Blues in the Bottoms 2
We are super excited to bring back Blues in the Bottoms 2 in partnership with Knuckleheads Saloon. We have an awesome lineup this year!
KCBS 2024 Election Notice
It’s time for the annual Notice of Election for members of the Board of Directors for the Kansas City Blues Society (KCBS). This is a call for Blues lovers to step up and provide support to this wonderful organization.
FortFest24 – A Blues and Community Success in a Beautiful Park
With Care to Share’s Fundraiser Blues Festival called FortFest, the last weekend of September ranks as the best weekend to visit Fort Scott KS, bar none.
Michael Shannon Musician’s Fund Revised Guidelines
The KCBS Board of Directors revised the guidelines for the MSMF, to better align it with the stated mission of the fund.
How can *YOU* Keep the Blues Alive?
Things you can do to “Keep the Blues Alive” and support the KCBS in fulfilling its mission of supporting blues music, blues musicians, blues venues, and preserving blues history
Album Review: Stories In Blue
I had the pleasure of enjoying Ms. Thomas’ music and learning her story at the Big Blues Bender blues festival last month. Although I knew and loved her father, Rufus Thomas’ music, and her sister, Carla Thomas, I was unaware of this Thomas family member and her music.
Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise #42 Raffle Tix on Sale Now
April kicks off our annual fundraising sale of cruise raffle tickets for a cabin for 2 on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues cruise #42. This event is more than a cruise and more than a festival, and it’s always the best blues experience on water or land. It sets sail from Ft. Lauderdale on January 26 – February 2, 2025, headed to Tortola, St. Thomas, and Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic.
Recent articles from the Blog
Album Reviews
Album Review: Blame It on Eve
Shemekia’s eleventh album (all but one Telarc release in 2012 with Alligator Records) is dropping on August 30, 2024.
Album Review: Good Intentions Gone Bad
Who says you can’t learn things from reading and questioning what you thought you knew?
Album Review: Human Decency
The email touted, “The new album from Grammy nominated artist and 4x Blues Music Award winner Sugaray Rayford”, and I was excited. However, as I listened to the nine cuts on this new release, I found it somewhat of a mixed bag.
Album Review: The Very Best of The First Two Decades. All Killers, No Fillers and Same Old Lies!
After the stormy weather we’ve been having lately, I was inspired one morning to check my hard drive to see what kind of songs I had about tornadoes… I stumbled across a CD that I had downloaded from a band with “tornado” in their name, and I was really blown away.
Check out Yesterday’s Blues
- Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton
By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the February 1995 Blues News In 1952, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton recorded a robust and raunchy number with a lot of innuendo and double entendre about a fed-up female who is telling a no-account, libidinous sporting man… Read more: Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton - Walter “Furry” Lewis
By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the December 1990 Blues News Beale Street, for the first quarter of this century, was one of the roughest and toughest, most rocking and swinging, wide-open streets in the country. It was a close counterpart of Kansas City’s Eighteenth and… Read more: Walter “Furry” Lewis - Speckled Red & the Dirty Dozens
By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the April 1994 Blues News “Playing at the Dozens” or “Putting in the Dozens” is a folk game in which two or more participants hurl insults and boasts at one another. These highly imaginative and metaphorical comments are… Read more: Speckled Red & the Dirty Dozens - Sleepy John Estes
By Doyle Pace, originally published in the November 1995 Blues News When the documentary filmmaker David Blumenthal rediscovered Sleepy John Estes in 1962, the former blues great was destitute and living in a tumbled down shack in the middle of a cotton field outside the… Read more: Sleepy John Estes - Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins
By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the April 1990 Blues News The Last of the Old Country Bluesmen Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins was a bluesman who carried on the old country cotton-field style of the early Texas blues. In fact, blues historian Samuel Charters has… Read more: Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins - Professor Longhair
By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the February 1994 Blues News In October of 1993, New Orleans premier music club, Tipitina’s, officially changed its name to Professor Longhair’s Tipitina to honor the legendary piano player, singer, and composer who made the club his home base… Read more: Professor Longhair - Pink Anderson
By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the February 1996 KCBS Blues News In the southeastern part of the US, the decline of employment on farms in the decades following the Civil War saw a steady and increasing movement of people from the hinterlands to… Read more: Pink Anderson - Mississippi John Hurt
By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the Jan. 1996 Blues News A tiny gnome of a man with the countenance of an angel took the stage at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival and freaked out the rowdy audience (of mostly young white people) with… Read more: Mississippi John Hurt - Johnny Shines
By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the FMarch 1994 Blues News Johnny Shines was a highly gifted guitar player and a literate and poetic composer of blues lyrics. He was, as well, one of our greatest bluesmen. However, through unfortunate circumstances, he never attained the… Read more: Johnny Shines