Blues at the Lafayette Hotel

By John Hickey
The Blues, Jazz & Folk Music Society of Marietta will host the 14th annual River City Blues Competition Feb. 18 at Marietta’s Lafayette Hotel, by the historic landings on the Ohio River. Twenty regional blues acts have been accepted to compete, each allowed twenty minutes to lay out their strongest stuff. The first act plays at noon, kicking off some of the best blues you will have ever heard. The musicians play for the other musicians in the place as much as for the rest of the crowd and the judges. With an hour off for dinner, the acts play ‘til around midnight and then jam together while the judges put their heads together to pick the winners.

This is a chance for local musicians to get national exposure on the basis of pure talent. The top act here pockets a thousand dollars cash and is guaranteed a spot in the International Blues Challenge competition in Memphis. The Memphis winner is booked into top clubs and festivals on the national blues circuit, gigs the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Caribbean Cruise (getting paid to play a seven-day cruise that blues aficionados pay $4000 to board), and is provided professional consultation with producers, managers, and promo people. They are featured in national blues media, awarded an array of fine musical instruments and equipment, and handed another thousand dollars in cash.

For these musicians, the River City Blues Competition is not just another night in a dead-end bar. They play this blues competition like their lives and reputations depend on it, not only for the break it might bring, but because of who is listening. Hard-core blues lovers come from far and wide for this competition, and, more importantly for the musicians, fellow blues artists from several states are there. The competitors have a rare chance to play for the discerning sensibilities of their peers, who too often, like themselves, are off playing a gig in some stinking bar where half the customers are yelling above the music and nobody but the band knows the difference. Here their listeners do know the difference, so they are playing with rare intensity, and that intensity makes for some amazing blues for those lucky enough to be able to get to Marietta that Saturday.

Tickets are $15.00 at the door of the Grand Ballroom of the Lafayette Hotel. For information, contact John Bolen at (740) 373-6640 or go to bjfm.org.


River City Blues Saturday Lineup

12:30 – Mojo Street Blues, Chagrin Falls, OH
1:00 – Barrelhouse Bonni, Charleston, WV
1:30 – The Mojo Brothers, Indianapolis, IN
2:00 – Mother Tucker, Huntington, WV
2:30 – Bongo Joe and the Funk Ruckus, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
3:00 – Midnite Blues, Xenia, OH
3:30 – Mean Mother May I, Newark, OH
4:00 – Code Blue Band, Urbana, OH
4:30 – Marci Stanley and the Ride Kings, Ravenswood, WV

5:00 – Dustin Troisi Blues Band, Huntington, WV
5:30 – The Burnin' Lloyds, Cambridge, OH
6:00 – Rev. Robert Sexton's All-Star Blues Review, Waterford, MI
8:00 – Mudfork Blues, Athens, OH
8:30 – Big Daddy & the Hoodoo Men, Hartville, OH
9:00 – Malkum Gibson and the Mighty Juke Band, Clarksville, OH
9:30 – Austin "Walkin" Cane, Fairview Park, OH
10:00 – Angel Blue and the Prophets, Valencia, PA
10:30 – Larry Taylor Blues and Soul Band, Chicago, IL
11:00 – Lightning Joe King and Blue Thunder, Akron, OH