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

The Blues Images 2010 calendar is now available for purchase, and blues fans should be lining up with their hard-earned coin to grab a copy of this year's edition. For those of you still in the dark about this super-cool and useful wall decoration, here's the scoop - each month in the Blues Images calendar is accompanied by rare vintage advertising art from the 1920s that features a single blues artist and song.

For instance, January features long-forgotten art for Robert Wilkins' "That's No Way To Get Along" record, originally released by Brunswick Records in 1929. February is graced by art for Delta blues legend Charley Patton's "High Water Everywhere," and so on. The period art was created by the labels to advertise their "race records," what they called blues music back in the 1920s, and much of it hasn't been seen for almost 80 years until it was rescued by record collector and blues aficionado John Tefteller.

The Blues Images calendar includes important dates in blues history, such as artist's birthdays and the date of their death, and also includes well-written commentary on each song represented by the accompanying artwork, as well as additional, smaller pictures of blues art in the date section of each month. If that wasn't enough value for you cheapskates to cough up $19.95 for a calendar, Blues Images has included a free CD as well, with a booklet and tray card - you only need to supply a jewel case. The 2010 CD features a pair of rare songs from Blind Blake as well as stuff from Patton, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and others. Eighteen songs total, one matching each month on the calendar, and six bonus tracks.

The story behind how this blues artwork was rescued and landed on an annual calendar is pretty interesting, and you can read all about it in my interview with publisher John Tefteller. And after you read that, support Blues Images and buy a calendar, will ya? It will make a fine addition to the wall of your favorite listening room, office, garage...or wherever you get your blues fix.

Photo courtesy Blues Images

Eric Clapton fans rejoice! On December 8, 2009 Universal Music will be reissuing John Mayall's classic British blues-rock album Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton in a deluxe edition, two-disc set. Much like Universal's previous "deluxe edition" archival releases, Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton is filled to the brim with rare and unreleased material.

The first disc of this deluxe edition features the original twelve-song mono release of the album from 1966, along with the same songs in a stereo mix which was originally released in 1969. This is the same 24-track version of Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton that was released on a remastered CD on Universal's Decca imprint in 1998.

For Clapton fans, the attraction of this umpteenth reissue of Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton will be the second disc, comprised of a mix of rare studio tracks, live radio broadcasts, and club performances that showcase Clapton's raw, but still maturing blues guitar style. Disc two offers 19 songs, including eight from sessions for BBC Radio that were broadcast in late 1965 and early 1966, a handful of singles and studio tracks, and six songs from two Flamingo Club performances in London circa March and April 1966. Some of this stuff has been released before, but much of it has been long out-of-print, and nine tracks on disc two have never been previously released.

Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton is the album that established both the guitarist's reputation and the cult of personality that followed him around both the U.K. and the United States well into the 1980s. The album is a classic of British blues-rock, innovative and influential, helping to launch dozens of blues-rock bands on both sides of the ocean. If you haven't heard it, you've missed an essential piece of blues music history.

Related Content:
Eric Clapton Profile
John Mayall Profile
Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton CD review

Photo courtesy Universal Music

The Toronto Blues Society will hold its 13th annual Maple Blues Awards ceremony on Monday night, January 18th, 2010 at the brand new Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Ontario. The Canadian blues scene is often overshadowed by that of its neighbors to the south, but in truth the country hosts a thriving, vital blues community and this annual event honors excellence among Canadian blues artists. See who has been nominated for the 2010 Maple Blues Awards....

Photo courtesy Ruf Records

Blues harpist Norton Buffalo, a mainstay of the Northern California blues scene for better than three decades, lost his short battle with lung cancer on Friday, October 29, 2009 at the age of 58 years.

A skilled harmonica player who was equally conversant in blues, rock, folk, and country music, Buffalo's distinctive harp tones can be heard on over 180 albums by artists as diverse as Bonnie Raitt, the Doobie Brothers, Elvin Bishop, Johnny Cash, and many others. Buffalo was a touring member of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, and had been a member of the Steve Miller Band since 1976.

Buffalo also enjoyed a unique career in the blues, releasing his debut album Lovin' in the Valley of the Moon in 1977, and King of the Highway, with his band the Knockouts, in 2000, with several albums appearing in between. Buffalo is best known for his association with slide-guitarist Roy Rogers, the two artists first playing together in 1987 and collaborating on three albums for Blind Pig Records, including 2003's Roots of Our Nature.

A couple of benefit shows are planned in honor of Buffalo, the first scheduled for November 22, 2009 at the Paradise Performing Arts Center in Paradise, California and featuring Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings, Tom Rigney and Flambeau, and the Carlos Reyes Band. A larger celebration of Buffalo's amazing career will be held on January 23, 2010 at the Fox Theater in Oakland, featuring the Steve Miller Band and the Doobie Brothers with special guests Huey Lewis, George Thorogood, Charlie Musselwhite and Bonnie Raitt.

A quiet but influential presence in the roots-music community since the mid-1970s, Norton Buffalo's skilled playing and musical genius will be missed. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends, and many fans around the world.

Norton Buffalo & Roy Rogers photo courtesy Norton Buffalo website

The winners have been announced, and the readers of Blues Blast magazine, a free weekly Internet blues music magazine published by Illinois Blues, have voted, choosing the winners in the publication's second annual Blues Blast Music Awards.

Last year, over 11,000 readers from all 50 states and 40 other countries voted online for their award winners, which included Chicago blues legends Buddy Guy and Koko Taylor. Nominees in eight categories are chosen by the magazine's staff, music writers, managers, musicians and other industry professionals and voted on by Blues Blast readers. See who won this year's awards....

Photo courtesy Delta Groove Music

If you've ever heard the lonesome harp playing that graces the Rolling Stones' "Miss You," then you've experienced the phenomenal harmonica skills of Sugar Blue. The talented instrumentalist has been performing since the age of 10 - nearly 50 years now - and contributed his blazing harp sound to such Stones albums as 1978's Some Girls, 1980's Emotional Rescue, and 1981's Tattoo You. More importantly, for the blues music fan, Blue has played alongside such giants as Willie Dixon, Louisiana Red, Lonnie Brooks, and Son Seals, among many others. The cat is so talented that he's even backed hardcore jazz legends like Stan Getz and Paul Horn, as well as pursued a solo career of note.

On January 26, 2010 Beeble Music will release Threshold, the latest album from harmonica master Sugar Blue, and his first since 2007's Code Blue. Blue has never been a prolific recording artist, and this is just his sixth album since 1980, but he continues to evolve and grow as an artist, and Threshold is said to represent a further expansion of his blues-based sound. Leading a top-notch band of seasoned musicians, Blue contributed nine original sounds for Threshold, the material running the gamut from blues and rock to jazz and funk. Two cover tunes round out the album - Junior Well's classic theme song, "Messin' With The Kid," and the Elvis Presley hit "Trouble," written by the famed team of Lieber and Stoller.

Born James Whiting in Harlem, Sugar Blue performed at the famed Apollo club at an early age. He began his recording career with sessions behind folks like Brownie McGhee and Roosevelt Sykes, and would later relocate to France, where he met the Rolling Stones. After a brief stay in Europe, during which he recorded two albums, Blue returned to the U.S. and the blues Mecca of Chicago. While in the Windy City, Blue honed his craft, learning from masters like Big Walter Horton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell, and James Cotton.

Aside from his obvious skills as a harp player, Blue is also a powerful vocalist and intelligent songwriter, and Threshold also shows a further refinement of his wordplay. In a press release for the Threshold album, Blue says, "I believe that the greatest threshold of all is love because it is the fount from which all human life springs. Life echoes the sounds of our interactions: joy, sadness, heartache, passion, loneliness, intimacy, celebration or solemn occasion. We have tried to give voice to these feelings in this musical offering."

Photo courtesy Beeble Music