Blues Festival Press Release

Monmouth, IL, August 8, 2008 — Some of the most innovative blues performers in the nation will descend on the Rivoli Theatre stage for the second annual MonmnouthBlues.com blues festival, on Saturday, October 25th. This day-long event will feature national and regional acts, an open mic jam and rib dinners by Eddie Burton.

The theme of this year’s festival is Deep Blue Innovators. The festival will highlight artists with a traditional “blues soul” but who are also taking innovative approaches to their music, providing something new to this classical genre of American music.

Regional performers Charlie Hayes and Joel Fleming will light up the stage as an acoustic guitar and harmonica duo. They will perform classic and new blues songs enhanced by smoking hot improvised jams.

The Matthew Skoller Band (www.matthewskoller.com) will bring down the house with their Chicago-style harmonica blues. Skoller is an innovative song writer and well-known blues record producer. His unique songs blend classical blues themes with our modern, twenty-first century lives.

Moanin’ Michelle Malone (www.michellemalone.com) travels to Monmouth from the deep south. Her hard driving acoustic and electric blues feel like a blend of Bonnie Rait and Keith Richards. Event organizer Paul Schuytema first heard Michelle Malone’s album, Sugerfoot, on the House of Blues Radio hour. It was musical love at first listen.

"Sugarfoot is as raw, magnificent, dirty and low down as anything you'll ever want to hear in blues music," explained Dan "Elwood" Aykroyd, host of the House of Blues Radio Hour.

Headlining the festival is legendary guitarist Lurrie Bell (www.lurrie.com). Son of blues legend Carey Bell, Lurrie is one of the finest Chicago-style blues guitarists in the country.

Bell first hit the blues stage at the age of 15, and hasn’t looked back since. Growing up in a famous blues family, Lurrie met, played with and toured with the giants of the blues genre. Along the way, he has been recorded on more than 50 blues albums.

Bell was voted Most Outstanding Guitar Player in the 2007 Living Blues magazine critics poll. Bell’s most recent album, Let’s Talk About Love, was produced by longtime friend and associate Matthew Skoller. As Skoller observed on the liner notes for Let’s Talk About Love, “Lurrie is now a blues master at a needed time when there are very few blues masters left.”

The Rivoli Theatre, with is remodeled interior and state of the art sound system, is an intimate, unforgettable location to watch this performers work their craft. Anyone who has performed or seen one of the MonmouthBlues.com events at the Rivoli can attest to the quality of the sound and the comfort of the venue.

Mark your calendars, call your friends and plan to spend October 25th with some of the finest blues musicians in the country. The Deep Blue Innovators Blues Festival will be an unforgettable day of music.

Tickets are $14 prior to the show and will be $17 at the door. Tickets can be purchased online now or at the following local businesses in late August: Monmouth (Bijou Pub, Daw Violins), Galesburg (Cherry Street Guitars, MusicMakers, Capitol Music), Macomb (Capitol Music) and Burlington (Weird Harolds). Doors will open at 2pm and the show will start at 2:30pm.

MonmouthBlues.com is an initiative to bring great live blues music to the Monmouth area, as well as highlight local talent already playing around the region. Concert information, local events and event tickets can all be found online at www.MonmouthBlues.com.

08.08.2008. 12:30