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[Dave's Decade of the Blues][West Bank Boogie][Cornbread Harris Interview]
[Scottie "Bones" Miller]
[George Bedford and Extraordinaires] [MN Rock & Country]
[Cornbread Harris] [Curtis Marlatt] [CD Releases]
Congratulations to Famous Dave's
Big John Dickerson & Moses Oakland
Photo by Melody Jacobson
December 7-10th Famous Dave's Legendary BBQ Pit celebrated a "Decade of Blues" at their Calhoun Square location. Moses Oakland opened the festivities on Thursday with an All-Star Blues Jam featuring appearances by Moses Oakland, Donald "Hye Pockets" Robertson, Donnell "Papa D" Woodson, Jason Craft, Paul Holland, Kenny Rardin, Paul Mayasich, Curtis Marlatt, Scotty Graves and T. Albert Lloyd, Leon McCormick, George Moye, Anthony Scott, Charles Fletcher, Bill Mague, Michael "Taco" Velasquez, Doug James, Scotty Schultz, Mike "The Hook" Deutsch, Scottie Miller, Gregg Inhofer, Liz Cummings, Big John Dickerson, Harold Tremblay, "Boom Boom" Steve Vonderharr, Joe Peterson, Curtis Blake, and Steve Clarke.
Gregg Inhofer does
"Blues Deluxe"
Photo by Melody Jacobson
Whew! That's a lot of musicians and a whole lot of great blues. The remaining nights featured Byther Smith, Ron Hacker and the Hacksaws, Paul Metsa and Sonny Earl, Willie Murphy, The Butanes and very special guest, Hubert Sumlin.
Famous Dave's has been a great venue not only for national acts but a showcase for local blues musicians. Thanks and congratulations. Hope you enjoy many more years of "Keeping the Blues Alive" in the Greater Twin Cities.
Producer Marya Morstad continues the "Radio mnartists" series of podcasts and KFAI radio interviews with Minnesota artists. Listen to her interview with Actor/Director Paul Mabon and legendary blues musician Cornbread Harris.
Scottie "Bones" Miller
at the keyboard
photo by Tom Asp
BO & FRIENDS TOUR with Bo Diddley, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Ruthie Foster, runs September 20th through November 13th. This is a USA tour (all across the USA from California, to Texas, to New York). Our very own Scottie "Bones" Miller will be playing keys for Bo and Alvin. Each night there is a big finale' show to cap each concert. The tour performs five to seven nights each week in great theatres and to audiences of 1,500-2,000 each performance. A big congratulations to Scott. And, all the best to him on this road tour!!
MN Rock & Country Hall of Fame
2006 Induction
Jo Jo Williams & Big Walter Smith
story and photographs by Judy Cedar
Mojo Buford & Jo Jo Williams
The 2006 Rock & Country's Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place May 26th and 27th, over Memorial Day weekend, at the Medina Entertainment Center. This year Jo Jo Williams and Big Walter Smith were inducted into this Hall of Fame and performed at the celebration Saturday evening.
Big Walter Smith
Jo Jo had family from Chicago, Florida and Minnesota and long-time friends in attendance for this induction ceremony. Big Walter Smith & the Grove Merchants played on stage Saturday night. In addition to the band, Big Walter also had friends and family in attendance to celebrate the induction.
Big Walter & the Groove Merchants
Non-performing inductions included Baby Doo Caston. Memorabilia honoring all the inductees (a total of 23 or so) was sold during the silent auction. Mojo Buford, Cornbread Harris and Big John Dickerson also attended and participated in the festivities and were available for the autograph signing session.
Cornbread Harris
The GTCBMS will be starting a Hall of Fame in 2007. We will induct two personalities from within our state's blues community into our HOF each year. One inductee will be a musician and one inductee will be a non-musician. Nominations can come from anyone, but Only Greater Twin Cities Blues Music Society members will be allowed to vote for each years inductees. Look for more information on our website soon!
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A NEW BAND ... George Bedford and the Extraordinaires Our metropolitan area has a new band that recently sprouted after a year or so of germinating and getting their playlist set up. The band's name is George Bedford and the Extraordinaires and includes musicians George Bedford (harp), Jon Pederson (guitar), Jonathan Gaetke (bass) and Terry Nelson (drums). George has been playing in various bands for 30 years. Jon was a regular with the Lazy Bill Lucas Band for a number of years and is a former instructor of West Bank School of Music. Larry learned bass from his father who is a professional jazz player in the area. Terry learned to play drums in order to help out with his church band, but he has been learning guitar and other musical instruments since a child. As a sidebar, much appreciation to Jon for helping out as judge for our 2005 Road to Memphis for Bands and for providing materials to include in our profile book of Lazy Bill.
HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF OUR LIFETIME MEMBERS! Cornbread Harris and seven piece band will celebrate his 80th birthday at Shaws Bar and Grill (1528 University Ave NE Minneapolis, on April 23, 2006 from 8-12 pm. Cornbread Harris , Father of Jimmy Jam Harris, has played on the Twin Cities music scene for almost 60 years! If you can, stop by to wish Corbread a Happy 80th Birthday!
CONGRATULATIONS TO CURTIS MARLATT Curtis Marlatt doesn't typically enter guitar competitions but this year (2006) the US Guitar Center Stores- Annual Guitarmageddon Competition is titled "King of the Blues". Grand Prize is a performance with BB King, a car, guitars etc...! First in March he had to win the Store Competition. That competition was held over a three week period of time. Curtis Marlatt entered at the Roseville store. There were 24 guitar players over three nights and the top two high point finishers of each night advanced onto the Store Finals. Store Finals was held on April 4th and of the eight guitar players shredding their skills over their choice of 22 Blues backing tracks, Curtis Marlatt was the Roseville Store's winner! On April 26th at 7 PM, he goes onto the District Finals of which there are 20 districts in the country! There are eight stores in our district. This competition is held at the Roseville Store. After that, sometime in May, in Chicago, will be the Regional Finals (for this region) and Grand Finals will be on June 8, 2006 in concert with BB King at the House of Blues, Chicago, IL. Tickets go on sale April 15th, Ticketmaster. For more information go to: http://www.guitarcenter.com/guitarmageddon/
THIS YEAR'S LIST OF CD RELEASES*
*if you are a metro area band and if you have a cd release for the year 2006 with blues content, let us know and we can include it on our list.
- "Livin' Between The Black 'n White"
- by Scottie "Bones" Miller
- "Where Do We Go from Here?"
- by the Soulmates
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page last updated:
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
