Julian Piper Memorial Festival to be held on Sunday 10th October

The Julian Piper Memorial Festival, to be held at The Exeter Phoenix on Sunday 10th October 2021, is an all day festival of Blues & Roots to celebrate and remember the extraordinary life of Topsham born British blues guitarist, writer, promoter and record producer Julian Piper. Described in The Guardian as ‘one of the UK’s […]

Blues Birthday – Charles Brown, Sept 13th 1922

Tony Russell “Charles” Brown (September 13, 1922 – January 21, 1999) was an American blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced blues performance in the 1940s and 1950s. Between 1949 and 1952, Brown had seven Top 10 hits in the U.S. Billboard R&B chart. His best-selling recordings included “Driftin’ Blues” and “Merry […]

Blues Birthday – Barbeque Bob Sept 11th 1902

Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931), was an early American Piedmont blues musician. His nickname was derived from his working as a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the two extant photographs of him show him playing a guitar and wearing a full-length white apron and […]

Blues Birthday – Otis Redding, Sept 9th 1941

Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. Redding’s style of singing gained inspiration from the gospel music that preceded […]

Competition Time – win the Rory Gallagher 50th Anniversary Box Set

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Rory Gallagher’s eponymous 1971 debut solo album, UMC/UMe is giving one lucky reader of Blues Matters an opportunity to win a a five-disc deluxe box set of the album. This amazing prize includes the Rory Gallagher 50th Anniversary Edition 5-Disc Box Set includes 4 CDs and 1 DVD. The […]

JOE BONAMASSA announces April – May 2022 UK Tour

Celebrated blues-rock guitarist and singer-songwriter Joe Bonamassa will return to tour the UK for the first time in three years, when he performs five concerts in April and May 2022, including two nights at the legendary Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 5 May and Friday 6 May.  Joe will also perform concerts at Glasgow SECC on Wednesday 20 April, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on Friday 22 April, and Brighton Centre on Saturday […]