BB King Bluesfest 2005

[snizz]

Hey Red, I don't know if you'll hit here or there first, so I posted this on both. ;D ;D ;D

I forgot to ask you, any inside poop on when the tickets go on sale? Front row is do or die this year!
Eh on second thought, I'll settle for anything in the front 5. ;D

[LS]

Yeah killer huh?? But nope- sorry snizzster I don't... Still hammering things out...the date's listed on the venue schedule- but it's not even listed on the artists' itinerary yet. Soon as I hear anything you'll be the first to know.

[Roland]

I was starting to wonder if there was going to be one this year. I haven't heard any announcements and there's nothing at all posted on B.B.'s website about it. I did a search and all that came back were a couple of venues selling tickets for it, but don't mention anything other than sales dates for tickets for the "B.B. King Blues Festival". No mention of who else is on the tour this year.

Anyone want to fill me in?

[snizz]

littlesister said:

Yeah killer huh?? But nope- sorry snizzster I don't... Still hammering things out...the date's listed on the venue schedule- but it's not even listed on the artists' itinerary yet. Soon as I hear anything you'll be the first to know.

The very second right after the second you hear, right? ;D ;D

[snizz]

roland said:

I was starting to wonder if there was going to be one this year. I haven't heard any announcements and there's nothing at all posted on B.B.'s website about it. I did a search and all that came back were a couple of venues selling tickets for it, but don't mention anything other than sales dates for tickets for the "B.B. King Blues Festival". No mention of who else is on the tour this year.

Anyone want to fill me in?

I'm sorry about that Roland. Damned rude of me, wasn't it?

I don't think anything official's been announced outside of a few scattered dates yet. I heard it about it through the grapevine. ;D

This year's lineup besides BB is Kenny Wayne Sheperd, Joe Bonamassa and Carey Bell.

[Roland]

snizz said:

I'm sorry about that Roland. Damned rude of me, wasn't it?

I don't think anything official's been announced outside of a few scattered dates yet. I heard it about it through the grapevine. ;D

This year's lineup besides BB is Kenny Wayne Sheperd, Joe Bonamassa and Carey Bell.

Yes it was! ;D I'm still trying to play catch-up and thought I'd missed something else. Then I did a search and didn't come up with much about it. You guys had me thinking I was looking in all the wrong places!

That sure is a strong bill this year! I'm keeping my fingers crossed it rolls though here.

[LS]

snizz said:

The very second right after the second you hear, right? ;D ;D

Yeeeess snizzster...

[LS]

roland said:

Yes it was! ;D I'm still trying to play catch-up and thought I'd missed something else. Then I did a search and didn't come up with much about it. You guys had me thinking I was looking in all the wrong places!

That sure is a strong bill this year! I'm keeping my fingers crossed it rolls though here.

Sorry too Roland...my mind's not what it used to be. ;D

It's running a little later this year than the past few...most likely to coincide with this 80th... ...and a little differently- he's doing solo gigs mixed in with Festival gigs. So far only Festival dates through the end of Aug. have been officially announced- but there's a bunch on the slate for Sept. that aren't on the official schedule yet...Just keep watching- either solo or Festival- I can't imagine he'd bypass your neck of the woods.

[Roland]

littlesister said:

Sorry too Roland...my mind's not what it used to be. ;D

It's running a little later this year than the past few...most likely to coincide with this 80th... ...and a little differently- he's doing solo gigs mixed in with Festival gigs. So far only Festival dates through the end of Aug. have been officially announced- but there's a bunch on the slate for Sept. that aren't on the official schedule yet...Just keep watching- either solo or Festival- I can't imagine he'd bypass your neck of the woods.

LS, it probably has less to do with your mind than what's been going on around here for the past few weeks.

Thanks for filling me in and I'll keep watching. You won't hear me complaining if he passes through here solo, but I'm really hoping for the festival. ;D

[LS]

snizzster...leaving this here, there and everywhere... ;D

JUNE 17th!!

Ok- now I've kept my promise...

[snizz]

I got it here, there and everywhere! ;D
True blue, Red, true blue. ;D

[DRL]

King of the blues

B.B. King, 79, is still in top form

Thursday, June 30, 2005; Posted: 3:59 p.m. EDT (19:59 GMT)




INDIANOLA, Mississippi (AP) -- Through his agile fingers, still soft despite decades of making love to the taut strings of his guitar, B.B. King becomes immersed in his music.

The high-pitched wail of the notes he coaxes out of the instrument, nicknamed Lucille, is salve to the soul of the nearly 80-year-old bluesman, who shows no signs of slowing down as he prepares to kick off a world tour this month in Holland.

It's been a good year for King, named by Rolling Stone magazine as the third-greatest guitarist of all time. He's recording a new album of duets with Elton John, Eric Clapton and Gloria Estefan, a memorabilia book bearing his name soon will be released, and he recently broke ground on the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretative Center in this small Mississippi Delta town.

Yet King, acclaimed around the world, still laments what he believes is a lack of respect for blues music in America, where radio stations mostly play hip-hop, pop and rock.

"We get treated poorly," he says. "I'm thinking about the younger ones, who are coming along today, not B.B. We've had several superstars, like the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, like the young Robert Cray, and they don't get play. They don't get exposed."

Blues music is a historical form, inspiring rock guitarists such as Clapton and Jeff Beck, but radio stations don't consider it as commercially viable as other genres, says Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor of Rolling Stone.

"That certainly doesn't mean it's not significant. How much jazz gets played on the radio?" DeCurtis says.

Floyd Lieberman, King's manager, says there's been a slight resurgence of the blues with the advent of XM Satellite Radio, on which King serves as Mayor of Bluesville.

The blues channel has 4 million listeners, Lieberman says, but "Jackson, Mississippi, stations play more blues than New York. That's the problem."

'I picked cotton. I drove tractors'

At his recent museum groundbreaking, King took a break from his fans, finding a comfortable chair to relax his hefty frame. Family and friends urged him to eat mini muffaletta sandwiches, broccoli and fruit to help control his diabetes.

King gently pushed the food aside; he wanted to talk.

He reminisced about his early years, working as a laborer on a cotton plantation in the heart of the Delta. And without a hint of bitterness, he explained how difficult life was back then for the man born Riley B. King on September 16, 1925.





"I was a regular hand when I was 7. I picked cotton. I drove tractors. Children grew up not thinking that this is what they must do. We thought this was the thing to do to help your family," says King, who now lives in Nevada.

The interminably humble bluesman envisions his museum, to be located at the site of the brick cotton gin where he once worked, as a conduit for Delta youth trying to escape the cycle of poverty and illiteracy. Many in the community hold King up as the standard of success.

"In the Delta, they think he can walk on water," says Carver Randle, one of King's longtime friends.

As a young boy in the 1950s, Randle remembers seeing King drive his Cadillac around Indianola when the musician was in town visiting relatives.

"There was a time when nobody, black people or white people, cared for the blues. And in spite of that, B.B. stuck with the blues," says Randle, now an attorney. "Anybody, whether they're in politics, law or education, would do well to just emulate what B.B. has done."

The museum, to be finished by 2007, will be a $10 million, 18,000-square-foot edifice, showcasing the various phases of King's career with a state-of-the-art theater, a studio and artifacts. Organizers have raised about half the cost of the project through private donations, no small feat in town of about 12,000.

'He doesn't play a lot of notes'

King's long career took off in 1948 after he performed on a radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis. He's been cutting tracks ever since, with perhaps the best-known being "The Thrill Is Gone" in 1970 or "Three O'clock Blues" in 1951.

In 2000, he collaborated with Clapton to record "Riding With the King."

He's made countless appearances in Europe, where he says the people have long memories.

"Tunes that we made many years ago, they know them today. They don't belittle you because you sing gospel or you sing blues. We get that at home sometimes," he says, moments before a group of fans from France had their picture taken with him.

Blues music was born out of the hardships of black people, who sang as they worked on cotton plantations in the Mississippi Delta. King's single-note playing style sets him apart from other musicians, DeCurtis says.

"B.B. has a very specific kind of style, very lyrical. He doesn't play a lot of notes. In a slow blues arrangement, you can really hear the kind of elegance of his playing. He's not down and dirty," DeCurtis says.

King plays about 150 dates a year, but it's not because he needs the money.

"He hasn't had to work since he was 65 years old," says Lieberman, King's manager for 41 years. "He's financially sound."

Lieberman says the upcoming duets album, to be released prior to King's birthday, won't all be blues songs, but King doesn't believe that should be interpreted as infidelity.

"Who said I'm supposed to do nothing but traditional blues music?" King says. "Blues players like to hear other things like other people."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[LS]

Friends Line Up To Duet With B.B. King
By Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

With a special birthday just around the corner, B.B. King is nearly ready to unveil his latest star-studded duets album. Due Sept. 13, just three days before the blues great's 80th birthday, the Geffen/UME set "B.B. King & Friends -- 80" features appearances by Eric Clapton, Elton John, Sheryl Crow and Gloria Estefan, among others.

Clapton appears on a new version of King's classic "The Thrill Is Gone" and Estefan adds her vocals to the Doc Pomus/Dr. John number "There Must Be a Better World Somewhere." Crow turns out for a run through Little Willie John's "Need Your Love So Bad," while John has the honor of closing the album, joining King for Jimmy Rogers' "Rock This House."

As previously reported, young gun John Mayer also appears on the set, contributing to Leon Russell's "Hummingbird." King revisits his own "Never Make Your Move Too Soon" with the Who's Roger Daltrey and "Tired Of Your Jive" with ZZ Top's Billy F. Gibbons, while Mark Knopfler plays guitar on "All Over Again."

Others appearing on the album are Van Morrison ("Early in the Morning"), Daryl Hall ("Ain't Nobody Home"), Bobby "Blue" Bland ("Funny How Time Slips Away") and the Eagles' Glenn Frey (Junior Parker's "Drivin' Wheel").

King has been steadily on the road this year, playing festivals and headlining shows, as well as fund raisers for the B.B. King Museum, a $10 million project that will honor the artist and preserve the Delta blues heritage. He was on hand in June for the groundbreaking in Indianola, Miss., near his birthplace.

[Roland]

I see things have picked up while I was away. No phone, no computer and out of the loop.

It looks like B.B.'s bypassing me this time around so I'll have to settle for a new CD. Some of those pairings make for rather odd bedfellows. Elton John? Roger Daltry? I'm dubious, but I suppose we'll have to wait to see how some of that works out.

[snizz]

roland said:

I see things have picked up while I was away. No phone, no computer and out of the loop.

It looks like B.B.'s bypassing me this time around so I'll have to settle for a new CD. Some of those pairings make for rather odd bedfellows. Elton John? Roger Daltry? I'm dubious, but I suppose we'll have to wait to see how some of that works out.

I was saying to myself that some of those match ups are head scratchers. It's his birthday so I guess he can do what he wants to. ;D

That's tough luck he's not headed your way, Roland buddy. Keep the faith, you never know. The year ain't over and he may keep going.