March 2013

Hey All!

Howard “Guitar” Luedke and his sweetheart “Magic” Deb Klossner put everyone in the mood for a good time on Feb.12th at TNB Unplugged at the Unitarian in Eau Claire. In addition to their awesome musical talent they invited Ben Harder of the True Heat band to sit in for a couple tunes, then had Mike Kelly add some twang with his Jaw harp virtuosity to mix it up a bit. Howard gave us a little change of pace with his excellent rendition of The Who’s My Generation. It was another great evening of midwinter blues warmth. If you’d like a taste of what’s happening here, go to the Tuesday Night Blues Facebook page or the Chippewa Valley Blues Society’s web page http://www.chippewavalleyblues.com/. Tuesday Night Blues Unplugged is on the second Tuesday of each month through May. It’s held at the Unitarian Universalist church, a great venue with plenty of parking and easy access to downtown Eau Claire eateries. 421 S. Farwell in Eau Claire is easy to find, just a block east of Barstow. Music starts at 6:30 p.m.

March 12th  Davey J & The Jones Tones will get us rocking our way in to spring with their Texas style

April 16th   the Sue Orfield Band keeps things jumping and rolling with their special blend of tunes

May 14th   Code Blue w/Catya & Sue is the finale for the unplugged series; they are always smoldering, ready to burst into flames!

Put these dates on your calendar and come join us the 2nd Tuesday of every month from now until May when the summer season takes off!

The 2013 Northwoods Blues Festival is going to be May 25th & 26th in Trego, WI at the Heartwood Conference Center & Retreat. The lineup is looking really hot! Friday it’s Howard Luedtke & Blue Max, Reverend Raven & The Chain Smoking Altar Boys with Westside Andy, Chris Beard, then Joe Louis Walker. Wow! Saturday starts off with The Rhythm Roosters, Mojo Lemon, Kenny Neal, and finishes with Ana Popovic. That is an awesome lineup. Go to www.northwoodsbluesfest.com for ticket, camping and lodging info.

The 5th season of Tuesday Night Blues at Owen Park is pretty well set at the time of this writing and the schedule should be posted by the time this goes to print. Opening night will be Tuesday May 30th. We really can use more sponsors to keep this thing going. If you’re interested, or maybe work for a company that wants to be presented to 500 – 1000 people every week throughout the summer, contact us at the website. There are new links for membership, mailing lists and even sponsor information for Tuesday Night Blues. The entertainment calendar is on the home page (bands be sure to send us your schedules), and there are links to many of the bands (and there scheduled events) at the Chippewa Valley Blues Society website www.chippewavalleyblues.com and the Tuesday Night Blues Facebook page www.facebook.com/tnblues for more info.

The survey section on the website has been being used a good bit to give us your feedback, and it is appreciated. We want to hear from you! It is important to us to know what we can do better. Unfortunately, we are financially limited and while we’d like to bring in some huge national bands to Tuesday Night Blues it’s probably not going to happen. We have excellent local talent that is often better known in Europe or even other parts of the country than in our own backyard of western Wisconsin. They and we really appreciate your support!

That being said, this years Tuesday Night Blues lineup will include at least two performers that have been nominated for Grammy’s, and numerous other awards. Sultry voiced Ellen Whyte will be returning to our beloved band shell this season from her home in Oregon, and legendary New Orleans bluesman Bryan Lee is scheduled to join us for the first time this summer. Blues On The Chippewa will continue to bring us amazing talent from around the country and Midwest as well. Word about these unique musical events is beginning to leak out to the world. There are many great musical events that are available, but very few have such high quality and are essentially FREE. Hard to beat that, even with a stick!

Don’t forget to tune in to WHYS 96.3 Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. for Snapshot’s blues show.

Thanks for lending me an ear! We’ll be seein’ ya around.