Vanessa Collier at the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest at LeClaire Park -- September 17.
Friday, September 16, and Saturday, September 17
LeClaire Park, 400 Beiderbecke Drive, Davenport IA
With award-winning, Billboard-charting, Grammy-nominated artists performing on the banks of a mighty river, the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest returns to Davenport for its 36th incarnation on September 16 and 17, the LeClaire Park event – hosted by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society – featuring nine thrilling Main Stage concert sets, nine additionally incendiary sets on the neighboring Tent State, and the return of the MBVS' popular blues-education and -appreciation initiative Blueskool.
Four red-hot acts are scheduled to perform the Blues Fest Main Stage on Friday, September 16: Kevin Burt & Big Medicine (5 p.m.), its frontman's recent album Stone Crazy lauded by Blues Matters! as "vocally exquisite, musically phenomenal,” and “a blues album to cherish"; Billy Branch & Sons of the Blues (6:45 p.m.), the ensemble led by the harmonica player who is also a Grammy Award nominee, Emmy Award winner, and recipient of multiple Blues Music Awards; Joe Louis Walker (8:30 p.m.), the electric-blues guitarist and singer/songwriter whom NPR Music described as "powerful, soul-stirring, fierce, and gritty ... a legendary boundary-pushing icon of modern blues"; and singer/guitarist Sue Foley (10:15 p.m.), a native Canadian who won the Juno Award for her album Love Coming Down, has earned 17 Maple Blues Awards and three Trophees de Blues de France. She has also garnered several nominations at the Blues Music Awards, and earned a 2020 Blues Music Award in the "Koko Taylor Award (Traditional Blues Female)" category.
Another five scorching sets will grace the Main Stage on Saturday, September 17: Ivan Singh (2 p.m.), the 28-year-old Argentinian praised by Chicago's WGN radio as "one of the most-known blues guitar players in his country who has a unique can-box guitar and a particular way of playing it"; the Milwaukee-based quintet Altered 5 Blues Band (3:30 p.m.), with frontman Jeff Taylor lauded by Blues Blast for his "smooth, warm-toned voice as monumental and undeniable as Howlin' Wolf with the finish and flourish of B.B. King"; Rick Estrin & the Nightcats (5:15 p.m.), the touring electric blues band whose frontman was described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "one of the great characters in blues – a sharp-dressing, smooth-talking, harmonica-playing hep-cat"; saxophone player Vanessa Collier (7:15 p.m.), who has thus far won two Blues Music Awards for "Horn Player of the Year" and the 2022 Blues Music Award for "Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year"; and Paris-based guitarist Bernard Allison (9:15 p.m.), who was invited to join Koko Taylor's touring band one week after his graduation, and who furthered his skills under the tutelage of artists such as Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The most recent of Allison's 16 recordings to date, Highs & Lows, debuted at the top of Billboard's U.S. Blues Albums chart earlier this year.
In addition to the Blues Fest's headlining musicians on the Main Stage, LeClaire Park's Tent Stage will feature performances by a number of local and national talents: the Avey Grows Band (Friday, 4 & 6:15 p.m.); Molly Nova & the Hawk (Friday, 8 & 9:45 p.m.); Kent Burnside (Saturday, 1 p.m.); the Soul Searchers (Saturday, 3 & 4:45 p.m.); and the Matt Woods Band (Saturday, 6:45 & 8:45 p.m.).
Blues Fest 2022 will also bring with it the return of Blueskool, the popular interactive and informal educational workshop geared toward music fans of all ages, and designed for them to learn the history of blues music, listen to the blues, and learn to play the blues. This year's Blueskool workshops will be hosted on Saturday by award-winning, nationally touring blues artist and educator Kevin Burt (3 p.m.); musician and founder of the Healing with the Blues Web site Tanya English (4 p.m.); and Blues Fest favorite Billy Branch (5 p.m.), with free harmonicas given to all children participating thanks to the generosity of longtime Blues Society supporter David Berntson.
Admission to the 2022 Mississippi Valley Blues Fest is $20 for Friday's one-day pass, $30 for Saturday's one-day pass, and $45 for the weekend's two-day pass. More more information and tickets, contact the Mississippi Valley Blues Society at (563)322-5837 and MVBS.org/blues-fest.
