On this Sunday, May 24 in Dallas, I will  be involved in a very special show and I want my friends to know about  it.  I'm excited about playing  with the fine musicians listed below, especially for The Blue Star Connection --  reading about it below will touch your heart as it did mine. When I first heard about it a few months ago, I wrote a song and recorded it and sent it to Emily, a very courageous girl who is in
benefiting from the program.

(For those of you who are guitar players, Category 5 amplifiers sound sweet, warm, and clear. I have used  them onstage at the last 2 Blues Music Award shows and I can get a great sound  within seconds of plugging in.)

Please read more about the  Dallas concert:

The Grand County Blues Society  and Category 5 Amps have joined forces for a night of music May 24, 2009, at  the Grenada Theatre in Dallas to benefit the Blue Star Connection. Blue Star Connection is a program the GCBS created to put instruments into the hands of  kids going through cancer and cancer treatment. It also gets them into shows with the help of the artists and agents. We call it the "cure for the cure". We have several great blues artists on the bill:  Bob Margolin,  Zac  Harmon, Smokin' Joe Kubek, Bnois King, Sean Carney, Jonn Richardson and Diunna  Greenleaf, with more surprises to come.

Category 5 has rented the Grenada Theatre and there will be a silent auction. Anyone wishing to donate please  contact  cattbox@grandblues.org or stlritter@aol.com. You can read all about it or donate to Blue Star at www.grandblues.org . "Let the kids do the talkin'." 

Category 5 Amplification is blending  some of its endorsing artists and friends together for a night of high octane blues to benefit Blue Star Connection, a charity that provides guitars,  keyboards (really any instrument) to kids and young adults who are battling a life threatening illness. The Kids call it "the cure for the cure" as it takes them away from the pain and the worry of their ongoing  treatments. 

Category 5 Amplification, based  in Frisco TX., was formed as a company to not only provide the best in tube guitar amplification, but also as a vehicle to give back, with 10% of its proceeds going to selected charities. So we thought, why not get a group of our  artists together to really showcase their talent and to expand the Blue Star  Connection program.

We will also be donating instruments to the music therapy program at Childrens Medical Center and to some of their "blue  stars".  Bring your ! appetite, your dancing shoes, and check book to score some great deals at the silent auction, all for a great cause that puts every dollar to work for these kids.

See www.category5amps.com charity section for more details and www.grandblues.org for more information on Blue Star Connection. Rooms are available at the Radison  Hotel (it is just 5 minutes away) at the special rate of $89 for all ticket  holders. Call 214-750-6060 to reserve now!  All Granada shows are 17+ with valid ID. Minors welcome with parent. All Sales are Final / No Refunds  Sales tax included in ticket price. This  historic theater is a non-smoking venue 

Please check out for more detailed  info:  

http://www.grandblues.org/BlueStar/tabid/59/Default.aspx

http://www.grandblues.org/Shows/UpcomingShows/tabid/65/Default.aspx

Thank you
Bob Margolin

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So if anyone will be in the Dallas area check it out or contact the person at the above email address and give. 

This would be such a wonderful project for Baton Rouge Blues Society to become involved in for our kids here in Baton Rouge.  WOW! This just touched me.....

I know that our musicians would be willing to help out, maybe not on the scale of what Dallas is doing but any scale would be such a blessing to these sick and depressed children.  Can you imagine a kid getting a guitar handed to them or have someone sit next to them and sing a song?  In just one hour we could make them feel good....and forget their pain...  

Thanks,

Pam

A moveable feast

By Jeff Roedel

Thursday, March 26, 2009

The week before the Grammys was one of firsts for Lil Wayne. Louisiana’s 26-year-old superstar rapper went bowling with Katie Couric and talked candidly about his marijuana use and absentee father with “Miss Katie” on CBS Evening News. More than promoting his mega-selling album Tha Carter III, the segment turned the attention of the nation to New Orleans for 11 minutes of network television.

Even better were the six-and-a-half dynamic minutes Wayne kicked off during the Grammy telecast when he rapped the lyrics “And if you come from under that water, then there’s fresh air/ Just breathe, baby, God’s got a blessing to spare/ Yes, I know the process is so much stress, but it’s the progress that feels the best.” Then he introduced composer Allen Toussaint, who tickled the ivories for Crescent City classic “Big Chief” and rocked with trumpeter Terence Blanchard and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band as poignant New Orleans imagery flashed across STAPLES Center screens and out into 19 million homes.

Hundreds of industry insiders and musicians filled the Gold Room at the Millennium Biltmore in Los Angeles for Louisiana’s pre-Grammy economic development luncheon.

What a cultural coup that was for an awards show otherwise dominated by artists from England, with big winners Coldplay, Adele, Duffy, Radiohead and Robert Plant, and a crowd-pleasing performance from Paul McCartney. All that, and ours was the only place communally honored during the telecast.

Respect.

Orchestrated by Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich and Jazz Fest director Quint Davis, the segment ended with Wayne chanting “Say ‘New Orleans!’” and many in the audience following orders. In that moment the broadcast became a public centerpiece for what Louisiana Economic Development and the state Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism have been working for with renewed verve.

Johnny Palazzotto (left) with Jon Hornyak and Reid Wick of the Recording Academy, Paul Arrigo, and Gerald Breaux, executive director of the Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission

“The exposure from that showcase was incredible, and it was no accident,” says Sherri McConnell, LED entertainment industry director. “We wanted to counter the common perception and show how strong Louisiana has been after Katrina, that it’s really been driven by creative forces.”

The day before the Grammys, LED and CRT partnered for a luncheon at the legendary Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to network with music supervisors, producers and members of the Recording Academy and promote the state as a major player in the entertainment industry.

Variety was there. Neil Young’s publicist was there. Dozens of Louisiana’s best Zydeco and jazz musicians were there.

Rick Clark, a grey-haired Ric Ocasek type from Santa Monica, was there, too. His card reads, “Music Supervisor, Producer, Music Geek.” So, what was his connection to Louisiana? “Other than loving it?” he asked. “I have some friends down there, and I co-produced a record with Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown.” That release, Los Super Seven’s Heard It on the X, is a genuine fusion of R&B and Latin border songs, and not unlike this event, Deep South meets Los Angeles.

Shreveport native and blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd with LED’s Sherri McConnell Soul Queen Irma Thomas brought the house down with her gospel gems.

It is the Rick Clarks of California who were meant to be there, eating our shrimp and oyster gumbo and our flaming bananas Foster—and listening to our music. “I wouldn’t want it to be a room full of Louisianans,” McConnell said later that evening during the Louisiana nominees’ concert at Café Fais Do Do. “That’s not the point.” The point, illustrated in a passionate luncheon speech by Terence Blanchard, was this: “New Orleans isn’t coming back,” he said. “We are back.”

Among the luncheon guests were Jon Hornyak and Reid Wick, both senior officials with the Recording Academy. Hornyak and his team are largely responsible for more than 3,000 Louisiana musicians receiving financial aid in the last three years. “Following Katrina was a very turbulent time,” Hornyak told 225 at the luncheon. “For many of the musicians, the Recording Academy was the only place to turn. And it felt good to pitch in, to get the cash flowing quickly.”

Shreveport native and blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd with LED’s Sherri McConnell

The hundreds inside the Biltmore’s Gold Room rose to their feet for stellar performances by Irma Thomas and David Egan and by The Blind Boys of Alabama with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. CRT even rolled out its new slate of “This Is My Louisiana” commercials starring Blanchard, actress Faith Ford and politico James Carville, a frequent CNN contributor. In his clip, Carville espouses the magic of Creole tomatoes and Louisiana crabmeat and jokes that if you don’t like fun, don’t come to Mardi Gras. “Everything here massages the imagination,” he says.

“When people recognize or are introduced to a Baton Rouge or Louisiana icon, that gives them a reason to want to see it for themselves and to visit,” says Paul Arrigo, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “That’s why we believe something good will come out of all of this.”

Allen Toussaint touted the virtues of New Orleans’ music and its people during the pre-Grammy luncheon.

Arrigo could be right. Just a few hours after the luncheon, Variety associate editor Phil Gallo blogged that it had celebrated “the greatness and enduring nature of the culture” and “might well be responsible for a spike in airfare sales to New Orleans out of LAX.” Meanwhile Baton Rouge Blues Foundation chief Johnny Palazzotto’s industry guests were online downloading music by Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys and Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole.

“Obviously this means income for the artists and will translate into future bookings,” Palazzotto says. “Café Fais Do Do is interested in bringing Pine Leaf Boys, Cedric Watson and Steve Riley back. That’s real economic development—creating jobs through showcasing our artists in markets they haven’t been seen or heard in yet.”

Though this event proved successful, McConnell says her office will wait to decide whether to produce a third luncheon next February. In its second year, this pre-Grammy push remains a radical approach for state officials.

Two-time Grammy-nominated Pine Leaf Boys got the luncheon off to a lively start.

“When we won our first Grammy in 1998, few people in the state looked at it in terms of economic stimulus,” says Michael Doucet, founder of BeauSoleil, the 2009 Grammy winner for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album. “It’s about time they recognized the creative power in the state. It’s weird what they are doing, because the music I play is not pop music, but it’s being taken into a commercial realm, and I love that.”

The next step after the Grammys is integrating critically acclaimed music like Doucet’s into popular feature films. Last December Pine Leaf Boys took a step in the right direction by signing with Lionsgate Records, a division of the film company.

“We are trying to brand Louisiana music and entertainment, and people in Los Angeles value our contributions to those industries,” McConnell says. “They want to come here, and that is a beautiful thing.”

Read about Louisiana’s music at the 2009 Grammys here.