Saturday, February 1, 2014

2014 International Blues Challenge

Each year at the end of January, the Blues Foundation hosts the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. It's a competition among relatively unknown blues artists. Local blues societies sponsor entrants in two categories, Single Artists/Duos and Bands. Over 225 acts participated this year.

The winner of the Band competition was Mr. Sipp, the Mississippi Blues Man, sponsored by the Vicksburg Blues Society. Mr. Sipp is 36-year-old singer and guitarist Castro Coleman, who leads a band, the Kin Folk, consisting of just keyboards, bass and drums. Here he is singing "Mrs. Jones" from last year's competition. (It's not unusual for bands to participate more than once and gradually move up the food chain.) If you go to this website, you can sample several video clips of this band.


Second place went to the Ghost Town Blues Band from the Memphis blues Society.  And in third place, a local Pittsburgh group, Billy the Kid and the Regulators, sponsored by the Blues Society of Western Pennsylvania.  This is the title tune from their CD, as performed at the BSWPA competition in April.


The Single Artist/Duo competition went to a veteran Canadian bluesman, Tim Williams, sponsored by the Calgary Blues Music Association.


The second place finisher was Lucious Spiller from the Ozark Blues Society of Northwest Arkansas.

The winner of the Best Self-Produced CD competition was Hank Mowery for his album Account to Me, sponsored by the Western Michigan Blues Society.  Here's the title song, a great piece of Louisiana swamp R&B.


Congratulations to all the winners.

You may also be interested in reading:

Stroking Time

Self-Produced CDs, Part 2

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