Whew, I'll tell you what...blues guitarist B.B. King, at 84 years old, keeps up with an ambitious tour schedule that would exhaust an artist a quarter of his age. King has announced new tour dates that will take he and his band well into 2010, the blues legend still touring in support of his award-winning 2008 album, One Kind Favor.

Fellow blues giant Buddy Guy, a guitarist of no little talent himself, will join King in February 2010 for a month of sure-to-be-sold-out dates. While King, performing by himself and backed by his top-notch band, is worth catching every time he blows through your town, the rare opportunity to witness King and Guy performing together is a night that nobody should pass up when they get a chance!

Related Content:
B.B. King - One Kind Favor CD review
Buddy Guy - Skin Deep CD review

B.B. King Tour Dates

Nov. 13 @ Peppermill Wendover Casino, Wendover NV
Nov. 14 @ Silver Legacy Resort Casino, Reno NV
Nov. 15 @ Heritage Theater, Campbell CA
Nov. 17 @ Cal State Chico, Chico CA
Nov. 19 @ Coussoulis Arena, San Bernardino CA
Nov. 20 @ Centennial Hall, Tucson AZ
Nov. 21 @ Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix AZ
Nov. 22 @ Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach CA
Dec. 26 @ Star of the Desert Arena, Primm NV
Dec. 28 @ Belly Up Aspen, Aspen CO
Dec. 31 @ Mabee Center Arena, Tulsa OK
Jan. 3, 2010 @ Nokia Theatre, Grand Prairie TX
Feb. 4 @ King Center for the Performing ArtsMelbourne FL *
Feb. 5 @ Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater FL *
Feb. 6 @ Fox Theatre, Atlanta GA *
Feb. 9 @ Ryman Auditorium, Nashville TN *
Feb. 11 @ DAR Constitution Hall, Washington D.C. *
Feb. 12 @ United Palace, New York NY *
Feb. 13 @ Caesars Circus Maximus Theatre, Atlantic City NJ *
Feb. 14 @ MGM Grand at Foxwoods, Mashantucket CT *
Feb. 16 @ Fox Theatre, Detroit MI *
Feb. 18 @ Family Arena, Saint Charles MO *
Feb. 19 @ The Midland by AMC, Kansas City MO *
Feb. 20 @ The Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis MN *
Feb. 22 @ Mid America Center, Council Bluffs IA *

* with Buddy Guy

Photo courtesy Geffen Records

More blues artists tour dates

On this day in 1909, Booker T. "Bukka" White was born in Houston, Mississippi, a small farming town south of Tupelo in the Hill Country. White learned to play the fiddle from his dad, a part-time musician, later picking up the guitar. At the age of fourteen, White went to Clarksdale, in the Mississippi Delta, to live with an Uncle.

While living in Clarksdale, White is said to have met blues legend Charley Patton, who "smartened him" in the ways of the blues. While working as a farm hand, White would play juke-joints and parties, but he would soon leave the Delta to travel the South and play his blues for spare change. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to make a living with his music, White worked in a number of fields; he played ball in the Negro Leagues and tried his hand at boxing for a while.

Although White's career sputtered out by the end of the 1930s, he was "rediscovered" during the folk-blues explosion of the 1960s. White would subsequently make a splash on the college coffeehouse and folk festival circuit, playing the Newport Folk Festival in 1966 and touring with the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe the following year. A sharp dresser and an entertaining and charismatic performer, White would continue to tour and record until his death from cancer in 1977.

Join us today in celebrating the life and career of blues great Booker T. White!

Related Content: Bukka White Profile

Photo courtesy Legacy Recordings

It's a story worthy of blues mythology...one night, a few years ago, noted blues guitarist Eric Bibb was approached by a fan after a London performance. Carrying a guitar case, the fan opened it up to reveal a vintage, 1930s-era Resophonic National steel guitar that once belonged to Mississippi Delta blues legend Booker T. "Bukka" White. Holding the famed instrument inspired a song, which Bibb later expanded into an entire album.

On January 26, 2010 Telarc Records will be releasing Booker's Guitar, the album inspired by Bibb's chance meeting with the fan in London. A fifteen-song collection that represents Bibb's deep connection with the Delta blues, the album-opening title track was recorded in England, Bibb using White's powerful guitar. The remainder of Booker's Guitar was recorded in rural Ohio, with Bibb using his own personal instruments, but the other songs fuse perfectly with the English recording to create a masterful updating of the Mississippi Delta blues legacy.

"Holding the guitar that Booker White had played for so many years," Bibb recalls in a press release for the album, "seeing his actual handwriting on a set list that had been taped to the side of the guitar - it all made me feel like the time was finally upon me to make a statement about my relationship with the Delta blues tradition. It was like a rite of passage, an initiation. I felt like this guitar finding its way to me was a signal that I had journeyed far enough to be able to make an honest tribute to the music of my heroes."

I've heard this incredible album, and let me tell you, with Booker's Guitar, Eric Bibb has released the first great blues album of 2010. Mark January 26th on your calendar, 'cause you're going to want this one in your blues library!

Photo courtesy Telarc Records

Guitarist Peter Lang is in trouble and he needs our help. One of the world's foremost six-and-twelve-string fingerstyle guitarists, Lang has enjoyed a lengthy career, some 40 years, playing traditional music in the blues and folk vein. Influenced by artists like Mississippi John Hurt and Blind Boy Fuller, Lang originally recorded for John Fahey's Takoma Records label (also home to Leo Kottke and Michael Bloomfield during the 1970s). Through the years, Lang has performed or recorded with heavyweights like Freddie King, John Hammond, the Butterfield Blues Band, and many others.

In May 2008, Lang was involved in an automobile accident that resulted in injuries requiring several surgeries, and has suffered a nerve impingement that may prevent him from playing his guitar again. Caught in a bureaucratic "catch 22," Lang's auto insurance company refuses to pay his medical expenses, considering his injuries to be "pre-existing," while his health insurance company won't pay, terming his injuries the result of the accident. Either way, Lang's medical bills keep piling up, and Lang is unable to perform and thus support his family.

A fund has been set up to collect donations to help Lang's short-term medical and living expenses, an attempt to get him back up on his feet and making a living. You can donate via the Lang Fund website, and in turn the guitarist has made six of his albums available for digital download as a way of saying "thanks." It's a win-win situation by any measure - your donation helps Lang and his family, and you'll get to hear some great music.

Photo courtesy Peter Lang