Source: Official Website

highlights this weekend: juke joint + blues awards

Updated: 25 October 2011

The inaugural Backwater Blues and Roots Festival continues this week with a huge lineup across venues and regions of Adelaide. See the full program here >>

Upcoming highlights include the Juke Joint, and the Adelaide Blues Awards.

After three years as Adelaide’s hottest blues event, in 2011 The Juke Joint becomes the climax of the Backwater Blues and Roots Festival with its biggest bill yet! By popular demand the show will once again take place upstairs in the old Night Train building on Light Square in Adelaide, on Saturday 29 October. Tickets $27 Adult / $24 concession.

On the line up are :
MASON RACK
CHRIS WILSON
OLD GRAY MULE
THE STREAMLINERS
CW AYON ONE MAN BAND
SWEET BABY JAMES & ROB EYERS

Plus, Sunday 30 October sees the Adelaide Blues Awards slide into Semaphore, with the official show at the Semaphore Workers Club from 4pm.

For tickets and details on these and all BBRF events, see the official site.

Source: Official Website

mason rack to headline inaugural bbrf

Updated: 11 October 2011

Following a typically attention-grabbing turn at last year's Adelaide International Guitar Festival, the Mason Rack Band returns to Adelaide this month atop a bill of Australia's best blues and roots artists for the inaugural Backwater Blues and Roots Festival.

"I caught his gig at the AIGF and, wow, the guy has so much energy and charisma on stage," says Backwater Blues and Roots Festival organiser Andrew Dundon. "The whole band - they're awesome. Straight away, I thought, 'If we're going to put on a blues festival, we have to get these guys back!'"

They're certainly in demand, regularly leaving the Gold Coast behind for festivals around the country and afar, rocking crowds with Mason's raucous slide guitar and deep, broken-glass vocals, winning new fans and generating airplay wherever they go. During the BBRF, the Mason Rack Band will headline The Juke Joint on 29 October in Adelaide, as well as a show at Willunga Golf Club on 28 October, supported by Adelaide's Brenton Manser Duo. 

Also appearing at The Juke Joint and at various regional venues in McLaren Vale, Willunga and Whyalla are Chris Wilson (Vic), Old Gray Mule (US), CW Ayon (US) and The Streamliners (SA).

For tickets and details on these and all BBRF events, see the official site.

introducing sa's latest fest: backwater blues & roots

Updated: 30 August 2011

Since 2008, The Juke Joint has grown to become a highlight of the live music calendar in South Australia, bringing the best local and interstate talent together in Adelaide for a raucous annual celebration of the blues. And it's about to get much, much bigger, with the introduction of Backwater Blues & Roots Festival, running from 21 - 30 October 2011.

Previous bills of The Juke Joint read like a roll call of Australia's best blues talent: Chris Wilson, Collard Greens and Gravy, Fiona Boyes, Sweet Baby James and Rob Eyers, Mojo Webb, Jackson Firebird, Heather Stewart, Dallas Frasca and Abbe May to name but a few.

2010 brought the first collaboration between organisers Mojo Inc and independent Adelaide record label Stobie Sounds, with the launch of the critically acclaimed album These Are My Blues: A Tribute to Big Joe Williams, which featured Adelaide's best blues and roots artists performing their favourite songs from the Delta blues icon's catalogue.

In its fourth year, The Juke Joint will become the climax of a week-long, state-wide celebration of blues and roots, the Backwater Blues & Roots Festival, bringin’ it home with a dynamite bill of local, Australian and - for the first time - international talent.

The Backwater Blues and Roots Festival hits the road with a ten-day blues party, stopping in Whyalla, Auburn, Willunga and McLaren Vale, before climaxing in Adelaide with The Juke Joint and a dynamite bill of local, national and international acts.

Events include:

    * the Bottleneck Slide Show, a workshop and concert by some of the country's finest slide-guitarists, Brendan Gallagher, Cal Williams Jr, Chris Finnen and Jesse Deane-Freeman
    * the King Billy Blues Guitar Battle,  the search for the finest Australian blues guitar talent, from which the winner of the final will not only walk away with the inaugural title but a King Billy resonator guitar
    * Deep Blues & Coopers Brews, painting Adelaide blue with Coopers brews flowing and free gigs by local and visiting artists at venues across the city
    * live blues performances and blues-dancing demos by Next Door Blues in Rundle Mall and Adelaide Central Markets
    * regional tours, taking the best of the fest to Whyalla, Auburn, McLaren Vale and Willlunga
    * the Adelaide Blues Awards, celebrating SA’s wealth of blues talent and culture, with nods for musicianship and the work of individuals and organisations in promoting the blues, and
    * The Juke Joint, Adelaide's biggest blues party, featuring The Mason Rack Band (Qld), Chris Wilson (Vic) with Sweet Baby James and Rob Eyers (SA), Old Gray Mule (US), CW Ayon (US) and The Streamliners (SA).


From August 31 tickets will be available for the key event of the Backwater Blues & Roots Festival, The Juke Joint. If you have attended The Juke Joint in previous years then you will know the incredible amount of talent that is crammed into one evening. In 2011 the Juke Joint will also feature its first international acts...

Here's the Backwater Blues & Roots Festival lineup so far:

Mason Rack Band (Qld)
Chris Wilson (Vic)
Old Gray Mule (US)
Cw Ayon (US)
Brendan Gallagher (Nsw)
Anni Piper  (Vic)
Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk (Vic)
Chris Finnen
Sweet Baby James and Rob Eyers
The Streamliners
Cal Williams Jr
Snooks & Nikko
Jesse Deane-Freeman
Them Plasms
Billy Bob & The BBQ Boys
Brenton Manser Duo
Zkye Duo
The Motherf*ckin’ Motherf*ckers
Mick Kidd
The Next Door Blues Dancers
The Bluescasters
Rowan Wilson
The Barstool Philosophers
Smoke ‘N’ Mirrors
King Biscuit Time
Tara Carragher & Richard Coates