This year’s Blues Alive will feature Sugaray Rayford, Carolyn Wonderland and Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio

From 1 June, the last wave of festival passes will go on sale.

Immediately following the conclusion of the 25th edition of Blues Alive last November, we announced the first of this year’s headliners. They were Serbian-American guitarist Ana Popović, winner of the visitor’s poll for the most popular performer in the first quarter of a century of the Šumperk festival, and New York guitar star Popa Chubby. In the following months, the roster has added young Texan guitarist Ally Venable, phenomenal American harmonica player and singer Dustin Arbuckle with his band The Damnations, Swedish blues-rockers Black River Delta, and the increasingly well-known French trio Muddy Gurdy experimenting with the sound of medieval hurdy-gurdy in the context of Mississippi’s dark blues sound.

The biggest star of the festival will undoubtedly be Texas native and current soulblues frontman Sugaray Rayford, winner of three prestigious Blues Music Awards and one of the few who can also boast a Grammy nomination (for his penultimate album, 2019’s Somebody Save Me). He’ll bring material from his fresh album In Too Deep, released this past March. The highly respected artist was a member of the well-known group The Mannish Boys and has collaborated with a number of famous colleagues, including Kim Wilson, Kid Andersen and Sugar Ray Norcia.

Another big name in this year’s lineup will be the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, led by the immensely talented composer and Hammond organ player who gives the band its name. He teams up perfectly with iconic guitarist Jimmy James and the great drummer Michael Duffy. The trio’s music moves between rhythm’n’blues, jazz, funk and rock.

Many music fans know guitarist and singer Carolyn Wonderland from the band of British blues legend John Mayall, but the Houston, Texas native has been on a solo career since the early 1990s. She can put fans of the Texas guitar rampage into a trance, but as a very talented songwriter, she can also captivate the listener who doesn’t demand strict adherence to the rules of the blues. At the last Blues Music Awards she had two handcuffs on fire for her latest album Tempting Fate released on the prestigious Alligator label.

An equally respected figure on the contemporary scene is Jontavious Willis, only twenty-six years old, a Georgia native, a star of the acoustic country-blues school, a straight-line continuation of what figures of the caliber of Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ have excelled at in the world context. Both music veterans invited Willis to guest on their 2017 tour for their successful collaborative album TajMo, and two years later Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ produced Willis’ second and final album to date, Spectacular Class, which was nominated for a 2020 Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues Album category.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the death of one of the greatest soul and blues singers, Etta James. A special program in her honour, called Etta James Celebration, has been prepared by a blossom of American and British musicians and singers, who will also be stopping in Šumperk on their world tour. The band consists, among others, of our old friends from last year’s edition, keyboardist Bruce Katz and accordionist Giles Robson. Singers Dana Gillespie, Robbin “The Soul-Shaker” Kapsalis, Alice Armstrong and Daria Biancardi will share their interpretation of such famous hits as At Last, I’d Rather Go Blind, A Sunday Kind of Love and Stormy Weather.

This year, the traditional Saturday afternoon concert will be dedicated to celebrating the birthday of one of the most important personalities of the Czech music scene, far from just blues: the 80th birthday of Jan Spaleny. The birthday boy will play in the large hall of the House of Culture with his home band ASPM, but before that, as part of the Tribute to Jan Spálený program, his songs will be sung in their own arrangements by many, sometimes perhaps even a little surprising, performers, mostly one or more generations younger.

In the foyer of the House of Culture, one of the bands that advanced from this year’s Blues Aperitiv talent contest (Dazed and Confused, Black Pin, Steven’s) will open the event in the early evening, followed by a block of last year’s winners on the main stage (The Peanuts, Levi, The Turtev Brothers). It will also be busy on the other festival stages. The Italian acoustic duo Max & Veronica will play at the H-club in Šumperk, while Friday’s programme at the Monastery Church will feature Martina Trchová, Justin Lavash and Phil Shoenfelt with David Babka. There will also be the traditional Saturday morning screening at the Oko cinema, with a great biopic about Aretha Franklin called Respect. The T. G. Masaryk Library will host leading blues experts with their talks and listening programs.

The final wave of all-festival passes are on sale from 1 June 2022 at a price of CZK 2,300. Single day passes will be on sale in limited quantities from 1 September 2022 at a price of CZK 1,400.

Categorised in: Nezařazené

This post was written by Štěpán Suchochleb