Once again, co-producers Carrol Deen and Cam Hayden have worked hard to bring the best that the blues world has to offer to Edmonton's Labatt Blues Festival. With Grammy winners, Blues Music Award winners, W.C. Handy winners, Maple Blues Award winners, legends, up and comers, and music that reflects the regional diversity of the music we all love, this years festival promises to be the "best ever"...We're here to help "fill the hole in your soul" for another year...

Friday Performers
Saturday Performers
Sunday Performers

David Gogo Band

Friday August 19, 5:30PM
www.davidgogo.com

Although still relatively young in "blues years", David Gogo has accomplished much in his career. So far he has three Juno nominations, was named Musician of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, was twice named Guitarist of the Year at the Maple Blues Awards, and has been bestowed with the CBC Saturday Night Blues, Great Canadian Blues Award for a lifetime contribution to the blues in Canada.

Nine albums have been released under his name and he has been a guest on a number of other artists recordings. David has composed music for television and major motion pictures and his songs have been performed and recorded by various musicians worldwide.

Whether he’s showcasing his blistering guitar licks and soulful vocals during his electric performances or drawing the crowd in with his humour and down-to-earth personality during his acoustic shows, audiences throughout North America, Europe, and Scandinavia can attest to his outstanding talent.

David appeared at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festivals’ first sold out day, in 2005 and we welcome back this fiery performer to kick things off Friday August 19.

Reba Russell Band

Friday August 19, 6:55PM
www.rebarussell.com

An internationally known blues diva, Reba Russell is a Memphis treasure. Reba’s rockin’ band has developed a large, loyal fan base in Memphis due to her show stopping nightclub gigs on Beale Street. In addition she has fans around the world as a result of her frequent appearances at blues festivals and European Tours. On the Memphis scene for over 25 years, Russell has released six independent CDs in the past ten years. Reba also works regularly in Memphis studios as a vocalist. She appeared on the U2 recording “Rattle and Hum” as a background vocalist; jammed with Ringo Starr in Memphis; has won 3 Recording Academy Awards as a “Premier Vocalist” and had singing roles in the films “Finding Graceland” and “Heart of Dixie”.

Her top notch Memphis band includes bassist Wayne Russell, born in Pontotoc, Mississippi to parents who picked cotton on family land. Both his mother and father came from homes where music was a part of daily life. Most of his family members played and sang in church as well as community gatherings. At the age of 5, Wayne and his family moved from Mississippi to Memphis Tennessee where Wayne’s love of art and music blossomed. He fondly remembers receiving art supplies and guitars each Christmas during his childhood, and by the time he completed High School he was voted most talented student. He has worked with such great blues artist as Tracy Nelson, Barbara Blue, and Mojo Buford, Jack Rowell. Drummer and vocalist Doug McMinn has been a professional musician for close to 3 decades. He started his career at the age of 15, growing up with both parents performing the blues. He worked with his father, Papa Don McMinn, opening and playing for over 9 years at The Rum Boogie Café on legendary Beale Street. He has also toured Europe and the UK extensively over the past 10 years. Don has worked with The Coasters, The Drifters, The Shirelles, Chuck Berry, Percy Sledge, Albert King, George “Mojo” Buford, Rufus Thomas, and Tracy Nelson to name just a few.

Featured on keys, harps and vocals is Robert Nighthawk Tooms, a 30 year veteran of Beale Street and the Blues. Robert is known for his “stylin threads” as well his authentic Blues harp. He started playing the piano at the age of 6 and by the time he hit his teens he had fallen in love with the Blues. He has been creating music with The Reba Russell Band since 1991 and also records and writes music with his own band, The Wampus Cats. He is endorsed by the Hammond-Suzuki organ company, makers of the B-3. Over the years he has worked with B.B. King, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Big Bill Morganfield, James Cotton, Rosco Gordon, Little Milton, Blind Mississippi Morris, The Memphis Sheiks, Tracy Nelson, Reverend Horton Heat, Bob Margolin and Jimmy Thackery.

Guitarist Josh Roberts may be young, but he is turning heads with his musicianship, talent and drive. Still in his twenties, he has recorded with Steven Segal at The House of Blues Studio in Memphis on a project with Blues greats, Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin, and Koko Taylor. He has played with a long list of contemporary Memphis musicians. He also plays bass, drums, piano and harmonica proficiently. His latest contribution is to the Reba Russell band’s “Broke Down But Not Out” and “Bleeding Heart” recordings which have made it to regular rotation on satellite radio. His specialty is slide guitar. His performances at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas last year, and Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero in Clarksdale, Mississippi are legend. He has played with the Reba Russell Band at blues festivals around the world.

Kim Wilson’s Blues All-Stars
featuring Billy Flynn and Kid Ramos

Friday August 19, 8:30PM
www.fabulousthunderbirds.com

Kim Wilson has proven to be a consummate performer and devoted blues lover. He’s primarily known as the front man for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, but it's in his solo work that he truly shines. A musician's musician, many consider Wilson to be one of the premier blues harmonica players in America. His style is grounded in the past -- as evidenced by the many classic blues and R&B tunes he covers -- but it's also uniquely his own. And his vocal style rivals -- or outshines -- any blues singer out there today: his tone is buttery and rich, slightly scarred, and never in a hurry. For nearly three decades, Kim Wilson has been the voice and soul of the Texas band The Fabulous Thunderbirds. He's also an accomplished solo recording artist, and in the minds of many people, the greatest harmonica player performing today.

Wilson grew up in a musical family. His parents both sang popular standards on the radio, and he studied the trombone and guitar as a youngster before discovering the blues while a senior in high school. In 1970, he decided to drop out of college to play the blues fulltime, learning the ropes from such San Francisco Bay Area blues musicians as Charlie Musselwhite, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Rhodes. In the mid-1970s he moved to Austin, where he met Jimmie Vaughan, with whom he co-founded The Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1974. Although Wilson has often been compared to legendary harmonica player Little Walter, he calls the analogy "sacrilegious." He says his biggest influence was Muddy Waters, whom he befriended after moving to Austin. Although he acknowledges the influence of many great blues harmonica musicians, he calls his own playing a "very modern" take on a traditional music form that is thoroughly his own."I think that you have so many influences and you steal so much stuff that finally it just gets mixed up into you," Wilson says. Imitating other great harmonica players is impossible, he says, because "the notes you're playing only happen once. A perennial winner at the Blues Music awards, Kim is nominated again as “Harmonica Player of the Year”.

For his show, Kim has recruited a band of incredible blues players that really live up to the billing of “Blues all Stars”.

Guitarist Billy Flynn hails from Green Bay Wisconsin and was born in the mid 50’s. He became a bona fide blues man at 14, after getting the chance to sit in with Jimmy Dawkins. Since then he has worked with many of the greats, including a stint with the Legendary Blues Band featuring Pinetop Perkins, Willie Smith and Calvin Jones.

David “Kid” Ramos rounds out the 2 guitar attack that will be part of the Kim Wilson Blues all Stars show. Possessing of one of the great guitar voices in the world today, Kid can be as smooth as silk or tear the paint off the walls at a moment’s notice. Best known for his work with such West Coast artists as James Harman, Janiva Magness, The Mannish Boys, Finis Tasby and many others, he also has his own project on the go these days. Los Fabulocos have released 2 discs of high energy Cali-Mex. Look for some real guitar pyrotechnics when Kid and Billy Flynn get together.

Randy Bermudes is in his early 40’s and plays bass for The Fabulous Thunderbirds. He’s also worked with Rusty Zinn, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Charlie Musselwhite, RJ Mischo, Steve Fruend, Mark Hummel, Chris Cotton and many others around the San Francisco bay area.

Drummer Richard “Big Foot” Innes is no stranger to audiences at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival, having made it here with both the Mannish Boys and Hollywood Blue Flames. Born in Colfax, WA, Richard Innes divided his time in the bands of Rod Piazza, and the Piazza/George "Harmonica" Smith "Bacon Fat" band of the 1960's, in addition to touring with Little Richard, among others. Innes has forged a uniquely tasteful and economical drumming style that is unparalleled in modern Blues. Having seriously studied the music form, he is the originator of the modern West Coast drumming style and remains its’ finest practitioner. Innes claims influences such as Sonny Freeman, Fred Below, Odie Payne, Willie Steele, SP Leary and Earl Palmer. He is a much in demand recording and performing artist on the Blues circuit. Richard has been nominated 3 times in the last 5 years as “Drummer of the Year” at the Blues Music Awards.

Saturday

Duffy Bishop Band

Saturday August 20, 2:30PM
www.duffybishop.com

“She’s dangerous!” is what Bo Diddley said about Duffy Bishop when she shared the stage at his 75th birthday concert at the Crystal Ballroom in Duffy’s current home town of Portland, Oregon.

Ms. Bishop is a multiple award winner in both the Washington Blues Society (best female vocalist, best band, best album and Hall of Fame) and the Cascade Blues Society where she is in the Hall of Fame and receiver of the Lifetime Achievement Award. She won the Female Vocalist Award so many years in a row they went ahead and renamed it the Duffy Bishop Female Vocalist Award. She’s now out of the running.

Duffy continues to be a favourite wherever she performs. Whether it be an intimate club, theatre or festival setting, Duffy Bishop connects and delivers with her personal warmth, humour and booming emotional voice.

In her three plus decades of performing she has shared the stage with many legends including Ruth Brown, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Gatemouth Brown, Lou Rawls, Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland and Bobby Blue Bland to name a few.

With her long time collaborator, guitarist and husband Chris Carlson, they have recorded seven CD’s, and played venues across the USA, Vancouver B.C, Norway, Japan, Hong Kong, and Austria.

When not touring with their band, Duffy and Chris join Teatro ZinZanni, a wonderful and crazy circus/cabaret/dinner show with theatres in both Seattle and San Francisco. Duffy stars as Madame ZinZanni, a role also performed by the amazing Thelma Houston, and world icon, Joan Baez. When festival producers Carrol Deen and Cam Hayden saw the Duffy Bishop Band last July at Portlands’ waterfront Blues Festival, they just knew Edmonton audiences needed to get the “Full Duffy”...so here she is.

Dave Riley and Bob Corritore

Saturday August 20, 4PM
Dave Riley and Bob Corritore

This Mississippi-meets-Chicago blues pairing has been winning fans all around the world for the last 7 years. Dave Riley and Bob Corritore met at the 2004 King Biscuit Blues Festival and play powerful downhome blues deeply rooted in the Chicago and Mississippi styles that represent their upbringing. Their zesty performances at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix and the King Biscuit Blues Festival have brought the house down, and earned them a solid reputation as masters of their game. Their first album "Travelin' The Dirt Road", was released in 2007 and received a Blues Music Award nomination for “Best Acoustic Blues Album" and a Blues Blast Music Award for "Best Traditional Blues Album"

Their second release, "Lucky To Be Living", was released in 2009. They have a natural blues chemistry, and a friendship that prompts their wild, provoking performaces. Dave's gritty Mississippi voice, articulate downhome blues guitar, and rowdy, personable, original songs combine with Bob's passionate, blues seasoned, full-toned harmonica for an engaging performance that entertains both the blues novice and the seasoned listener.

Dave Riley was born in Hattiesburg, Mississppi. He spent his early years learning Gospel. Barely a teenager he moved to Chicago and ended up living on the West Side near Maxwell Street where he became steeped in the blues. It wasn't until he was drafted to serve in Vietnam that he began to take the blues seriously. ....During the time he served in the army he was exposed to many types of music. He ended up playing in a military band which traveled from base to base entertaining the troops. Dave Riley met up with Blues legends Sam Carr, Frank Frost, and John Weston, and revitalized his career in the mid 90s and they formed a friendship and a music bond which would lead Dave back to the Delta and back into Blues full time. Dave has been playing music in the Delta and taking the Delta back to Chicago just like all those Blues men before him.

Growing up in Chicago, Bob Corritore fell in with the blues early on, taking up harmonica at age 13, and learning the harmonica style that gave the city its great blues tradition. A student of Big Walter Horton, Little Willie Anderson, Louis Myers, Big Leon Brooks, and others, Bob played around Chicago with some of the greatest of that city's bluesmen, until relocating in Phoenix in 1981. Upon landing in Arizona, Bob's blues influence immediately affected the town, recruiting his friend Louisiana Red to relocate to Phoenix for a period in the early 80's. Bob also has worked extensively with the late Chico Chism, and with Big Pete Pearson, Henry Gray, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Jimmy Rogers, Tail Dragger, Chief Schabuttie Gilliame, Janiva Magness, Tommy Dukes, and others. Bob started his own label in Chicago in the late 1970s, called Blues Over Blues, which is now part of the Earwig Records catalog. Bob hosts the weekly radio program Those Lowdown Blues on KJZZ in Phoenix, Arizona, and is the owner of the Rhythm Room in Phoenix. As a recording artist, Bob appears on 33 CDs. Bob's productions have appeared on 42 albums/CDs already released, and many more yet unreleased but forthcoming. Bob Corritore is a true impresario of Chicago Blues and his recording “Harmonica Blues” featuring performances with many legends of the blues recording with Bob at the Rhythm Room is up for a Blues Music Award as “Historical Album of the Year”. Bob himself has been nominated as “Best Harmonica Player” this year.

For the first performance in Edmonton by either of these bluesmen, Dave Riley and Bob Corritore will be joined by a rhythm section that will take us all to a juke in Mississippi and then north to the West Side of Chicago on a Saturday afternoon in Edmonton.

Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band

Saturday August 20, 5:30PM
www.ChubbyCarrier.com

One word to describe the swampdelic sounds of Chubby Carrier and Bayou Swamp Band? Fun. Pure Louisiana zydeco fun with a hot sauce chaser. Anybody who has doubts about the accordion as an instrument will be swayed the right way with Carrier's passion and fire on the instrument. That fire won Chubby and band a Grammy this year and this summer they bring the post-Grammy party to us at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival. It’s the third appearance for Chubby at the festival because we just can’t get enough of that “Chubby Party”.

Chubby Carrier is undeniably "The World's Premier Zydeco Showman." Born on July 1, 1967 in Churchpoint, Louisiana, Chubby is the third generation of zydeco artists with such famous relatives as his father Roy Carrier, grandfather Warren Carrier and cousins Bebe and Calvin Carrier who are presently considered legends in zydeco history. Chubby began his musical career at the age of 12 by playing drums with his father's band. He began playing the accordion at the age of 15. By age 17, Chubby had begun to play with Terrance Siemien and toured the world for 2 1/2 years, before forming his own band in 1989.

Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band have recorded five CDs over the past ten years. His band has traveled all over the world, performing to audiences in all parts of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, Canada. North Africa and Europe. Chubby and the band travel 150-175 days a year, taking his act to big festivals such as the New Orleans Jazz Fest, the Chicago Blues Fest, Memphis in May, and several festivals in Europe.

Rubboard player Earl Sally is a whirling ball of live-wire energy onstage. Formerly with Terrence Simien for eight years, {Simien recorded with Paul Simion during this time}. In 1990 he moved to Canada, and then to California in 1992. In 1994, Earl started his own band and then relocated to Seattle, Washington, where he remained until 1997. A move to Louisiana in 1998 found him performing with Roy Carrier and the Night Rockers. In May of 2000, Earl became a vital part of Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band.

Guitarist Randy Ellis is originally from Thibodaux, Louisiana, Randy had an interest for music at an early age. When he was 5 years old his grandmother found him and his brother using tennis rackets as guitars while "playing along" to Ray Stevens song "Guitarzan". She then asked them both if they wanted to play guitar and being typical 4 and 5 year olds they replied "yes". Well Randy hasn't put his guitar down since! After teaching the music class through High School Randy then attended Guitar Institute of Technology where he graduated with honors. After graduation he went on to study music under the Ellis Marsalis Jazz Program in New Orleans. There he was exposed to Rock, Soul, R & B, Zydeco, Country and Blues-and he fell in love with the Blues. Mixing and melting together everything he'd learned, Randy created his distinct sound and style. In 1995 Randy toured with Chubby Carrier and The Bayou Swamp Band and later with Roddy Romero throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Dave “Papa” Nezat was born in Eunice Louisiana...... Has played with great National acts such as the Jerry Garcia Band, John Magnie of the Subdudes, Doug Kershaw, Dirty Dozen Brass band, CC Addcock and many, many more... He has also shared the stage through the years with Little Feat, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Earth Wind and Fire, Earl Scruggs, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Taj Mahal, Robert Randolph, Bruce Hornsby, Ozomatli...After 20 years of being a studio and live drummer in Colorado, "Papa" has returned to Louisiana to drum for Chubby Carrier and The Bayou Swamp band.

Bassist Mark M. Metoyer was born in San Francisco and raised in Redwood City, California. But his family are descendants of Louisiana. In 1988, Mark started his professional career touring with Al Rapone & the Zydeco Express. Within that first 10 years, he also worked with Rockin Sidney and Allen Fontenot & the Country Cajuns. After that, he worked with Queen Ida and also her son, Myrick "Freeze" Gillory. Then he joined the band Gator Beat. In 2003, Mark moved to Louisiana to join Leroy Thomas & the Zydeco Roadrunners. After hurricane Rita, he returned to California. Then in 2010, he came back to Louisiana to join Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band.

John Nemeth Soul Revue

Saturday August 20, 7PM
www.JohnNemethBlues.com

John Németh is a rising blues star; a singer steeped in the tradition and reminiscent of B.B. King, Ray Charles and Junior Parker, and a harmonica player of riveting intensity and virtuosity. His decade long career has found him opening for Robert Cray, Keb Mo', and Earl Thomas. Performing major music festivals around the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia has brought him critical acclaim. For his Alberta debut at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival he brings his 8 piece “Soul Revue” that will deliver a big band dose of scintillating R&B, energy and raw talent that will light up the stage. John has been nominated for 2 Blues Music Awards this year, “Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year”, and “Contemporary Blues Album” for his Blind Pig recording “Name The Day”.

John's origins are an unlikely breeding ground for such an impressive blues talent. A thirty year old native of Boise, Idaho, he grew up singing in a Catholic church and started playing in local bands as a teenager.

Németh was a featured artist with Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets in 2005 and 2006 as well as a featured artist with The Junior Watson Band in 2002. The Cascade Blues Association selected Németh as a crowd favourite at the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival in 2002, and the Washington Blues Society called him the show stealer at the Winthrop Rhythm and Blues Festival in 2003.

John recorded "Come And Get It" with the Junior Watson Band in 2004. The album received rave reviews and scored well on the independent blues radio charts. When John signed a multi-record recording agreement with Blind Pig Records in 2006, label head Jerry Del Giudice expressed "how impressed I was with John's performance the one time I got the chance to see him. In our nearly 30 years in the business we have never before offered a new artist a recording contract on the strength of one performance."

And, as Bob Margolin put it, “John Németh is a natural-born Bluesman, and he proves it with every note he sings, shaping each one with emotion, taste and inspiration. John's expressive Blues harp playing answers his voice and fulfills his songs when he solos. John Németh makes it sound easy.”

Find out what all the buzz is about, Saturday evening at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival.

Nick Moss and the Flip Tops with Special Guest Guitar Shorty

Saturday August 20, 8:30PM
www.NickMoss.com
www.GuitarShorty.org

When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade...sometimes you have the good fortune make an incredible lemon meringue pie that melts in your mouth and delivers just the taste you’re looking for. That’s what happened last month, when we found out that Guitar Shorty’s band would not be able to make it to Canada. We started looking around for a group to back Guitar Shorty...a group that knew him, knew the music, and could deliver at a level expected at our festival. We were fortunate to land Nick Moss and The Flip Tops, (who played our festival in 2007 to rave reviews) an incredible band out of Chicago, steeped in the tradition, with a leader who spent his formative blues years learning from the old guard, of which Guitar Shorty is certainly a member in good standing. So, Blueshounds, an unexpected “twofer” is coming your way Saturday night as we present the incredible combination of Nick Moss and the Flip Tops with special guest Guitar Shorty.

Nick Moss is what you might call a “Renaissance Man” of the blues. He had the passion, confidence, and drive, to start his own label, Blue Bella Records, in order to pursue his dream and artistic vision. Before Nick forged his own direction, he spent time learning the life of a musician by playing with some of the greatest bluesmen of all time. He first got the call to play bass with the great Chicago guitarist Jimmy Dawkins. Shortly thereafter, he hooked up with the Legendary Blues Band, featuring Muddy Waters Blues Band alumnus Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums. “That was one of my favourite bands,” he recalls. “I still love Willie. He is like my second father.” The next deep-blues learning period for Nick, who’d switched over from bass to a six-string, was in the band of Chicago blues legend Jimmy Rogers for three years in the mid-’90s. From Rogers, he learned all about the special ensemble sound of authentic Chicago blues, coming to understand the importance of listening closely to and reacting to his fellow players on the bandstand. “Listen to early Muddy Waters stuff with Jimmy and Otis Spann and Little Walter,” says Nick of the original model. “It almost sounds as if they’re playing on top of each other, but they’re staying out of each other’s way. It almost sounds like they’re all soloing at the same time.” With his blues graduate studies completed by the late ’90s, Moss launched his band, The Flip Tops, and his label, Blue Bella Records. The album, First Offense, was followed by Got a New Plan in 2001 and two years later a third album, Count Your Blessings. The latter two received W. C. Handy award nominations. June 2007 saw the release of his fourth album, Sadie Mae, named after his beautiful baby daughter. Sadie Mae was nominated at the 2006 Blues Music Awards as “Album of the Year” and “Traditional Blues Album of the Year.” Those first four studio albums and relentless touring helped Moss build a devoted audience that was so excited about the music they were hearing in clubs across the country that they not only encouraged Nick to release a live album, they helped make arrangements for it. Live at Chan’s, released in 2006, was nominated for “Album of The Year,” “Traditional Blues Album of the Year,” and saw Moss nominated as “Guitarist of the Year” at the 2007 BMAs. What made the album so successful? Nick made certain the night they rolled tape was just like any other night when he and his band took the stage. “I wanted to make sure that the CD reflected the spontaneity of our live performances. I’ve been blessed with an extremely talented band; each one of us is a multi-instrumentalist and has no problem switching it up during our shows! We have had nothing but compliments from our audiences after they see how the guys and I take turns on different instruments as we did on this particular night.”

Moss followed his first live release up with a double album Play It ’Til Tomorrow. By expanding with a second disc, the band was able to present another serving of live, loud, raucous electric blues as well as showcase their ability to strip their sound down to the bare, acoustic essentials. This impressive double release went on to be named among the “Decade’s Best Blues: 25 Great Albums That Defined the Past 10 Years” in Blues Revue Magazine in 2010. The acclaim Live at Chan's garnered convinced everyone that a sequel was definitely in order—and the sooner, the better. That led to Live At Chan’s: Combo Platter No. 2, with special guest Lurrie Bell.

The set once again captures what this uncommonly hard-hitting, endlessly versatile crew does best: live and lively Chicago blues, deeply rooted in postwar tradition with a heady infusion of contemporary energy. Nick’s most recent recording, Priviledged, builds on all his previous success and experience to deliver “songs that burn like white phosphorous with passionate performances and gifted musicianship” according to reviewer Keith Gordon. No matter how far he travels, be it geographically or stylistically, the pull of Chicago and his roots there are never far from Nick’s mind.

Joining Nick and the Flip Tops is Guitarist, vocalist and blues legend Guitar Shorty. With the ability to pack clubs and festivals as one of the blues’ most celebrated live performers (even before he had any nationally available recordings) and now among the top-selling recording artists in the blues world, he is clearly the people’s choice. Between his blistering, rocked-out guitar work and his fierce, soulful vocals, the power of his music is unmatched, and his perceptive and meaningful lyrics unique among modern bluesmen. Credited with influencing both Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy, Shorty has

been electrifying audiences for five decades with his supercharged live shows and his incendiary recordings.

Guitar Shorty was born David William Kearney on September 8, 1939 in Houston, Texas and raised in Kissimmee, Florida by his grandmother. He began playing guitar as a young boy, excited by the sounds of B.B. King, Guitar Slim, T-Bone Walker and Earl Hooker. His first lessons came from his uncle, but when it became clear that the youngster was serious about his music, his grandmother hired a tutor for him. “I learned so fast I was always two or three pages ahead of my teacher,” he recalls. After a move to Tampa when he was 17, Kearney won a slot as a featured guitarist and vocalist in Walter Johnson’s 18-piece orchestra. Being younger—and shorter—than the rest of the band, the club owner bestowed the name Guitar Shorty on him, and it stuck. After a particularly strong performance in Florida, the great Willie Dixon, who was in the audience, approached Shorty and said, “I like what you’re doing. You’ve got something different. I gotta get you in the studio.” A few weeks later Shorty was in Chicago and, backed by Otis Rush on second guitar, he cut his first single, Irma Lee b/w You Don’t Treat Me Right, for Chicago’s famed Cobra Records in 1957. “Willie Dixon was a huge influence on me and my singing,” Shorty remembers. “If it hadn’t been for him, I never would have recorded.” He gigged steadily through the late 1950s and 1960s, working with Little Milton, B.B. King, Lowell Fulson, Sam Cooke, Otis Rush, Johnny Copeland and T-Bone Walker. Settling down in Seattle, he married Marsha Hendrix, Jimi’s stepsister. Hendrix loved his guitar-playing brother-in-law, and confessed that in 1961 and 1962 he would go AWOL from his Army base in order to catch Shorty’s area performances, picking up licks and ideas. “I’d see Jimi at the clubs,” Shorty recalls. “He’d stay in the shadows, watching me. I hear my licks in Purple Haze and Hey Joe. He told me the reason he started setting his guitar on fire was because he couldn’t do the back flips like I did.”

Although he had recorded a handful of singles for a variety of labels, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the wider world opened its collective ears to one of the blues’ most exciting performers. His albums since then all received massive critical acclaim, and his legendary live performances have kept him constantly in demand all over the world. His 2004 Alligator Records debut, Watch Your Back”, became the best received, best-selling album of his career. Guitar One magazine said, “Guitar Shorty is a superb bluesman who can scorch your ears off with lethal licks and heavyweight blues-rock grooves.” With his new CD “Bare Knuckle”, he’s prepared to continue what he’s started, taking his music, and his fans, to deeper places and even greater heights. “Please Mr. President” from the new recording was nominated as “Song of the Year” at this year’s Blues Music Awards. Living Blues Magazine recently awarded Guitar Shorty with the “Entertainer of the Year” and “Guitarist of the Year” awards for 2011.

See why when Guitar Shorty makes his Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival debut as part of a very special “Twofer” Saturday night!

Sunday

David Vest

Sunday August 21, 2:30PM
www.DavidVestBand.com

From an old upright on the back of a flatbed truck in Alabama, to Steinways in concert halls, David Vest has been rockin' and shoutin' the blues since 1957. And now he’s touring to support his hot new CD, “Rock a While” on Portland’s Criminal Records. Whether you catch him in a small club, at a major blues festival, or in a large venue you'll know immediately why the Portland Oregonian called David Vest "one of the finest on the barrelhouse piano, with a ferocity few possess."

Career highlights include performing with Big Joe Turner in his prime, sitting in with Bill Black's Combo, touring with Jimmy T99 Nelson and Lavelle White, and a long stint as co-leader of the Paul delay Band. A major festival tour with the Northwest Pianorama exposed David's music to new audiences, and his incendiary performance at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival in 2008 was broadcast across Canada by the CBC. For his return to Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival this summer, this newly minted Canadian citizen( now living in the Victoria area) is bringing a Canadian blues legend, bassist and co-founder of The Powder Blues, Jack Lavin, Blues Music Award nominated drummer Jimi Bott and fellow Paul delay band member, guitarist Peter Damann with him.

He has what Texas music writer Roger Wood called "impeccable blues credentials." His jazz credentials aren't too shabby, either. As a teenager, he sat in with the Jimmy Dorsey Band and jammed with members of Woody Herman's New Thundering Herd. He spent several years in a Houston combo featuring horn players from bands led by Maynard Ferguson and Charlie Parker.

And as for roots music and alt country, he has shared the stage with artists such as Red Foley and Faron Young, and he wrote the first songs ever recorded by country music legend Tammy Wynette, who sang in his band before achieving stardom. After relocating to the Pacific coast in 1999, David toured up and down the coast with the Paul deLay Band. Their CD "The Last of the Best" reached No. 7 in the Billboard blues chart.

A half-century into his career, David continues to boogie with amazing energy and unmistakable authenticity. He plans to keep on rockin' and shoutin' the blues "as long as the flavor lasts."

Sean Carney Band

Sunday August 21, 4PM
Sean Carney Band

“The next big thing has already been around the block,” a Canadian newspaper reporter wrote of The Sean Carney Band’ s impressive victory at The 2007 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, explaining that Carney and his crew are no newcomers to Blues. The IBC is presented by The Blues Foundation, who also awarded 34 year-old Carney the Albert King Best Guitarist Award and Best Dressed in their 23rd annual competition, before an audience of 1,700 blues lovers from all over the world.

A Columbus, Ohio native and veteran of the local scene like Carney, drummer Eric Blume has been performing with Carney in Columbus venues for over a decade, backing blues and R&B artists Christine Kittrell, Hank Marr, Jimmy “T-99” Nelson, Willie Pooch, Big Joe Duskin, Joe Weaver and Johnnie Bassett. In his early twenties, Carney’s passion for the Blues extended beyond the stage as he bolstered the scene in his hometown, organizing concerts featuring the likes of Jimmy Witherspoon and Charles Brown, writing blues-related articles, co-hosting a radio program called Spontaneous Combustion on WCBE 90.5 FM, organizing fundraisers for ailing artists and serving three terms as President of The Columbus Blues Alliance.

In 1998, Carney released his first CD, “Provisions” – re-released in October 2007 as, “Provisions – A Second Helping,” featuring the final recording of Nashville R&B pioneer Christine Kittrell.

Carney celebrated another significant professional milestone in a 2001 with a performance at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival backing Cincinnati Blues piano master Big Joe Duskin, along with drummer and Rolling Stone Magazine contributor Ben Sandmel.

Carney and Blume formed Nite Owlz Records in 2006, for the release of their self-produced CD, “Life of Ease” and embarked on a summer tour of Western Canada organized by guitarist/producer Steve Gerard. Gerard, who joined the touring band on guitar, paired the visiting players with top-notch Canadian musicians, Graham Guest on piano/organ and Chris Brzezicki on upright bass. Following Canada, The Sean Carney Band toured the Midwest performing at Chicago’s House of Blues and The Slippery Noodle Inn in Indianapolis, among other notable venues.

Summer of 2007 saw The Sean Carney Band performing at prestigious events including The Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon, The Telluride Blues and Brews Festival in Colorado and The Long Branch Blues & Jazz Festival on the New Jersey Shore, The New York State Blues Festival, The Honesdale Roots & Rhythm Festival in Pennsylvania, an exclusive June date in Carpentras in The South of France, a weekend headlining at The Yale in Vancouver, British Columbia and a VIP performance at the prestigious Blues Music Awards in May. Respected publications such as Blues Revue Magazine have awarded both “Life of Ease” and “Live Blues On Whyte” enthusiastic praise and the discs enjoy frequent airplay on Listener’s Choice and XM Radio’s “Bluesville”.

Sean Carney and Eric Blume will once again be joined by local standouts Graham Guest on keys and bassist Chris Brzezicki for their encore performance at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival.

RJ Mischo with Mike Morgan and the Crawl

Sunday August 21, 5:30PM
www.RJblues.com
www.mikemorganandthecrawl.com

Every year Edmonton’s Labatt Blues festival brings you combinations of musicians that are more than the sum of their parts. This year, we are fortunate enough to be blessed with the talents of 2 great bands rolled into one. Fayetteville, Arkansas based RJ Mischo is teaming up with Dallas’ guitarist Mike Morgan and his band The Crawl for what will be a memorable performance.

RJ Mischo is an award winning, world renowned Blues Singer, Harmonica player and Band Leader. He is the kind of entertainer that only 20 years of International touring experience can bring to the stage. RJ’s music is a combination of originals and obscure gems that create an exciting mix of Grooving Boogies, Bump & Grind Shuffles and Electric Chicago Blues. RJ is endorsed by Hohner Harmonicas and has 9 Globally Distributed CDs out to date. RJ can also be heard on 21 additional CDs as a guest or on compilations with Jimmie Vaughan, James Cotton, G. Love, James Harman, Kim Wilson, Candye Kane, John Mayall and others.

RJs Harmonica playing is on Nationally Aired TV Commercials as well as documentaries on the Discovery Channel and Independent Movie Scores. He has contributed his Harmonica expertise to two published Harmonica instruction books and has conducted workshops at Music Schools in the US, Europe and Brazil. In addition to fronting his own bands, RJ has been hired to play in bands alongside Grammy Award winners Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith; Jimmy Thackery, Earl Cate, Junior Watson and more.

RJ Mischo has toured in 18 countries performing at top Showcase Night Clubs and on Major Festival Stages including the King Biscuit Blues Festival, San Francisco Blues Festival, Monterrey Jazz and Blues Festivals, International Harmonica Festival in Brazil, Spring Blues Festival in Belgium, Lucerne Blues Fest in Switzerland, Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival and many more.

Joining RJ is Mike Morgan and the Crawl. Mike Morgan was born in Dallas on November 30, 1959, and grew up in nearby Hillsboro, Texas. Morgan displayed an avid interest in music as a youngster, listening intently to the impassioned soul sounds of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett on local radio stations. He received his first guitar while in the third grade, but didn't begin to take playing seriously until he discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan's album, Texas Flood, in 1985. "When I heard Stevie's first album, that was it," Morgan recalls. "I already knew how to play the guitar, but Stevie showed me a lot of things I didn't know. After that, I dove headlong into playing the blues."

As his prowess on the guitar developed, it became clear that he was not merely a Stevie knock-off, but rather an original player with a sound and style that was all his own. Mike moved to Dallas in 1986 and soon hooked up with experienced vocalist Darrell Nulisch, (formerly with Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets and Ronnie Earl) to form The Crawl, named after an old jukebox hit by guitar great, Lonnie Brooks. Darrell had a tremendous knowledge of blues and a deep collection of blues records, and he exposed Morgan to the music of the Chicago blues scene and many of its key players.

Mike Morgan and The Crawl quickly made a name for themselves as one of the best contemporary blues bands in Texas, writing original songs that were on a par with the classics they chose to cover. After Nulisch left the band in 1989, Morgan set out to find a vocalist who would fit his desire for a broader-based R&B sound. He found the perfect match in Kansas City native and blues veteran Lee McBee, whose smoky, seasoned vocals were reminiscent of the legendary 1960s soul singers Morgan listened to while growing up. The fact that McBee was also an accomplished and revered harmonica player added more fuel to The Crawl's fire.

As Mike and Lee's collaboration proved popular with blues aficionados, appearances at the Benson & Hedges Blues Festival, the Dallas Blues Festival, the Atlantic City Blues Festival and the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival soon followed. Shortly before a performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Morgan's old pal Anson Funderburgh took Black Top owner Hammond Scott to a gig. Scott was so stunned by the band's talent and originality that he signed them to the label immediately following the Jazz Fest appearance. Mike Morgan and The Crawl found a national audience with the release of their debut recording, Raw & Ready, in 1990. Backed up by extensive national and international touring, Mike Morgan and The Crawl continued to amaze their fans throughout the 1990s by releasing five highly regarded albums, Mighty Fine Dancin, Full Moon Over Dallas, Ain't Worried No More, Looky Here!, The Road and I Like The Way You Work It. Morgan even kept a high profile during some down time away from the band in 1994 by recording Let The Dogs Run, a highly acclaimed record that paired him with fellow Dallas guitarist Jim Suhler.

Meanwhile praise for Morgan and the band came flooding in. Guitar World Magazine called Morgan a “genuine blues guitar hero!!”Blues Access Magazine raved “Mike Morgan and the Crawl crank up an irrepressible of fresh gritty blues and romping Stax/Volt-era soul.”

2007 saw the release of the most current CD, Stronger Every Day. Stronger Every Day was released by Seven Records and has guest appearances by Lee McBee and Randy McAllister.

Join us Sunday at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival as we get the rare opportunity to hear two great acts rolled into one, both in Edmonton for the very first time.

Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy

Show: Sunday August 21, 7PM
www.Diunna.com

Diunna Greenleaf, who set all CD sales records and received a marriage proposal at the 2006 edition of Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival is coming back so hold on to your hats. She brings with her the second of two Albert King Award winners as best guitarist at the International Blues Challenge that we will hear on Sunday, Jonn “Del Toro” Richardson.

Diunna Greenleaf, the leader of Blue Mercy, is a native Texan (Houston) who has a background steeped in gospel music. She is influenced by the likes of Koko Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Rosetta Thorpe, Sam Cooke, Charles Brown and her own parents Ben & Mary Ella Greenleaf (Gospel). She has developed "Diunna's style of Blues" in the same tradition as so many other great Texas blues men and women. She combines intricate patches of jazz, gospel and heartfelt soul to create a kind of blues that takes one on an emotional roller coaster ride.

Diunna and her band Blue Mercy have performed throughout the United States and Internationally. She has performed at the Lugano Blues Festival and the Bern Jazz Festival, both in Switzerland, as well as the Cahors Blues Festival in France.

Diunna has opened for and performed with the likes of Bob Margolin, Keb Mo, Willie “Pinetop” Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, James Cotton, Carrie Bell, Big Bill Morganfield, Smoking Joe Kubek and B’Nois King, Anson Funderburge, Sam Meyers and the Rockets, Bernard Allison, Odetta, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, I.J. Gosey, Sherman Robertson, Kenny Neal, the late great Teddy “Cry Cry” Reynolds, and numerous others.

Diunna's commitment to Blues goes well beyond performing on stage. She served for three years as President of the Houston Blues Society, making history as the first woman ever elected to this position. During her presidency she used her professional guidance and grant writing skills to produce the Willie Mae Thornton Blues Festival, bringing in such talent as “The Queen Of Blues” Mrs. Koko Taylor, Mr. Bernard Allison, Texas Johnny Brown, I.J. Gosey, Diane Price, Mel Waiters, Betty Lewis, Gary Clark, Jr., Jeremy And The Hotboys, along with many others.

Diunna started the annual Houston Blues Society Founders Day and actively continued the Blues In Schools Program throughout the state. She is one of the founders of Friends of Blues Montgomery County.

Diunna was again nominated for the "Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year" at the 2009 Blues Music Awards held in Memphis on May 7th. Diunna's most recent achievement was her win for "Best New Artist Debut" at the 2008 Blues Music Awards in Tunica, MS. She was also nominated for "Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year." Join us as we welcome back one of the great female blues performers on the scene today, Diunna Greenleaf.

Delta Groove Harp Blast With Bob Corritore, Randy Chortkoff, Mitch Kashmar and “Big Pete” Van Der Pluijm on harps Kirk Fletcher and Paris Slim on guitar Willie Campbell bass, Rob Rio keys, and Jimi Bott drums

Sunday August 21, 8:30PM
www.deltagrooveproductions.com

It’s a harmonica extravaganza featuring 4 harp maestros, 2 killer guitar players, a top notch rhythm section and a great keyboard artist. We could try and describe this incredible show to you but instead we’re going to just introduce the musicians and give you a little background on each one....

First off, the harmonica players

Mitch Kashmar is one of the great West Coast harp men in the biz today. Noted by his peers as one of the most soulful and powerful blues singers in the business today, Mitch Kashmar has shared the stage with some of the most influential blues musicians including John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Turner, Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson, Lowell Fulson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Pee Wee Crayton, Johnny Adams and many others. Mitch played our festival in 2007 and his performance was released on the Delta Groove recording “Live at Labatt”.

"Big Pete" Van Der Pluijm may not be a familiar name to North American blues audiences, but he's already well established in the Netherlands, his native home base in North-West Europe. At 23, Pete was handpicked for a European memorial tour to honour the music and memory of legendary harmonica player and vocalist Lester Butler. Now 33, “Big Pete” is ready to take on North America.

Bob Corritorre is making his Edmonton debut and is up for 2 Blues Music Awards this year, as “Harmonica Player of the Year” and for “Historical Album of the Year”. Bob is one of the most active and highly regarded blues harmonica players on the scene today. His style passionately carries forward the old school of playing that Corritore learned as a young man directly from many of original pioneers of Chicago Blues. His sympathetic, yet fiery harmonica playing is featured on over 35 releases to date.

Randy Chortkoff's passion for music began at a very young age – his father was a jazz fan who used to bring Louis Armstrong and members of his band home for dinner and informal jam sessions, and young Randy soaked it all up. He’s also the man behind Delta Groove Records and Eclecto Groove Records. Rand is a fine harmonica player, singer and Master of Ceremonies, he’ll keep the show moving along, making sure everyone gets “solo time” and a chance to shine.

Kirk Fletcher is a two time W.C. Handy Award nominee, and nominated this year for a Blues Music Award as “Best Guitar Player”. Kirk has toured with Lynwood Slim, Janiva Magness, Charlie Musselwhite and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, as well as performing with James Cotton, Pine Top Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Mojo Buford, Ted Harvey, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Michael Landau, Elvin Bishop, Ronnie Earl, Doyle Bramhall, and many more… Kirk Fletcher is considered one of the best young guitar players on the blues scene today.

Guitarist Frank "Paris Slim" Goldwasser is no stranger to those who've been paying attention to the West Coast blues scene over the last two decades. Born in Paris, France in 1960, his initial blues inspiration came from Hound Dog Taylor's "NATURAL BOOGIE" LP. After working his first professional gig at age 21 supporting visiting U.S. bluesman Sonny Rhodes, Rhodes invited him to move to the San Francisco Bay Area. With the commitment of a true believer, Franck packed his bags and moved to the Bay Area within a year, whereupon he was immediately hired by Troyce Key, who gave him the stage name of Paris Slim, to play in the house band at Key's legendary Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland.

Known by some as the "Boss of the Boogie", pianist/vocalist Rob Rio plays the boogie-woogie and jump blues of the 40's and 50's with a virtuosity and elan that has excited audiences around the world for more than 30 years. RIO was inducted into the Boogie Woogie Hall Of Fame in 2008. He has appeared with many of the original blues greats, such as Muddy Waters, Willy Dixon, Charles Brown, Joe Cocker, Paul Butterfield and many more, and has recorded with Mick Jagger, Canned Heat, Billy Boy Arnold, William Clarke, Coco Montoya, Finis Tasby, Walter Trout, Phillip Walker, Jody Williams, among others.

Bassist Willie J Campbell was born in Detroit Juneteenth 1957. He moved with his family to Southern California in 1960 and played guitar for a few months around the age of ten. He says he “couldn't play a chord with his "little smokie" sausage fingers”, so he concentrated on bass. Now a mainstay in the Mannish Boys, he has worked with The Fabulous Thunderbirds (1995-2001) James Harman, members of The Blasters and the original Red Devils.

While still in high school drummer Jimi Bott started his professional career at the tender age of 17. At 19 he joined Mark Hummel and the Blues Survivors, starting what would be the beginning of a perpetual life on the road. On his 21st birthday he auditioned for and won the gig of his dreams with Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers. After a total of 8 years with the Fabulous Thunderbirds Jimi took a break from touring and started work in his Portland based recording studio and with his new band, Woodbrain. Jimi is again nominated at the Blues Music Awards as “Drummer of the Year”