kid has a very rare form of cancer normally found in kids called Ewing's sarcoma. Kid will have to start months of heavy chemo and radiation therapy. Very expensive and intense". Kid just found out that he will begin treatments next week and that his full program of procedures will last for about a year. He feels strong, supported, and ready for this fight. Delta Groove Records has set up a web-page for donations at http://www.deltagrooveproductions.com/music/kid.html. There are 4 benefits set up so far that we are aware of:

Sunday, October 7, Nick's Taste Of Texas, Covina, CA, 1pm to 9pm, with The Blasters, Los Fabulocos, Mike Eldred Trio, The Delgado Brothers, The Blazers, Dale Peterson, Tremloco, Miguel Gracia & The Vaquetones. For more info click here.

Saturday, October 13, Italian harmonica champion Marco Pandolfi is organizing a benefit in Italy. Information will be posted soon at http://www.marcopandolfi.com/marcopandolfi.com/Home.html

Friday, November 2, and Sunday, November 4, The Rhythm Room in Phoenix is hosting 2 benefit shows, with a Friday night blues presentation and a Sunday afternoon rockabilly oriented benefit. Friday will feature The Nick Nixon / Andy T. Band, Markey Jeanette, Randy Chortkoff, Sugaray Rayford (Of The Mannish Boys), Lil' Ronnie, Rocket 88s, Bob Corritore, with many more still being added. The Sunday afternoon Rockabilly show on November 4 will be coordinated by Brenda Lee Pinup with the lineup forthcoming. That Saturday night, November 3 will feature Candye Kane who has had her own cancer battles.

Saturday, October 6, Dutch harmonica sensation Big Pete hosts a benefit at La Bonne Source, in Fleurus, Belgium. with Paul Size, Kirk Fletcher, Sugaray Rayford, Gene Taylor, Tia Gouttebel, Dusty Ciggaar, Sander Kooijman, Big Pete, Marc Tee, Nico Duportal, Big Dave, Erkan Özdemir, Willie ‘Wuff’ Maes, Jody van Ooijen, René Stock and others.

Randy Chortkoff states that he and Kim Wilson will be setting up an additional benefit show in late November or early December with details TBA.

• Southwest Musical Arts Foundation will release a CD to benefit Kid Ramos. It will be called The Kid Ramos / Bob Corritore Phoenix Blues Sessions and will have an initial limited run of 1000 copies of which 100% of CD sales go to Kid Ramos. This CD will be culled from 4 recording sessions Kid and Bob did in the mid to late 1990s with Henry Gray, Nappy Brown, Big Pete Pearson, Chief Schabuttie Gilliame, and Chico Chism. Most of this collection has been previously released on multiple CDs but this is the first time that the sessions will be presented in one package with this focus. The selections will showcase a simply beautiful body of work. It will be released mid to late October and more details are forthcoming. Special thanks to Kathy Bolmer, Delta Groove Productions, Bluebeat Music, Tempest Recording, and Sonorous Mastering for their parts in making this happen.CDs will be available through The Blues Foundation's Hart Fund, Bluebeat Music and at various benefits with all proceeds going to Kid Ramos.
• Virginia and North Carolina thanks. Special thanks to Lil' Ronnie & The Grand Dukes for hosting a harmonica showcase at the Blues On The Beach festival at Virgina Beach and for booking additional support dates at Loafers in Raleigh, NC and The Capital Ale House in Richmond, VA. The harmonica showcase featured Lil' Ronnie, Bob Corritore, Mitch Kashmar, and Kurt Crandell with backing by the Grand Dukes (Ivan Appelrouth, John Sheppard, John Fralin, and Stu Grimes). Also thanks to Reverend Billy C. Wirtz, Tad Walters, and Andy Poxon who guested at the club shows. It was also great to stop by the home office of Hohner Harmonicas in Richmond and to meet USA marketing chief Derek Crowder. Thanks to Cleve Baker of WPTM and WTRG for the radio interview. It was a great time for all of us harmonica players to have this time together and feed off of each other's music and share stories and jokes. I was very impressed with Lil' Ronnie's southern playing and singing and Mitch and Kurt were masters of that jazzy style of chromatic that features octaves. Great to see so many friends from far away places, and meet so many good people. Great to meet Watkins Ellerson who is Lil' Ronnie's partner in EllerSoul Records (check out the label website at http://www.ellersoulrecords.com/). Thank you Lil' Ronnie for making this happen!
  - Bob Corritore
• Chicago's Artis's Lounge Closes. Chicago Blues Guide reports that Artis’s, a mainstay blues club on Chicago's South Side, has closed its doors after nearly 30 years. Artis’s was known as the home of Billy Branch’s Monday night blues jams which attracted blues artists and fans from around the world. Owner Artis Ludd opened the venue , located at 1249 E. 87th Street, Chicago, in 1982. She didn’t own the building and was renting the space. The owners didn’t renew Ludd’s lease and the club was forced to close last month.
• Professor Longhair on YouTube! Please enjoy this 1973 clip of the infuential New Orleans piano master Professor Longhair performing his song "Big Chief" with a tight, groovin' band at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Click here, to see.

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