Magic City Blues Fest September 2
The Magic City Blues Fest will be held September 2 at Sloss Furnaces in downtown Birmingham from noon until 8 p.m. Gates open at 11:30 a.m.
September 01, 2007
July 30, 2007
Battle of the Birmingham Blues Band Winners On to Memphis
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| Photo by Glynn Wilson |
| The Magic City Blues Society staged a full house of local talent Sunday at Zydeco on Southside and two lucky acts will compete Jan. 31- Feb. 2 at the 2008 International Blues Challenge finals to be held in Memphis, Tennessee. Todd Simpson and Mojo Child, pictured above, took first in the Band category, followed closely by Dan and the Dusters in second and Midnight Train in third. |
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| Glynn Wilson |
| With Bruce Andrews on vocals and blues harp and George Dudley on guitar, 2BLU came in first in the Solo/Duo category. Second place went to Sam Pointer. Troy Bland came in third. |
The International Blues Challenge has evolved into the nation’s largest and most respected showcase for Blues musicians ready to take their act to the national stage, according to the Memphis Blues Foundation Website.
Note: Locust Fork News and Journal editor and publisher Glynn Wilson was happy to serve as a judge for the competition and would like to thank the Magic City Blues Society for putting on such a great show to promote the traditions of American blues. Like a lot of things in modern society, without good stewards, historic and cultural artifacts might be lost - including art forms like the blues.
July 24, 2007
Battle of Birmingham Blues Bands July 29
The Battle of the Blues Bands in Birmingham will be held Sunday, July 29, beginning at Zydeco at 2 p.m.
Competing this year in the Solo/Duo category will be 2BLU, Troy Bland, Sam Pointer, Lenny Trawick, Leonard Watkins. In the full band cetegory: Blue Light Specials, Dan and the Dusters, Legal Aliens, Michael Carpenter Experience, Midnight Train, Todd Simpson and Mojo Child and the Lance Almon Smith Band.
For more information, contact the Magic City Blues Society.
April 09, 2007
Birmingham Blues Events for April
The Phelan Park Music Series for 2007 starts this Sunday, April 15 in Birmingham in the park is located across from Dreamland BBQ at the corner of 14th avenue and 15th Street South. Liz Brown is the featured performer. Bring your lawn chair and cooler and enjoy FREE Blues music from 3-6 p.m.
Also, the Tuscaloosa Crawfish and Blues Festival is this weekend. Get all the info here.
The next open jam will be at The Burly Earl on April 20. Contact Leonard Watkins at watkins_leonard@yahoo.com for more info.
For more blues around Birmingham, check the full April schedule below...
April 07, 2007
Benefit for Songwriter Scott Boyer April 18
The last time we ran into Scott Boyer, he was jamming at a Florence lake house last year with Wayne Perkins and a Muscle Shoals rhythm section and feeling fine.
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| Scott Boyer |
But since he's come down with peripheral artery disease and had surgery that replaced much of his right femoral artery to improve circulation, and since he has no health insurance - like many musicians and Americans - the medical expenses are piling up.
So his friends in the music business and fans are putting on a benefit at Birmingham's Alabama Theatre April 18 to help out.
And what a jam it promises to be.
Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band are headlining, and the lineup will include the Amazing Rhythm Aces, the Capricorn Rhythm Section and the Decoys, along with Bonnie Bramlett, Donnie Fritts, Paul Thorn, Wayne Perkins, Topper Price and "Nashville Star" runner-up Zac Hacker.
The first time I ever saw Scott Boyer play, his band Cowboy had joined up with the Allman Brothers on a gold record tour and appeared at the old Boutwell Auditorium in downtown Birmingham. I was 17 and playing the drums around Birmingham's club scene already.
Cowboy recorded four albums with Capricorn in the early 1970s before merging with the Allmans. One of the most memorable cuts was Boyer's "It's Time," a song that became the title track of Bonnie Bramlett's first solo album. Perhaps Boyer's most famous song is "Please Be With Me," recorded by Eric Clapton in 1974 on the album "461 Ocean Boulevard."
I used to run into Boyer a lot down on the Gulf Coast in the late 1980s, and remember many sweaty nights at Judge Roy Bean and even the Pink Pony Pub in Gulf Shores, where Boyer used to share the singing duties with his incredibly hot and talented sister. He also appeared with The Locust Fork Band and The Convertibles, with Topper Price.
"I've still got a lot of really close friends in that area that I still love," along the Gulf Coast, Boyer told the Mobile Press Register in an interview.
Since 1988, he's been based in Muscle Shoals as a studio musician, writing songs and performing.
The first benefit for Boyer went down last Wednesday in Florence. For the Birmingham benefit April 18, with the show starting at 7 p.m., tickets are going for $40 and $50 on Ticketmaster.
For details, visit the Boyer Benefit Myspace page.
For more information on Scott, visit his official homepage at ScottBoyer.Net.
Friends and fans who can't attend but wish to make donations can do so by sending checks payable to the Muscle Shoals Music Association, earmarked for the Scott Boyer Benefit, at MSMA, P.O. Box 2383, Muscle Shoals, AL 35662. Online PayPal donations may be sent to sboyer-msma-med@yahoo.com.
We all wish Scott well and would like to see something like this benefit become a regular thing in Birmingham, with a monthly jam.
We are actively looking at rooms and talking to musicians about this now. If you would like to get involved, e-mail Locust Fork News and Journal editor and publisher Glynn Wilson at fast2write@charter.net.
April 06, 2007
Waiting On Judgment Day
Driving home from the blues jam at Zydeco last night, after nearly having my ear drums busted out by another drummer, I was thinking it is no wonder the people of Alabama and the South can't wait for Judgement Day. If life is this bad, let's just get it over with, right?
Who cares about global warming or tainted pet food or lying politicians. Praise the Lord and pass the poison pie.
It just goes to show you, however, that at the very moment when you think all is lost, the best thing to do is wake up and smell the coffee and read a blog - and the world can look sunny and bright again.
For all you manic depressives out there, take heart. For like Scarlet O'Hara said, "Tomorrow is another day."
It turns out there is another progressive blog in Alabama, although it flies under the radar with the moniker Captain Plaid. Some super hero, eh? If you live in Alabama and think anything like I do, you might want to follow it, since it appears to focus a bit more on state and local issues than I have the will to do.
And like I always say, like Aristotle said, "I can learn from any man," here's another one to follow: SackSessions.Com.
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| Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Cheney puppet for sure |
As you already know, Vice President Dick Cheney, a.k.a Mr. Burns, came to The Club in Birmingham the other day to help raise more than half a million dollars for the little kiss ass Senator from Mobile, Jeff Sessions.
Now if there were a truly revolutionary spirit alive in America, someone would have broken up this party, taken all their money and given it to the poor. But there ain't no Robin Hoods in the good ole US of A, only butt lickers who can't even manage to find the time and courage to carry a protest sign.
I've been writing a song of late called "Ain't No Man Up In The Sky.” If there was, there wouldn’t be no The Club, women would be allowed into The Masters clubhouse, and jobs for people like Sessions would be to wipe up vomit from the bathroom floor at Egan's.
But if I truly wanted to fit in around these parts on Easter Weekend, I wouldn’t say such nasty things. Perhaps I should don a robe and sandals and wander around Homewood claiming to be Jesus, speaking in parables. Hey, I’ve got the hair and the voice for it.
If you want to have some fun sometime - and this would make great radio fodder if anybody had the guts to do it – find a lifelong member of a Baptist church and quiz them on what it all means. Find someone who has been reading the Bible over and over again every day for 70 years and ask them to tell you what any of it means. Then sit back and listen to the BS. For those who have an ear, let them hear, indeed...
Or, you could just watch Richard Scrushy's religious show on local public access television. Now there's a joke for you.
I think my next song will be called, “Waiting On Judgment Day.” Maybe there will come a day when The Rapture comes and takes all the Christians away somewhere – so we can get on with saving the planet and creating a more peaceful, just world.
That bit about hell has more to do with life on Earth for the poor than anything else. Isn’t it about time we put the rich in hell? Let’s see if they can make it through the eye of a needle.
Or better yet, any votes for putting them all on camels and making them live in the new Dust Bowl in Northern Mexico?