It's been nearly 40 years since Donnie “Mr. Downchild” Walsh and his since passed brother Hock Walsh, formed the group that would be the inspiration behind the world famous Blues Brothers. Still on the top of their game today, Downchild was nominated for “Blues Album of the Year” at the 2005 Juno Awards and took the “Entertainers of the Year” award at the 2007 Maple Blues Awards.

Named after a Sonny Boy Williamson song, the band can be traced back to a time when Donnie Walsh was teenager and got his first taste of the blues. "I was absolutely amazed by the music", he says, "and like most people who love the blues, started looking for more."  He found it with Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Albert King and a host of others who he heard, then later on, had the opportunity to play with and learn from.

A constant throughout, Donnie Walsh has kept the music alive and today Downchild embodies some the most respected musicians in the country, all award winners in their own right. They include silky smooth vocalist and harp player Chuck Jackson, tenor sax man Pat Carey, drummer Mike Fitzpatrick, Gary Kendall on bass and keyboard ace Michael Fonfara. Between them, the band and its’ members have earned no less than 26 awards from media and blues authorities; have released 14 albums and performed over 7,500 gigs around the world to appreciative audiences.

It`s "Good Times Guaranteed" with Downchild. You can bank on it.

Friday 8:30

Nathan James and Ben Hernandez continue the long tradition of the blues duo, but they take it from the country to places it's never been before, all the while paying homage to the musicians who laid the foundation for the blues.

You wouldn't think that just 2 people could generate this much sound, but they do. The two share vocal duties, switching off from song to song, or harmonizing. They play an incredible array of instruments, including guitars, harmonica, suitcase percussion footboard, kazoo, jug, coffee can drum, spoons, and washtub bass.

While they are labeled as a blues act, they travel to the roots of the music, just as those duos from the 20's and 30's did. “Blues players back in the old days covered everything...jazz, ragtime, gospel, blues, and even popular tunes of the day. They had to, to make a living. In a way we're not much different. We've just put our own mark on the thing”, says James.

Saturday 2:30

Terrance Simien is just 43, but he has spent the last 26 years on the road spreading the zydeco gospel he learned in Southwest Louisiana. He grew up just down the road from Richard's Club, one of the best known and rowdiest roadhouses in Louisiana where he learned tail shaking party music, and across the highway from St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church where he first learned to love the spiritual side of music.

He has managed to combine both these influences and stay true to his zydeco roots. Simien has become one of the best known ambassadors of zydeco, appeared on film in “The Big Easy”, recorded with Paul Simon when Simon was producing his Graceland recording, and released his first recording in 1990. He has since released a dozen recordings with his “Live Worldwide” winning a Grammy this year as best Zydeco or Cajun recording.

He was the first zydeco artist to travel to Cuba, performing in Havana, and is dedicated to introducing Creole culture to the world, traveling to Mali with the Carnegie Hall Global Encounters distance learning program.

Jeremy Loome from the Edmonton Sun has said, “Simien's biggest asset is his phenomenal set of pipes; the guy draws obvious vocal influences from artists as diverse as Jimmy Cliff and Sam Cooke, then combines it with punctuating stabs of accordion. In Canadian terms, it's like listening to Great Big Sea with a singer that could top the charts in Motown's heyday.”

All we can say is bring your dancing shoes....

Saturday 4:00

It's not often that you get to see true legends of the blues, but this year at Edmonton's Labatt Blues Festival we present a band that features not just 1, but 3, living legends of the blues.

Born July 1st 1935 in Tunica Mississippi, James Cotton received his first harmonica as a Christmas present and in short order he was listening to Sonny Boy Williamson on KFFA out of Helena Arkansas and since then Cotton, and his harp, have been inseparable. By the time he was 15, he had cut 4 tracks for Sun Records in Memphis, and a couple of years later had his own radio show on KWEM in West Memphis. One Friday saw him at his regular gig at the Dinette Lounge when a stranger came up to him and introduced himself. It was none other than Muddy Waters. Cotton joined Muddy's band and spent the next 12 years there. But Cotton was as much of a front man as Muddy and by the early 60's Cotton left the Muddy Waters band because “I did all I could there, an' it was time to move on to something else. Muddy was a very sweet guy and I loved and respected him very much.”

It was 1967 and Cotton was fronting his own band and had started recording under his own name. He became the ultimate showman, playing every major venue across the United States, and picking up the very appropriate nickname “Superharp”.

Along the way Cotton has picked up a Grammy, no less than 7 WC Handy Awards and has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Pinetop Perkins has been playing piano professionally for over 80 years. He was born in 1913 in Belzoni Mississippi and his first

Hubert Sumlin was one of 13 children born on a farm near Greenwood Mississippi in November 1931. He took up drums and guitar as a child and was playing at local jukes by the time he was 12. He left home at 17 to tour clubs and taverns throughout the south from 1950 to 1954 with his friend James Cotton. In 1954 Sumlin joined the Howlin' Wolf band and moved to Chicago. Wolf mentored the young Sumlin, helping him develop his own style and develop as a performer. “I played with the guy for close to 25 years, man! You learn a lot. He wouldn't go no place unless I went with him. He pushed me as far as he could push me, and I could still enjoy doing the thing I love, playing guitar.” In fact, all the great guitar riffs on those Howlin' Wolf recordings of the 50's and 60's are Hubert Sumlin's work.

He's not resting on his considerable laurels. This year, he will be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame; he's appeared at Eric Clapton's Guitar Crossroads, and he continues to perform worldwide.

Saturday 5:30

Over the years at Edmonton's Labatt Blues Festival we have had a few Blues Harp Meltdowns and this year we thought it was time to do the same with a trio of talented piano players, touring under the banner “Pianorama”.

Juno award winner Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne has a style that encompasses high energy boogie woogie, rolling New Orleans blues and jazz, improv heavy Kansas City Swing and West Coast jump. Growing up in Spokane and later, from age 8 on, in San Francisco, he was a child prodigy on the piano. Young Kenny was encouraged by his preacher father to play gospel, but unbeknownst to his father, Wayne was introduced to boogie by his uncle Charlie. In 1962, he had an opportunity to play with Jimmy Reed at a local club and the evening ended with all the things his father thought might happen when the Devil`s Music was involved. A fight erupted in the smoky club, accompanied by a stabbing that had Wayne`s father and mother grabbing him by the arm and leading him out the back door. That was the end of Kenny Wayne`s music career for close to 20 years.

In the late 70`s Wayne moved to Canada and started making his living playing the blues. He`s become a fixture on the Canadian scene, releasing a series of acclaimed discs, winning a JUNO award and becoming one of the most sought after studio piano men around.

Expelled from classical piano lessons at age 14 (for playing boogie woogie) D.K. Stewart was given an early opportunity to develop his own piano style. Both jazz and blues held appeal for the Portland Oregon based Stewart, and his talent gave him the opportunity to meet and perform with the likes of Big Walter Horton, Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, Junior Wells, Albert Collins, Paul Butterfield and a host of others. In 1985 he put his stage savvy to work, forming the DK Stewart trio. That band introduced Robert Cray and Curtis Salgado to audiences in the Pacific Northwest. Stewart has been inducted into the Cascade Blues society`s Muddy Hall of Fame.

David Vest has been a professional bluesician since the age of 15. He`s toured with Lavelle White, Floyd Dixon and Jimmy T99 Nelson, but is probably best known for his four years being featured in the Paul deLay band. In his long career, which started in the 50`s he went back and forth between juke joints and gospel gigs; he wrote the first songs ever recorded by Tammy Wynette; and worked with Fannie Flagg. He worked with Big Joe Turner, Sam Sham, Grady Gaines, and many others through the 70`s and 80`s and has performed at festivals around the world.

Sunday 5:30