“BANDS OF THE KVBA” CALENDAR TO DEBUT AT THE 2012 BLUES FEST

Tributes Available For Purchase

Want to be the proud owner of a great new souvenir of the KVBA?   A fifteen-month calendar, featuring new performance photos of all of the KVBA member bands, will be available for the first time at this year’s Festival.  The funds raised from your purchase of the calendar will go to support the KVBA and its many activities, and give you lasting memories of the many great performances you’ve enjoyed from our local blues musicians.  But that’s not all!

Want to dedicate a date on the calendar to someone special?  For only $10.00, you can purchase a tribute honoring a birthday, anniversary, or in memory of a friend, relative, or other loved one.   Simply print and fill out the attached Bands of the KVBA Tribute Form with the wording you’d like to appear in your tribute and return it to:

Bobbe Orr
630 W. South St.
Kalamazoo, MI  49007

The deadline for tributes is May 31, so don’t wait!  Purchase your tributes and pre-order your calendars today!

For questions, contact Bobbe Orr at missclairol@access4less.net or call 269-381-6317.

The Out of Favor Boys Play at the 2011 Kalamazoo Blues Fest

The 19th Annual Kalamazoo Blues Festival is on track to be another three-day celebration of music, community, summertime, and fun for one and all.  However, putting on the Festival involves way more than those three days, and while there have been many new and exciting developments in promotions and marketing in recent months, the Festival still needs your help.  Go to the KVBA website and click on “Support The Festival” to see details on the various levels of sponsorship available, and the benefits that come with each level.  Be a patron for your local Blues Fest and know that you have really made a difference!

Volunteer for the Blues Festival!

 VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND AT THE 2012 KALAMAZOOBLUES FESTIVAL  

Have fun, hear great music, and take part in the Festival! 

KVBA is again looking for volunteers for the 19^th annual Blues Festival, to be held July 12, 13, and 14, 2012,  at the Arcadia Festival Site in Kalamazoo.  We appreciate the many of you who have volunteered at past festivals and we hope to see you again this year.  We also welcome all first-time volunteers, and look forward to working with you.

Volunteer positions are available in a number of areas, including ticket sales, merchandise sales, and soft drink sales; main gate, service gate, and volunteer, hospitality, and beer tents; children’s activities; festival services and security; vendor ticket collection; and tear-down following the Festival. See a more detailed description of the positions, the duties involved with each position, and additional information, at Volunteer Positions, Kalamazoo Blues Fest 2012.

If you are interested in volunteering, please print and fill out the registration form, to be found at Volunteer Registration Form, Kalamazoo Blues Fest 2012 , or on the KVBA website at www.kvba.org.

Please return the Registration Form to: 

At the Volunteer Tent

Volunteer Coordinator,  2520 Bruce Dr., Kalamazoo, MI 49008.

It is important to indicate the DAY(S) and SHIFT(S)  that you would like to work.  If you wish to be assigned with another person, please indicate that person’s name on the form.  Shift times in specific areas may be slightly different than listed on the registration form.   You will be informed by postcard, email, or by phone to confirm  the day(s) and time(s) of your assignment. 

Thanks again and we hope to see you in July.   If you have any questions please call Nancy at 269.342.5733.  email:    king-nancy@att.net

Nancy J King

Volunteer Coordinator

Have items to donate?  Great!  Contact Pat Olsen by email or Facebook Patricia Lyons Olsen.  We all have things we’re ready to do without, so pass them on for the garage sale and support the KVBA.

For all of you eager readers of the monthly KVBA newsletter, a change is underway!  Whereas you have previously received a lengthy email on (or near:  hey, we’re not perfect!) the first of the month containing a compilation of articles, photos, and updates about KVBA activities and musical events, you can now simply go to the website and find breaking news!  Newsletter articles are currently being published to the website as they are completed, for a more timely and relevant blues information experience.  A collection of these items will still appear in your inbox once a month, to ensure that nothing is missed.  But why wait?  Start visiting the KVBA website regularly to find out what’s latest and greatest in the happenings in YOUR blues community!

Want To Contribute?  Please Do! 

The KVBA editorial staff (that’s me, folks!) eagerly encourages you to submit articles and photographs for the newsletter.  Seen a good show or heard a hot CD recently?  Write a review!  Know of an event coming up?  Send in a notice!  Have some great photographs?  Bring’em on!  Personal experiences, recommendations for clubs and venues, book reviews–anything relevant to the aforementioned blues community is great stuff for the newsletter.  We’d like to make the KVBA newsletter a vital and exciting way for us to communicate and share the love.  I can’t write them all, people, and believe me, you don’t want me to.

Email newsletter submissions to weaver_susan@att.net.  You can’t write, you say?  Send me the basics and I’ll write it up.  Or send me links and a thought or two.  We’re just getting started on this new way of communicating, and we can use all the input we can get.  Check the website daily, and keep the blues alive, people!

Samantha Fish

A new star rising from the Kansas City blues scene, 23-year old Samantha Fish will take the stage this Friday night at Kalamazoo’s State Theater to bring the 2011-12 Budweiser Blues series to a rousing conclusion.  Fish, who began playing in KC clubs only half a dozen years ago (Trampled Under Foot, which got special notice from KVBA members at this year’s IBC in Memphis, had a big hand in bringing her into their gigs and introducing her to public notice), has toured with Cassie Taylor and Joanne Shaw Taylor as “Girls With Guitars”, and has released two CD’s, Live Bait and Runaway, both featuring originals by Fish as well as a number of other tunes. 

In her short but intense career, Fish has taken on a wide variety of approaches to the blues and made them her own, and she can be expected to bring them all home to the audience at the State.  Kalamazoo’s own JR Clark Band, which has recently released a new CD of its own, Icicles On My Ceiling, will open the evening, and is sure to heat up the stage.   

Doors open at 7:00 pm, with the music starting at 8:00 pm, and Q-It-Up Catering will be on hand to offer barbeque and other goodies to a hungry crowd.  This is the last chance for the season to get down to the State for great music and good times, so be sure not to miss it!

JR Clark (photo by Sue Weaver)

If you’ve been following the blues scene anywhere from Kalamazoo to the greater Michiana area, you’ve almost surely encountered the blistering guitar and high-energy stylings of JR Clark and his band.   Specializing in slide guitar, JR has been delighting audiences over the past twenty years, bringing a unique style of performance heavily influenced by his long relationship with “Little Ed” Williams, of Little Ed and the Blues Imperials. His respect and admiration for many of the greats of the blues, including Luther Allison, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and B.B., Albert, and Freddy King is also clearly evident.  JR and his bandmates, Denny Love on bass, Timson Taliaferro on drums, and Willie Phipps on keyboards, introduced his most recent CD, “Icicles On My Ceiling”, in a special performance on April 7, 2012 at Kalamazoo’s 411 Club.  He treated the crowd to introductions of the songs, all originals written by JR, from the CD, as well as a variety of other numbers, as part of a full and satisfying evening of the blues. 

The ten songs on the new CD make it clear that the JR Clark Band is a force to be reckoned with.  Title track “Icicles On My Ceiling” is a medium-tempo tune with a beat that drives you to the corner of J.B. Hutto Avenue and Thorogood Thruway, never disappointing along the way, while “Tribute To The Boogie” takes you on a stylistic tour past the homes of two of JR’s inspirations, the Texas funk of Freddie King and the elemental blues of John Lee Hooker.  By contrast, “The Day You Walked Out On Me” is a slow burner that brings home the true feeling of the blues, evoking all the universal pain of loss and regret.  And on “I Can’t Have It”, JR effortlessly demonstrates his mastery of mentor Little Ed’s distinctive slide style.  Willie Phipps’ keyboard work is outstanding throughout, and the rythym section of Love and Taliaferro is spot-on. 

“This CD is a coming home for me,” says JR on the liner notes for the new album.  “I wanted to pay tribute to tradition and honor some of the blues legends who have been such a great influence on me.”  On “Icicles On My Ceiling”, JR hits the mark.  If you like your blues solid and powerful, you’ll enjoy this latest release from the JR Clark Band.

Blues Time (photo by Sue Weaver)

Head out to the 411 Club in Kalamazoo on Sunday, April 15, for the final show of the 2011-2012 Second Sunday Series!

Designed to raise funds for the Kalamazoo Blues Festival, the series has been a huge success since its inception in 2008-09.  This year’s lineup has included shows by The Jim Klein Band, Marci Linn, Bosco-Gee, Frog and the Beeftones, The Steve Hilger Band, Bryan Michael Fischer, Thirsty Perch, and Seventh Son.

Stan Budzynski

This Sunday’s show will feature performances by Lansing-area Stan Budzynski and 3rd Degree and Kalamazoo trio Blues Time.  Two-time winners of the Capitol Area Blues Brawl (’05 and ’09), long-time veterans Stan Budzynski and Third Degree will share the stage with Dave Sabin, Jack Beertema, and Tim Williams of Blues Time.

Doors open at 4:00 pm, and the music starts at 5:00.  Admission is still only $6.00, all of which goes to benefit the Blues Festival!  Excellent food and drink is available through the 411 Club, and fun and good times are pretty much inevitable.

Don’t miss this last chance to party on a Sunday and do your part towards making this summer’s Festival one of the best ever!

This meeting is open to the entire Kalamazoo Blues Community – whether you’re a KVBA member or you’re just interested in the Blues.  Everyone who attends will be entered into a drawing for a fabulous door prize.

Come and meet the KVBA Board. We want to share what’s been going on and what we have planned for the future. We want to update you on our fundraising efforts. But most of all, we want to hear your ideas. (Did you know you don’t have to be on the board to join one of our many committees.) Then, after the membership meeting, stay for the Thursday Blues Jam, hosted by our own Out of Favor Boys.

Questions about the meeting or membership can be directed to Colleen Barker at 269-352-3918.

(Wanna get a sneak peek at a few of the folks slated to play for this year’s festival? Click on the Blues Fest tab…tasty!)

Join us to see Seventh Son and the Thirsty Perch Blues Band.  Doors open at 4 p.m. and music starts at 5 p.m.

More importantly, don’t forget to set your clocks forward an hour on Sunday morning.  Otherwise, you’ll be an hour early late for the show!  We might ask you to help set up if you’re an hour early. We might ask you help
us pack things up and clean up the club if you are
late for the show!

Admission is $6 and it all goes towards our fundraising efforts for this year’s Kalamazoo Blues Festival.