The News Review:
- This weekend it’s Springing the Blues at the beach
- utdoors and Indoors Blessings to the Blues
- At Harpin’ Help musicians will be blowin’ blues for a cause
- ne Man’s New Take on an ld Tradition
This weekend it’s Springing the Blues at the beach
Florida Times-Union
Just past halfway through that century I was born and grew up in the Deep South residing in six Southern states in a family that were leaders in the desegregation movement all of which fortunately broadened my exposure. "Early on I loved rock ‘n’ roll music was particularly drawn to Chuck Berry and was interested in where the music came from. I believe it mostly came from the blues. By the end of my teens I was in Memphis. At that time you had to search out blues music. And drawn to its emotion and rhythm I did search it out and found many of the old musicians still playing in Blues Alley where they allowed me to sit in. "Why blues? For me blues is the heart and the soul of all popular music from the mid 20th century on.
Related from Maniafest: SF Blues Festival taking the year off
utdoors and Indoors Blessings to the Blues
New York Times
PAUL’S CHAPEL (Episcopal) 209 Broadway between Fulton and Vesey Streets Lower Manhattan. At noon “Blues for Good Friday” with a performance by the Gateway Band. readings music and veneration of the Cross.
At Harpin’ Help musicians will be blowin’ blues for a cause
The Star-Ledger – NJ.com
Rob Paparozzi a mainstay of the Jersey club scene who is currently singing and playing harmonica for jazz-rock band Blood Sweat and Tears will headline with his Hudson River Rats Big Band. Steve Guyger a Philadelphia-based bluesman who will present the second-to-last set is a nominee in the harmonica category of the Memphis-based Blues Foundation’s 2009 Blues Music Awards which will be given out May 7. Formerly known as the W. Handy Awards the Blues Music Awards are generally regarded as the blues world’s most important honor. Mack who has been putting Harpin’ Help together throughout its eight- to 10-year history (he’s not sure exactly when he started it) is himself a harmonica player though he’s not planning to play at this year’s show. Some of his harmonica students though will open the event billed as the Mack Jammers.
ne Man’s New Take on an ld Tradition
New York Times
(His most recent self-released album “Different Game” spotlights his folk-rock side somewhat regrettably. ) “She’s All Alone” one of his older songs dripped with mawkish sentiment. “Necksnap Blues” a recent attack on music-business conformity crossed from indignation into smugness. In strictly musical terms though “Necksnap Blues” proposed a curious crossroads between the Appalachian hills and the Pacific Islands. And Makana made it another virtuoso turn tossing in hammer-ons and pull-offs with furious speed.