Tag: International Blues Challenge

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2025 International Blues Challenge

Joce Reyome (Solo/Duo first place) (Photos: Nate Kieser)

Singer Shaun Murphy, formerly of Little Feat, had just finished her set as part of The Galaxie Agency’s “IBC Showcase,” held last Thursday afternoon at B.B. King’s Blues Club on Beale Street. During the lull between sets, my wife Vicki and I continued our conversation with the woman seated next to us. “I’ve never seen snow, before,” she said in a distinct Australian accent. “I live in Adelaide, which is in South Australia.” Snowfall at sea level is very rare, especially for a coastal Australian city like Adelaide.

The woman, wearing a Creamsicle-orange hoodie, went on to tell us that she’d visited several places in “the States,” but she hadn’t brought any cold weather clothing because she didn’t think it would get this chilly in the South. She hadn’t had time to go shopping for something warmer after arriving in Memphis.

Snow was forecast for Memphis and the Mid-South with predicted accumulations of five to eight inches. The woman had come to see a musician from her hometown of Adelaide compete in the 40th edition of the International Blues Challenge.

The Memphis-based Blues Foundation hosts the International Blues Challenge (IBC). Typically held in January, the annual event brings together blues musicians, fans, and industry professionals for what is essentially a week-long “blues convention,” featuring blues documentary screenings, roundtable discussions, award presentations, a free health fair for the musicians, showcase performances, and vocal/instrumental master classes conducted by blues veterans.

The challenge portion of IBC week featured mostly up-and-coming blues artists competing in two categories: Solo/Duo and Band. These acts came from all over North America and from around the world. The “challenge,” along with the other activities, took place around the Beale Street Entertainment District. This year, almost 200 acts from nearly 40 states and 12 countries performed in several rounds of competition. The musicians represented their local blues affiliates or sponsoring organizations — called “societies.” Many of the societies’ members traveled to Memphis in support of their artists, creating a home away from home atmosphere that, in many ways, is unique to the blues genre.

That atmosphere of home permeated everything on Beale, and the far-flung travelers created a temporary ecosystem dependent upon one element — a love of the blues. Community is key to blues music and once you were on Beale Street for IBC, it was easy to become a member of that community and feel right at home.

After all, Memphis is the “Home of the Blues.”

Following Galaxie’s afternoon showcase, we made our way down Beale, stopping in at several clubs along the way to take-in performances. More than a dozen Beale Street locales served as venues for the nightly challenges. From Blues City Café to Alfred’s, Beale was alive with the blues. Fans and supporters came together over three consecutive nights to hear great music and have a good time.

In the Corner Bar at Club Handy, we ran into an old friend and blues musician extraordinaire, Mick Kolassa, aka Uncle Mick, who was one of the judges for that venue’s Solo/Duo performers. IBC challengers are rated according to such criteria as musicianship, vocal abilities, and stage presence. John Klaver, representing the Dutch Blues Foundation, played an extraordinary set, and Vicki talked with him afterwards. Klaver is a friend of Vicki’s first cousin, Mark Zandveld, an accomplished jazz bassist from Amsterdam, and Cousin Mark had given us a heads-up that Klaver would be in Memphis for IBC. Maybe Vicki’s quick “hello” helped Klaver feel at home.

Internationally, blues music is as popular as ever, and fans (and musicians) from abroad love to visit Memphis and the Mississippi Delta. There’s a certain Memphis mystique that the world wants to experience firsthand. Australian Frank Sultana, the IBC’s overall 2023 Solo/Duo winner, came back for a visit this year. Sultana said he not only loves coming to Memphis, but that when you’re here you feel “a connection to that [early blues] era, remembering when it all happened.”

That connection to the origins of the blues, along with the mystique, also fosters a sense of community — of feeling like home.

Sultana went on to say that the “connection to the blues” now comes “from everywhere [around the world],” including his home country of Australia, which sent seven acts to Memphis for this year’s IBC.

Thursday night ended with a couple more stops to check out the music and to say “hello” to more old friends. We were feeling part of the blues community, an ecosystem fed by great music and good times.

Then the snow came.

Friday morning was white, very white. And cold, very cold. Vicki reminded me, several times, that she hates snow. “Nice to look at,” she said, “from inside.”

We finally ventured out around 1:00 p.m. and sloshed our way back to the Beale Street ecosystem through six inches of snow and slush. Workshop classes and more showcase performances were already underway. Later that same evening were the semifinal performances.

Saturday brought continued chill with some sunshine for the IBC Finals, held in the historic Orpheum Theatre. The international blues community was well represented with five acts, including two from Australia. Regarding that global representation, Bob Kieser, the publisher of Blues Blast Magazine and a recent recipient of the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Award, said, “IBC has evolved into quite an international event [and] shows the continuing importance of blues in shaping artists across the world.”

Josh Hoyer of Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal (Band first place)

Dutchman John Klaver was a Solo/Duo finalist, but Joce Reyome of Canada won that category with an incredible onstage performance. In the Band category, Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal, representing the Blues Society of Omaha, Nebraska, took first place.

During Saturday afternoon’s performances, Nardia, a band out of Melbourne, Australia, broke into their song “Long Way From Home.” I looked around at the Orpheum’s audience and let IBC week soak in — the stellar music performances, the atmosphere, and that feeling of community.

Home can be wherever you make it, and for one week in January the worldwide blues community came home to Memphis. 

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Opinion The Last Word

Cold Weather Blues

Johnny and Elvis hanging on the wall (Photo: Ken Billett)

Vicki steadied herself on the window sill, raised up, and reconnected a blind cord that had popped off a few moments earlier. She then stepped onto a wobbly bar stool and lowered herself to the hardwood floor. Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley looked on, seemingly in amusement, their black-and-white smiles forever captured on a framed print hung from the exposed brick wall. The print included a quote, “Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes.” I sneered at Elvis, hanging there with a big grin on his face. I’ll worry about walking in another man’s shoes when I can feel my feet again.

Mid-morning on Thursday, January 18th, and temperatures hovered near 30 degrees with windchills that made it much, much colder. Sleet, or freezing rain, lightly pelted the cars, the sidewalk, and the parking lot outside our first-floor rental. My feet, already wrapped in two layers of wool socks, felt numb. I wiggled my toes to make certain they still worked.

As I often jokingly say to Vicki, my better half, “Whose bright idea was this?” Unfortunately, this one was all mine.

On Wednesday afternoon we pulled into the rear parking lot of our Airbnb, located inside the former Ambassador Hotel on Vance Avenue. The dry snow that accumulated earlier in the week hadn’t refrozen yet, so navigating from our far away East Memphis home to South Main wasn’t difficult. While unloading Vicki’s Subaru, a small CAT bulldozer scraped snow from the lot and dumped it onto a gray slush-pile right behind us. The dozer’s noise and noxious gas fumes, combined with a biting cold wind, reminded me that this week might be unforgettable, but for all the wrong reasons. Yeah, maybe not a bright idea to be Downtown during a Snowpocalypse.

Icy Beale Street on Wednesday, January 17th (Photo: Ken Billett)

The 39th edition of the International Blues Challenge (IBC) kicked off that Wednesday night, so, as avid blues fans, we braved the ice and snow to support up-and-coming blues musicians who traveled to Memphis to perform in the bars and clubs along Beale Street. Typically held in January, IBC is a weeklong blues convention and, this year, featured almost 140 musical acts from the U.S., Canada, and 11 other countries.

After surviving Wednesday night’s frigid temperatures and Thursday morning’s frozen precipitation, Vicki and I ventured back to Beale, navigating icy sidewalks, slushy crosswalks, and ever-expanding piles of dirty snow. Baby steps, Vicki repeated like a mantra as we crunched and cursed our way along South Main. Once the skies cleared, Thursday’s weather turned out to be tolerable. Beale’s clubs were busy with various IBC activities: master classes conducted by veteran musicians, a “Women in Blues” showcase at Alfred’s and, inside A. Schwab’s, a Hohner harmonica demonstration. Following a dinner of slathered ribs at Blues City Café, we hopped next door to the Band Box, where we caught several performances and stayed for a late-night jam session. Well past our bedtime, Vicki and I called it a night and baby-stepped back to the Ambassador for some much-needed sleep. And warmth. We’d survived the first two days of IBC but had two more to go, and, unfortunately, the Mid-South’s Snowmaggedon would soon get worse. Early Friday morning, January 19th, and the outside temperature was barely 27. The extended forecast said temps would drop into the low 20s and stay there all day through Saturday. To add to the fun, burst water mains forced MLGW to issue a boil water advisory for portions of Shelby County.

Snow “sludge” on South Main Street (Photo: Ken Billett)

Johnny smiled. I frowned. That “Don’t criticize …” quote swirled inside my head. “Don’t start,” I warned the Man in Black. “You and ‘E’ get to stay here, where it’s warm.” From the bedroom, Vicki asked me who I was talking to.

Our Friday adventures on Beale were a frozen blur. The entire county was under a boil water advisory, and Saturday’s arctic-cold temperatures would be in the teens, not the 20s. Yeah, not a real bright idea …

Shivering from the cold, Vicki and I stood inside the historic Orpheum Theatre for Saturday’s IBC Finals. The grand lobby felt like an ice box. We soon learned that due to water-pressure problems, the facilities were now outside. So, when “nature called,” we opened an exit door and hurried through the bitter cold to a porta-potty. Unforgettable.

We’d left the comfort of our warm urban oasis for porta-potties and sub-freezing winds while sharing a lukewarm bottle of water. Nonetheless, we stayed all afternoon and enjoyed the talented finalists performing on the stage. After the finals, we baby-stepped our way to the Downtown Slider Inn. Finally, warm and cozy, Vicki ordered the falafel sliders and declared them her new favorite.

Sometimes, I have a good idea, I was tempted to say.

Instead, I just smiled.

Ken Billett is a freelance writer and short-story fiction author. He and his wife, Vicki, have called Memphis home for nearly 35 years. When not listening to blues music, Ken reads spy novels and tends to his flowers.

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Music Music Blog

Piper & the Hard Times Top International Blues Challenge

Al "Piper" Green as featured on the self-titled EP by Piper & the Hard Times

The Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge (IBC) famously lives up to its name, drawing scores of ace blues artists to Memphis every year from around the world. Indeed, it was only two years ago that the winners of the Best Band prize were The Wacky Jugs from France. But if that proved that the blues have no nationality, this year’s tournament brought it all back home, as Nashville’s Piper & the Hard Times won in that same category last week. The event forged ahead through inclement weather in venues throughout the city and culminated in the final event at the Orpheum on Saturday, January 20th.

As someone who’s often jokingly referred to as “The Other Al Green,” I can sympathize with the band’s leader, Al “Piper” Green, who wisely foregrounds his nickname when fronting his band. But don’t let mere monikers distract you from this talent, who grew up closer to Memphis than Nashville, in Bolivar, Tennessee. In his youth, he sang in a gospel choir even as he absorbed soul, pop and rock influences from the radio. Ultimately, his biggest influence came from his own family — his uncle. “Every 4th of July he’d come down to visit us from Chicago and he’d be riding in this grand blue Fleetwood Cadillac,” Green recalls on the band’s website. “He’d be decked out and have a bunch of folks with him playing the blues. I wasn’t old enough just then to really get the full impact of what I was seeing, but I knew this guy had style and flair and really represented the essence of the blues. I think that’s where I got a lot of my vocal approach from.”

Piper & the Hard Times receive their award at the International Blues Challenge (Credit: Roger Stephenson)

Green’s been playing around Nashville with the same core group since 2000, and now they’ve grown into a powerhouse ensemble fueled by rock-tinged guitar and horns. And while Nashville is not especially well-known as a blues town, the presence of Piper & the Hard Times is a significant milestone for the revitalized non-profit Nashville Blues and Roots Alliance, which hosted a competition of some twenty bands for the right to represent the city at the IBC.

Beginning last Tuesday, January 16th, the IBC was much more than just a competition, hosting master classes on various blues instruments, workshops for young blues artists, a health fair, and a screening of Augusta Palmer’s film, The Blues Society, among other events. And of course, there were other winners than just the “Best Band” champions.

Here is the full list of winners and runners-up:

BAND DIVISION
Winner: Piper and The Hard Times
2nd Place Band: The Stephen Hull Experience
3rd Place Band: Mandalyn & The Hunters

SOLO/DUO DIVISION
Winner: Joe Waters
2nd Place: Drum & Dye

BEST GUITAR AWARD
Winner: Stephen Hull

MEMPHIS CIGAR BOX GUITAR AWARD (BEST SOLO/DUO GUITARIST)
Winner: Bill Dye

LEE OSKAR HARMONICA AWARD (BEST HARMONICA PLAYER)
Winner: John Paul

BEST SELF-PRODUCED CD
Winner: Sister Lucille – Tell the World

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Music Music Blog

Blues Hall Of Fame Class Of 2024 Named

Jimmy Rushing (Credit: William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress)

Every year at this time the world is reminded that the epicenter of the blues is in Memphis, Tennessee, with both the International Blues Challenge looming ahead and the announcement of the year’s inductees to the Blues Hall of Fame. The latter happened today, in anticipation of the induction ceremony taking place at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, May 8th.

As usual, the list is a compelling cross-section of both the brilliant past and the vital contemporary heartbeat of the blues in all its permutations. This year’s inductees include Memphis’ own soul powerhouse, O.V. Wright, who died young in 1980; pioneering blues shouter and jazz singer Jimmy Rushing, also known by one of his greatest Count Basie-backed hits, “Mr. Five By Five”; Odetta, hailed as “The Mother Goddess of Folk Blues” by The New York Times; early twentieth century guitar virtuoso, Scrapper Blackwell; small-but-mighty vocalist Sugar Pie Desanto; Chicago guitarist Lurrie Bell; and one of Chicago’s leading bluesmen, fez-wearing Lil’ Ed Williams, nephew of J.B. Hutto, who’s toured relentlessly for decades with his Blues Imperials.

On the more writerly side, author, folklorist, professor, and lecturer William R. “Bill” Ferris will be honored in the Business, Production, Media, Academic category, and the book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Davis (Pantheon, 1998), is slated for recognition as a Classic of Blues Literature.

This year’s induction will mark an important recognition of Wright, who has not yet been recognized by the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, despite being a prolific hitmaker with Willie Mitchell on Hi Records. And many will cheer the inclusion of Odetta Holmes, a unique figure in the folk world, having been classically trained. Ultimately her repertoire spanned blues, spirituals, jazz, and songs from various folk and popular traditions, not to mention many original topical songs reflecting her commitment as a civil rights activist.

And Jimmy Rushing would be a must in any music hall of fame. Though best known for his years with the Count Basie Orchestra, the Oklahoma City native began his blues journey in California in 1923, where he played piano with Jelly Roll Morton before returning to Oklahoma. He also worked with Buck Clayton, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and others through his career and was still going strong by the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival. Yet he’ll chiefly be known for his hit records with the Basie band, starting in 1935, such as “Good Morning Blues,” “Going to Chicago,” and “Sent for You Yesterday and Here You Come Today,” which showcased his commanding vocal presence and made him a leading figure in the big band era, bringing blues to a broader audience.

The inductees include classic records as well, including the album Here’s the Man!!! by Bobby “Blue” Bland (Duke, 1962), and the singles “Driving Wheel” by Junior Parker (Duke, 1961), “I Ain’t Got You” by Billy Boy Arnold (Vee-Jay, 1955), “Key to the Highway” by Jazz Gillum (Bluebird, 1940), “Okie Dokie Stomp” by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (Peacock, 1954), and the stone classic “Why Don’t You Do Right?” by Lil Green (Bluebird, 1941).

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Music Music Blog

International Blues Challenge: Ron Wynn Snags Keeping the Blues Alive Award

Frank Sultana (Credit: Marilyn Stringer)

For blues fans, this is the week when everyone can exhale. All the world of blues has just brought their best game to Memphis. The International Blues Challenge (IBC) has been completed, the winners announced. The performers are now looking to their coming year of shows. But not all who are honored during the IBC are performing artists; they may just return to their day jobs. This time around, we take a look a this last group: the winners of the Keeping the Blues Alive awards.

These awards go to individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the Blues world, often during a brunch as part of the IBC weekend of events.

Unlike the Blues Music Awards, the Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) awards go to non-performers strictly on the basis of merit, as interpreted by a select panel of Blues professionals. The committee generally refrains from awarding the KBA to an individual or organization more than once. Instead, a new winner is selected each year, except in rare cases when a significant period of time has elapsed since the first award. Yet such is the global span of blues culture now that new pivotal figures in keeping the heart of the blues beating are always appearing.

Ron Wynn (Photo courtesy The Blues Foundation)

This year’s recipients include a particularly Memphis-centric winner, writer Ron Wynn, who served as chief music critic at The Commercial Appeal in the ’80s. Beyond that, Wynn has been writing about music for more than 40 years for publications as varied as Boston’s Bay State Banner, Connecticut’s Bridgeport Post-Telegram, The New Memphis Star magazine, Nashville’s City Paper, and, most recently, the Nashville Scene and Tennessee Tribune. He’s also a columnist for the Tennessee Jazz and Blues Society’s website and writes for Jazz Times. His liner notes for From Where I Stand—The Black Experience in Country Music were nominated for a Grammy, and his work was part of the Grammy-winning Night Train to Nashville, Vol. 1 compilation (covering the Nashville R&B Scene) in 2005. Later this year, a book to which he contributed, Ain’t But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story, will be released.

Other recipients of the KBA award reveal the diversity of generous spirits dedicated to the blues. DJ John Guregian has hosted his Blues Deluxe show on WUML-FM in Lowell, Massachusetts for over 40 years, scoring many impressive artist interviews along the way. Photographer Marilyn Stringer specializes in the blues, and is the head photographer for some of the most prominent blues festivals in America. She has also published three volumes in her Blues In The 21st Century series, the last focused on Blues Music Awards performances and related events in Memphis. The Blue Front Café, on Highway 49 in Bentonia, MS, opened by Jimmy “Duck” Holmes’ family in 1948, has been essentially unchanged ever since, and has become a beacon for blues fans worldwide as the home of the free Bentonia Blues Festival.

The Little Village Foundation nonprofit, founded by Grammy-award-winning keyboardist Jim Pugh, focuses on seeking out, recording, and promoting artists whose music has not yet been discovered outside of their communities. Franky Bruneel has put 40 years of work into the blues as a DJ, writer, photographer, editor, and publisher of his own blues magazine, website, and record label — a veritable anchor of the European blues community. Lloyd “Teddy” Johnston, owner of Teddy’s Juke Joint, maintains one of the last remaining juke joints on the Chitlin’ Circuit in Zachary, Louisiana, where he expanded his childhood home into a bar over fifty years ago. And Swiss native Silvio Caldelari was instrumental in launching the first-ever Sierre Blues Festival, which attracted 11,000 fans last year.

Mathias Lattin (Credit: Marilyn Stringer)

Of course, the work all these awardees do comes down to the music in the end. And there was plenty of that during the IBC’s. This year’s notable winners included Mathias Lattin, representing the Houston Blues Society, who won both the Band Division and the Gibson Guitar Award for Best Band Guitarist; Frank Sultana from the Sydney Blues Society, who won the Solo/Duo Division; and Adam Karch of the Montreal Blues Society, who nabbed the Memphis Cigar Box Guitar Award. Winning the Best Self-produced CD was Lincoln, Nebraska’s Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal for their album, Green Light.

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Music Music Blog

French Combo Tops International Blues Challenge

The Wacky Jugs (Photo courtesy of the Blues Foundation)

They don’t call it the International Blues Challenge for nothing. The far-ranging impact of the blues is never more apparent than when bands descend on the Bluff City for the Blues Foundation‘s annual competition, and that was underscored this year when The Wacky Jugs from France walked away with the honor of best blues band on Monday.

Prior to their final performance, The Wacky Jugs were clearly stoked, as they posted on their Facebook page, per that platform’s translation algorithm, “Hey friends, guess what??? WE’RE IN THE FINAL!!!! …This is crazy!!! We are happy!!! Thanks again to The Blues Foundation for all the support from wherever it comes, you are so marvelous, it also gives us goosebumps! After three nights in the mythical clubs on Beale Street, we have the chance to reach the Orpheum.”

Go to the Orpheum they did, where their sound, inspired by the Memphis Jug Band, won over the judges. Others from far afield were honored as well. Someone should definitely look into Phoenix’s water supply (perhaps it’s fed by the Mississippi?), as two artists from that city claimed three of the top honors. And don’t assume that Memphis Lightning is local: they’re from the Tampa Bay area.

The Mid-South did make a showing, thanks to Soul Nite featuring D.K. Harrell, from Indianola, Mississippi, garnering third place in the band category. Otherwise, the global ubiquity of the blues was on full display. As the late Jim Dickinson often quipped, “World Boogie is coming!” Indeed, it would appear that it’s already here.

And the winners are …

1st Place Band
The Wacky Jugs (France Blues)

2nd Place Band
Cros (Phoenix Blues Society)

3rd Place Band
Soul Nite feat. D.K. Harrell (Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola)

1st Place Solo/Duo
Eric Ramsey (Phoenix Blues Society)

2nd Place Solo/Duo
Jhett Black (San Angelo Blues Society)

Memphis Cigar Box Award
Eric Ramsey (Phoenix Blues Society)

Lee Oskar Harmonica Award
Jhett Black (San Angelo Blues Society)

Gibson Guitarist Award
T.C. Carter

Best Self-Produced CD Award
Borrowed Time, by Memphis Lightning (Suncoast Blues Society)

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Music Music Blog

The Blues Music Awards Go Live Once More

Triple BMA-winner Tommy Castro (Credit: Andrea Zucker)

The Renasant Convention Center played host to scores of blues musicians and fans Thursday night, as the ceremonies of the 43rd Annual Blues Music Awards (BMAs) took place. Between handing out honors in over two dozen categories, the evening featured performances from many nominees, culminating in a joyous all-star jam by the night’s end.

It was especially welcome after the 2020 and 2021 ceremonies took place online only. Judith Black, president and CEO of the Blues Foundation, recognized the watershed moment in a statement: “What an amazing reunion after nearly three years of separation. It was an awards evening filled with awesome music, wonderful fellowshipping, and exciting honors. It was apparent everywhere you looked that people were thrilled to be back and, I am sure they could tell we were ecstatic to welcome everyone back.”

Tommy Castro snagged three BMAs: the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year (which he won previously in 2010 and 2008); the Album of the Year for Tommy Castro Presents A Bluesman Came to Town; and Band of the Year for Tommy Castro & The Painkillers.

Sue Foley at the 2022 BMAs (Credit: Andrea Zucker)

Sue Foley, who we featured in this week’s music column, was one of two double-winners, with her Pinky’s Blues recognized as the year’s best Traditional Blues Album, and Foley herself garnering the Traditional Blues Female Artist – Koko Taylor Award, repeating her 2020 win in that category. Fresh off his Grammy win, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram took home Contemporary Blues Male Artist for the third consecutive year. He was also awarded Contemporary Blues Album, which he previously won in 2020.

Also on the local tip, the Best Emerging Artist Album award went to Rodd Bland & The Members Only Band for Live on Beale Street: A Tribute to Bobby “Blue” Bland. Native Memphian Eric Gales won in the category of Instrumentalist – Guitar, and longtime Memphis resident John Nemeth took home the award for Instrumentalist – Vocals.

The complete list of 2022 Blues Music Award winners:
Acoustic Blues Album: Dear America, Eric Bibb
Acoustic Blues Artist: Keb’ Mo’
Album of the Year: A Bluesman Came to Town, Tommy Castro
B.B. King Entertainer: Tommy Castro
Band of the Year: Tommy Castro & The Painkillers
Best Emerging Artist Album: Live on Beale Street: A Tribute to Bobby “Blue” Bland, Rodd Bland & the Members Only Band
Blues Rock Album: Resurrection, Mike Zito
Blues Rock Artist: Albert Castiglia
Contemporary Blues Album: 662, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Contemporary Blues Female Artist: Vanessa Collier
Contemporary Blues Male Artist: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Instrumentalist-Bass: Danielle Nicole
Instrumentalist-Drums: Tom Hambridge
Instrumentalist-Guitar: Eric Gales
Instrumentalist-Harmonica: Jason Ricci
Instrumentalist-Horn: Jimmy Carpenter
Instrumentalist Pinetop Perkins Piano Player: Mike Finnigan
Instrumentalist-Vocals: John Nemeth
Song of the Year: “I’d Climb Mountains,” written & performed by Selwyn Birchwood
Soul Blues Album: Long As I Got My Guitar, Zac Harmon
Soul Blues Female Artist: Annika Chambers
Soul Blues Male Artist: Curtis Salgado
Traditional Blues Album: Pinky’s Blues, Sue Foley
Traditional Blues Female Artist Koko Taylor Award: Sue Foley
Traditional Blues Male Artist: Taj Mahal

Meanwhile, the Blues Hall of Fame held this year’s induction ceremony on May 4th. The inductees included pre-war performer and songwriter Lucille Bogan; soul, blues, and rock ‘n’ roll star Little Willie John; renowned songwriter, artist Johnnie Taylor; and legendary songwriter Otis Blackwell.

Classic recordings that the Blues Hall of Fame honored this year were Sonny Boy Williamson II’s “Eyesight to the Blind,” Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Farther Up the Road,” Roy Brown’s “Good Rocking Tonight,” B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby,” “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” by the Baby Face Leroy Trio, and Bo Diddley’sclassic album, Bo Diddley. This year’s non-performing inductee was Mary Katherine Aldin, who worked as an editor, disc jockey, compiler, and annotator of blues and folk reissue albums. The Classic of Blues Literature entrant was Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast, written by British author Bruce Bastin.

Today, May 6th, the total blues immersion continues with a special reception at the Blues Hall of Fame for award-winning music photographer Jérôme Brunet, and the first volley of a four-day run for the International Blues Challenge.

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Music Music Blog

Blues Going Global: The International Blues Challenge Brings It All Home

CREDIT: Tom Davis

Tom Davis

Hector Anchondo, double-winner at this year’s International Blues Challenge

It’s been a heady time for Memphis and the blues lately. The city and the music are nearly synonymous, not only due to our storied past but for the ongoing love we collectively show the art form. Naturally, Memphis is home to The Blues Foundation, and aside from every spring’s Blues Music Awards (scheduled for May 7th), the nonprofit’s shining (and most music-filled) moment is the International Blues Challenge (IBC).

The importance — and global reach — of the IBC couldn’t have been underscored more with the Memphis-based Southern Avenue still riding high from their Grammy nomination. Although Gary Clark, Jr., ultimately won the title of Best Contemporary Blues Album, the nomination alone was yet another notch in the belt of a band whose story has gone hand in hand with the IBC.

Guitarist Ori Naftaly first came here from his native Israel for the IBC in 2013, and getting to the semi-finals that year was enough to convince him to stay. Two years later, he founded Southern Avenue, and by 2016 they’d made it to the IBC finals. It wasn’t long before they were signed to the newly revived Stax Records and were the toast of the town. The Grammy nomination for their second album, Keep On, only furthers that trajectory.

This past Saturday’s final competition and award cermony served as a capstone to IBC events sprinkled through the preceding week. At the Keeping the Blues Alive Awards ceremony, Peter Astrup, Rob Bowman, Janice Johnston, and Kathleen Lawton were recognized, as were the Cali Blues and Folk Festival in Colombia, the Jimiway Blues Festival in Poland, Hal & Mal’s Restaurant, the Jus’ Blues Music Foundation and the Kentuckiana Blues Society.

Other events included a screening of the classic documentary, Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads, a keynote panel on “Blues Women: Creators, Conductors, and Catalysts,” and the workshop, “Leading Your Own Career with Bobby Rush.” Additionally, the Blues Hall of Fame opened its new Women of the Blues exhibit along with hosting a Janiva Magness book signing and a panel discussion addressing “Music Across Borders.”
Tom Davis

HOROJO Trio

The cumulative event, of course, was the International Blues Challenge finals, which took place at the Orpheum Theatre. The HOROJO Trio, representing the Ottawa Blues Society, left Memphis with a first-place finish in the Band Division. JW Jones (the “Jo” in HOROJO) took home the Gibson Guitar Award for Best Band Guitarist. Hector Anchondo, from the Blues Society of Omaha, triumphed in the Solo/Duo Division as well as earning the Memphis Cigar Box Award as the Best Solo/Duo Guitarist.

Felix Slim picked up the Lee Oskar Harmonica Award for the Best Harmonica Player, while finishing second to Anchondo in the Solo/Duo category. Anchondo and Slim are both former finalists who now have won an IBC award.  Rick Nation

Felix Slim

This year’s winners also underscore the international aspect of the IBC. Slim, after becoming one of Spain’s leading blues men, spent several years living in Greece being influenced by its music before moving to New York City. And placing second to the Canada-based HOROJO Trio was the Jose Ramirez Band, which is led by Ramirez who was a major blues star in his native Costa Rica before relocating to America.

Meanwhile, Anchondo’s Latino background makes for a cross-cultural blues sound. While Latino contributions to the blues reach back to what Jelly Roll Morton called the “Spanish tinge” in pre-war New Orleans jazz, or old records like 1949’s “Muy Sabroso Blues” by Lalo Guerrero, Anchondo’s double-win was a strong affirmation of a cultural side of the blues that many sleep on. And, of course, it was a strong showing from Nebraska’s thriving blues scene. 

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Music Music Features

The International Blues Challenge is Back

CREDIT: Roger Stephenson

It’s hard to imagine a massive annual music festival, one that brings thousands to Memphis every year, somehow taking place under the very noses of the unsuspecting locals. Yet that’s exactly what happens every January, when the International Blues Challenge (IBC) goes down. The 2019 version starts Tuesday this week in various clubs along Beale Street, Main Street, and Second Street, culminating with the finals at the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday, January 26th.

As Blues Foundation president Barbara Newman notes, “We did an economic impact study and learned that this event brings close to $4 million of fresh tourism money into Memphis every year. And that doesn’t even account for the peripheral stuff that happens when people stay after the event to visit Mississippi or spend extra time in Memphis. Everything takes a big bump up during IBC week. And it’s an otherwise quiet, almost dead time for Memphis. So it’s great that we’re here to energize the city every year.”

Roger Stephenson

Kevin Burt

And, Newman adds, the IBC affects every community that sends artists to compete. “One part of it is discovering that next great musician that’s ready to take a bigger stage. But another part is about offering the blues societies an opportunity to do something engaging in their local communities to keep the blues scene vibrant where they are.”

This year, blues societies worldwide, having staged their own mini-competitions, are sending local winners from as far away as South Korea. And for those who come, the experience can be life-changing.

“Susan Tedeschi was an IBC finalist,” says Newman. “Southern Avenue didn’t even make it into the top three, but they got a label deal. Then they won best emerging artist at the BMAs last year. Danielle Nichole and her brother won in 2008, and she’s up for a Grammy this year. [2018 winner] Kevin Burt went on to record his first CD, and he just got nominated for a Blues Music Award as best emerging artist.”

I tracked Burt down somewhere in his home state of Iowa to ask about the experience of winning best solo performer at the IBCs. “It’s created a lot of opportunities for me that I don’t think I would have been able to create on my own,” he said. “But, win, lose, or draw, I made some contacts, and I knew I was going to go some places that were outside of my reach, just having had the chance to network with people. There’s so much information and there’s so much opportunity, just walking around. The workshops they have, the different panel discussions that they do. It’s almost like getting a new set of keys. It’s a whole lot easier to get through certain doors if somebody gives you a key.”

Burt’s success is also an object lesson in how stylistically diverse contenders can be. One of the standout songs in his prize-winning set was a version of “Eleanor Rigby,” by the Beatles. “As I see it, I get to define my blues,” he says. “If I sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ I’m telling you I really want you to have a happy birthday. That emotional connection is to me what the blues is. There’s too many folks that get caught up in a specific sound.”

Paul Benjamin, who’s been an IBC judge many times over and now orients each year’s incoming judges, agrees. “Originality is important,” he says. “Judges don’t wanna hear ‘Mustang Sally’ or ‘I Got My Mojo Working.’ I go over the criteria with them. It’s broken down into the categories of originality, talent, vocals, and stage presence. Each is weighted, and originality’s weighted by three, whereas talent, vocals, and stage presence are weighted by two.”

For Burt, originality is tied to spontaneity. “I didn’t put together a set list for the IBC. Every experience I had while I was down there helped to shape my set list for the next show. That’s how I’ve always done this. I walk into the room, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do until I’m doing it. There’s something about that nervous energy that helps me connect. There’s a feeling that you get.”

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Rochelle and the Sidewinders: Evolving at the International Blues Challenge

While the Great Freeze of 2018 trapped much of Memphis under a thin sheet of ice, Beale Street blazed with the best blues riffs as musicians from the world over came to town for a chance to win bragging rights as the best in the blues business. Each year for 34 years running, the Memphis-based Blues Foundation has brought the most talented musicians from its affiliate organizations to the Bluff City to compete in the International Blues Challenge (IBC). After the finalists showdown at the Orpheum Theatre wraps it up tonight, the VizzTone’s Blues Party on Beale will get started at the Rum Boogie Cafe and won’t end until late, as befits the celebratory cap-off shindig for the Blues Foundation’s signature event.

Returning blues band and 2018 semifinalists Rochelle & the Sidewinders, from Austin, shed a little light on the typical IBC contender’s story and experiences at the IBC.
The Sidewinders wound up in Memphis at the IBC for the first time in 2017, when the relatively new group, fresh off some contest wins in Texas, felt sure they would come away from the IBC with some great memories and an easily won trophy to take back to Texas. “I would say we were overly cocky, if I had to summarize,” says Sidewinders guitarist and founding member Tom Coplen. “And when we got there, we just weren’t prepared. We were a new band. We’d just formed in 2015, and we missed the cut-off that year. The Austin Blues Society is the sponsoring affiliate here in Austin, and they have a contest every year … the Heart of Texas Blues Challenge,” Coplen says. “The winner of that gets to go to the IBC. We won it last summer.”

Coplen says the prestige of the affirmation of the Austin Blues Society so early in their career — not to mention the rich blues tradition in Texas — contributed to the Sidewinders’ hubris their first time at the IBC. “And Austin kind of has a history. You go back to T. Bone Walker and Charlie Christian and these guys. The history of music, and specifically blues, is so entrenched here and so strong, literally you could be at a pizza place and the guy serving pizza used to play with Stevie Ray Vaughan in high school. There are just so many bands and so many musicians, that we just thought we were going to go there and win. That’s how ridiculous we were.”

Of course, this is Memphis, a Mecca of the blues, and we have our fair share of drink-slinging or package-delivering blues legends. And the IBC is an international competition that brings talent from 200 different cities to compete. Needless to say, Rochelle and the Sidewinders did not do quite as well as they expected. Coplen says the band didn’t make it past the first round. “My friend Jim [Trimmier], the sax player, said ‘the crowd’s gonna love us; the judges aren’t,’” Coplen says. But the band wasn’t discouraged. Coplen took in a lot of the talent in his time in Memphis, and he reasoned that maybe the judges would have appreciated a stricter take on blues traditions.

Rochelle Creone

Originally, The Sidewinders were a little “newer” sounding. They had a dance edge that complimented the vocal talents of their singer, Rochelle Creone. “I’ve had various incarnations of [the band], but it wasn’t until I found Rochelle that the band really worked. She’s just this amazing vocalist.” So, a little disappointed but not discouraged by their loss at the 2017 IBC, Coplen and his band of Austin blues players enjoyed Memphis, learned, and modified their expectations. And watched a lot of other blues bands do their wailing, shredding, and sliding.

Coplen wrote new songs, and the band kept chugging along through 2017, earning them their second win at the Heart of Texas Blues Challenge, which again opened the door to their second invitation to the IBC. “The music we’re playing, it’s straight, hard Chicago blues,” Coplen adds. “The old adage about doing the same thing twice is our [guide]. We’re not cocky, we just want to go and have fun.”

The work, the new songs, and the humbler attitude seem to have paid off. Rochelle and the Sidewinders made it to the semifinals at this year’s IBC. They played to a packed house at Club 152, and though they didn’t make it to the finals, Coplen says the band enjoyed themselves. “Our experience was fun, and we loved it. All the people were so nice; we just love Memphis,” Coplen says. “This year our perspective is we’re just so happy and honored to be able to go again. Just to be able to go twice in a row is amazing. We’re just happy to be able to go play.”

The 34th International Blues Challenge Finalist Competition is being held today, Saturday, January 20th, starting at noon at the Orpheum Theatre. The Bob Margolin Presents VizzTone’s Blues Party on Beale takes place tonight, once IBC competition ends, at the Rum Boogie Cafe. All proceeds benefit Generation Blues.