Johnette Isham, executive director for the organization Realize Bradenton that produces the event, hopes that by December the pandemic will have lessened to the degree that such drastic social distancing measures will not be necessary. If they are, however, she said the LECOM Park site offers that flexibility, and that last year’s event showed that the festival could be held safely under such measures.
“We wanted to keep the blues alive, not only for our community, but also for musicians,” Isham said.
Headlining on Dec. 4 is Bobby Rush, who is up for a Traditional Blues Album Grammy this year for 2020’s “Rawer Than Raw.” He won a Grammy in the same category as well as an Album of the Year Blues Music Award for 2016’s ”Porcupine Meat.” Rush was also featured in the Martin Scorsese-produced 2003 series “The Blues,” and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2006. He can be seen playing himself in the 2019 film “Dolemite Is My Name,” starring Edd
John Fusco & The X-Road Riders –
John The Revelator (Self-produced): “More than three decades after a teenaged Fusco ran away from his New England home to Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta returning with a semi-autobiographical screenplay called Crossroads (and an unlikely discovery as a Hollywood screenwriter) the writer-musician returned to his old Southern stomping grounds. He was back in the Delta to film his Netflix hit The Highwaymen, but a series of impromptu jam sessions with Cody Dickinson, whose father Jim had been a music advisor on Crossroads, turned into an album of Fusco’s original blues. For John the Revelator, Fusco has assembled a cast of modern blues stars: Dickinson (the North Mississippi Allstars), who produced Fusco’s first, appears behind the board again and also contributes background vocals, drums, bass, guitars, dobro, piano, and electric washboard. Vocalist Risse Norman, who has toured and recorded with the North Mississippi Allstars and Sama
Dave Keller has had a busy year. In January, he released âLive at the Killer Guitar Thriller,â his eighth album and his first live recording with his road trio. That album highlighted his live performance sound and the gritty authenticity of the stage.
Montpelier blues and soul singer and guitarist will now release âYou Get What You Give,â an album of duets with some of the top names in blues and soul.
According to Keller, this album, his ninth, is his way of giving back to the music community that he has been part of since he became a performer. As he explains, âBack in June, after the murder of George Floyd, I watched this country seething with anger and pain. As someone who has built his career performing Black music, and who has received priceless gifts from Black mentors, I asked myself, âWhat can I do to help?â â
Dave Keller has had a busy year. In January, he released âLive at the Killer Guitar Thriller,â his eighth album and his first live recording with his road trio. That album highlighted his live performance sound and the gritty authenticity of the stage.
Montpelier blues and soul singer and guitarist will now release âYou Get What You Give,â an album of duets with some of the top names in blues and soul.
According to Keller, this album, his ninth, is his way of giving back to the music community that he has been part of since he became a performer. As he explains, âBack in June, after the murder of George Floyd, I watched this country seething with anger and pain. As someone who has built his career performing Black music, and who has received priceless gifts from Black mentors, I asked myself, âWhat can I do to help?â â