September 2010

The dog days are here and it has been a hot wet summer. That didn’t keep Blues On The Chippewa from attracting several thousand people to Durand for two great days of music and good times. All the bands were in top form. Starting with Lucas K And The Coolhand Saints first thing Saturday morning at the art fair over on the Old Courthouse steps to the Love Buzzards through the Sue Orfield Band with Ellen Whyte on Sunday Night.

I talked with people that came from several places in Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa, as well as all over Wisconsin for Blues On The Chippewa. I couldn’t be there for the whole event, but I heard from several sources that Everett Smithson and Mary Cutrofello were especially awesome. I wish I could have been able to do the Downtown Durand bar tour Saturday night with all the music being performed with all the days’ groups. By the way be sure you express your appreciation to all of these establishments for supporting this great event, the next time you drop in to wet your whistle or grab a bite to eat. Shari’s Chippewa Chippewa Club’s “Afterglow Jam” was definitely the place to be on Sunday night.

Let’s give a big shout of thanks to all the supporting businesses in Durand for helping to put on this excellent annual event! And especially the organizers deserve our appreciation for all the work it takes to put a FREE show like this on. Thanks Rob, Shari, Dan, Faith and your entire group. You make life better for all of Western Wisconsin!

By the time this issue of G & P Report hits the streets Tuesday Night Blues will be down to the last free concert of the season. We will be closing out the 2010 series with local legend Howard “Guitar” Luedtke who will be performing with his band Blue Max, including “Magic” Deb Klossner on bass. These folks opened our inaugural season in 2009 on a cold rainy Tuesday night, and rocked a good crowd. Hopefully this year it will be a more pleasant sunny evening.

Here is what Wikipedia says about him: Howard Luedtke, also known as Howard "Guitar" Luedtke, is an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and musician. Luedtke is considered one of the best slide guitar players in the American midwest, and currently tours with his band Howard "Guitar" Luedtke & Blue Max. Blue Max is a Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin based blues-rock band that has been performing in the upper Midwest for the past two decades. Luedtke interprets the blues material by Johnny Winter, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon.

Averaging over a 150 shows per year (solo and with Blue Max), Howard has traveled all over the midwest and Europe performing his tribute to the blues. His power-trio band is rounded out by his wife, Deb Klossner on bass and a wide assortment of drummers. From New Ulm, Minnesota, Klossner had been performing since 1983. After four years of performing with several rock bands in Southern Minnesota, Klossner joined Blue Max in 1987. Over the years Howard "Guitar" Luedtke & Blue Max has opened for the likes of Johnny Winter, Hubert Sumlin, Tinsley Ellis, Koko Taylor, Jeff Healey and Lonnie Brooks.

In 2001, Luedtke & Blue Max placed second in the Rock category of Contest 4 of Ed McMahon's NextBigStar.com Internet video contest

If you have never caught this group you have cheated yourself. So come on down to Owen Park in Eau Claire on August 31st and treat yourself to a really good concert and festival atmosphere. Help us give the 2010 Tuesday Night Blues season a rousing sendoff. It’s gonna be really good.

See Ya there!

June 2010, Summer Blues Season is Here!

Terry DeMars of Mojo Lemon and others have been busy organizing a benefit for Magic Deb Klossner, Howard Luedtke’s bass player, and probably better half, who has been fighting a battle with breast cancer and can use both the moral support and financial help. June 13th at Poo’s On The Pond in Chippewa Falls. Six (6) bands, starts at 11 a.m. with Howard and Jim Schuh.  $5 gets you all day music, $10 music and a meal, $25 all you can eat & drink (beer) and all the music. There will be raffles and a lot more. Sounds like a great day!

June 1st is the opening of Tuesday Night Blues. We are back and ready to boogie. It’s gonna be Funk, Rock and plenty of Blues with Left Wing Bourbon out of, what is becoming the regional musical mecca, Durand, Wisconsin! LWB performed last summer at Tuesday Night Blues to a very responsive crowd.

This year’s opening night is also a benefit night for the Veteran’s Assistance Center at Klein Hall. The first of seven nights this season that we will be co-oping with area non-profits. We will be featuring The Eau Claire Humane Association on June 15th with The Blues Dogs something we like to call “Dogs for Dogs”. Feed My People Food Bank on June 29th  has Code Blue with Catya & Sue Orfield providing the soundtrack. On July 13th The Chippewa Valley Free Clinic will be benefited by the musical skills of Dave Lambert out of La Crosse. The Community Table is reunited with the dynamite musical revue Deep Water Reunion that comes from all over Wisconsin. These guys have been providing a good portion of the musical background for the Chippewa Valley Blues Society since our first event. If you haven’t had a chance to catch them you shouldn’t miss it. 

We begin August with our “Young Blues Night” on Aug. 3rd in conjunction with Big Brothers and Big Sisters. The Love Buzzards will be the back line band for the evening. We are looking for young players to step into the spotlight and show us their chops. A chance for individuals or bands to play a couple tunes for an appreciative audience. On August 17th Ellen Whyte will be returning to us from Oregon and will bless us with her fine vocals backed by the Sue Orfield Band and will be providing backdrop for our 1st Annual Bike Show to help  United Cerebral Palsy fight their grand fight. That will be our last benefit of the season for 2010, but not our last night of music.

Just because it is not a night to support your favorite worthy cause is no reason to skip seeing our other excellent bands with The Pumps on June 8th, Pete Neuman & The Real Deal on the 22nd of June. In July it will be the guys voted “Best Blues Band in the Chippewa Valley”, Mojo Lemon on the 6th to wind up the 4th of July weekend. And a very fine group out of the Wausau area The Nitecaps will wind up the month. Filling in the rest of August will be South Farwell, some guys gaining popularity and prominence in musical circles on the 10th.  Finishing out the month on the 24th will be the return of The Tommy Bentz Band out of River Falls and to bring the Tuesday Night Blues season to a resounding finish is the one and only Howard Luedtke and Blue Max.

We are back! We have a helluva line up. We will have food once again, with Joel’s Weenie Wagon, Famous Dave’s, 9 Degrees Ice Cream, a new popcorn vendor and maybe even more. Now all we need is butts in the seats. We are trying hard to be here for you, we sure hope you are here for us as often as you can.

Looking forward to it. See ya there!!!

April 2010

In case you missed it, Lust For Blues III was great! The bands were awesome (lots of positive feedback). The Metropolis created an excellent venue with a Night Club feel. The food was very good (so I heard, as there wasn’t anything left when I got around to looking for a bite to eat), and we had a record crowd for Lust. The CVBS was pretty satisfied with the overall result. It wouldn’t have hurt to have had a few more people attend, but we still set a paid attendance record with fans from as far away as Missouri, Minnesota & Iowa. Several groups took advantage of the package the Metropolis offered for the stay, the water park, activities and concert. Thanks go out to Lucas K & The Coolhand Saint and 22 Oz Porterhouse for your support and superb performances, as well as to The Butanes who certainly lived up to their billing and reputation. Watch for these bands and go out and see them play! You won’t be disappointed.

We are determined to make Lust For Blues IV an even better event for next year, So if you made it to this years Lust, send us some feedback (cvbs_mike@yahoo.com) as to what we did right, wrong or what we might do to improve this event. We want Lust For Blues to be one of the premiere concert events in the region. Something folks look forward to all year.

Speaking of events to look forward to, we are only six weeks away from the beginning of the Tuesday Night Blues series in Owen Park in Eau Claire. We have the line up set with fourteen excellent bands. We have some of our most popular groups back from last season, and a handful of first timers to TNB. Last season we featured three benefit nights to aid some of the local non-profits. This year we upped it to seven benefit nights, which is half of our schedule. Here is this year’s schedule with Non-Profits in Parentheses. 

6/1/10     Left Wing Bourbon (The Veterans Assistance Center at Klein Hall)
6/8/10     The Pumps
6/15/10    Blues Dogs (EC Humane Assoc / Dogs for Dogs)
6/22/10    Pete Newman
6/29/10    Code Blue featuring Catya & Sue (Feed My People)
7/6/10      Mojo Lemon
7/13/10    Dave Lambert
7/20/10    Deep Water Reunion (Community Table)
7/27/10    The Nightcaps
8/3/10      Young Blues Night/Love Buzzards (Big Brothers/Big Sisters)
8/10/10    South Farwell
8/17/10    Ellen Whyte (UCP & Bike Show)
8/24/10    Tommy Bentz Band
8/31/10    Howard Luedtke and Blue Max

Unfortunately, or fortunately really, we have more great talent in the area than we can showcase in the Memorial Day to Labor Day schedule. So if one of your favorites isn’t playing this year, we very well may be featuring them next year, or at one of the other events coming up.

August 3^rd will be our Young Blues Night. Any Musicians under the age of 25 that would like to participate are encouraged to contact Dan Callan @ 715-495-8091. Dan’s band The Love Buzzards will be providing the backups for that evening. Thanks Guys for all your support, and especially Dan for all your work with this group.

As a side note, we are aware that Mojo Terry Demars has been actively trying to organize a benefit for Deb Klossner of the Blue Max band. As of this writing I have not been notified of when, where, bands, etc. but I will keep you posted.

We are always looking for new members. Check out our website at cvblues.com. A $10 Membership fee is a small price to pay to help promote all the ”free” music we put on.  The Blues Society doesn’t have many perks to offer it’s members yet, but we are working on it. If you want more info contact Mike at cvbs_mike@yahoo.com.

See ya round!