Kilborn Alley Blues Band, 5 p.m.
Kilborn Alley is Andrew Duncanson (lead vocals, guitar), Joe Asselin (harmonica), Josh Stimmel (guitar), Chris Breen (bass), and Ed O'Hara (drums). They are 2007 Blues Music Award nominees for Best New Artist Debut and 2008 Blues Music Award nominees for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year. They will be opening the Blues Fest on the main stage and will also be the house band for the after-fest showcase.
With all but one member born after 1980, the Kilborn Alley Blues Band boys are grandchildren in the Muddy Waters musical family tree. From Muddy's sideman Jimmy Rogers to their producer Nick Moss to the Kilborn Alley Blues Band, this group of young men makes their stand by saying what they want to say in the language of electric Chicago blues.
Not just weekend players, they are a real band, together since high school. If the music thing doesn't work out, they don't just fall back on a union electrician card or a degree in marketing. The way they live raises more questions than it answers. These guys for years shared decrepit digs on Elm Street, Lynn Street, and Springfield Avenue in the great university cities of Urbana and Champaign, Illinois - about 130 miles south of the Chicago Loop.
Many other blues bands are supergroups hired on the phone to fulfill a gig or record a studio album. But for its members, the Kilborn Alley Blues Band is a passionate project and a sometimes overwhelming collective identity. When they sound integrated, almost down to the cellular level, it isn't studio tricks but years of commitment to finding and falling in love with the Kilborn Alley sound. Their CD songs have been transformed from the recorded version by extensive live play. Their Blues Music Award-nominated CDs are for fun, sweet fun, and a template for this walloping, live Blues Fest show.
- James Skyy Dobro Walker
Kal David & the Real Deal featuring Lauri Bono, 7 p.m.
Kal David was born and raised in Chicago. Kal has played for Etta James, Johnny Rivers, and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, where he inherited the lead-guitar spot from Mick Taylor.
Kal's recording career began as a teenager as a member of Kal David & the Exceptions, which was signed to King Records and later to Vee-Jay Records. Another member of the group was Peter Cetera, who went on to be the vocalist for the band Chicago.
Later on Kal joined with Paul Cotton to form the group The Rovin' Kind, which recorded on the Dunwich Records label. Following a band-name change to Illinois Speed Press, the group released two albums on the Columbia Records label. Paul Cotton moved on to become the guitarist for the group Poco, and Kal moved to Woodstock, New York, where he formed the Fabulous Rhinestones. They recorded three albums on the 20th Century Records label.
Later as a solo artist Kal recorded two albums for SoulCoast Records. After a move to Palm Springs, California, Kal and partner Lauri Bono ran the Blue Guitar, a premier blues and jazz nightclub. Three more releases were recorded during this time. After running the club for eight years, it was sold in 2004 to accommodate Kal's upwardly spiraling career.
To fully experience Kal David's tremendous talent, you must see him live! Enjoy the show!
- Steve Heston
The Kinsey Report, 9 p.m.
The Kinsey Report - guitarist/vocalist Donald, drummer Ralph, and bassist Kenneth - developed their funk-oriented blues sound from a lifetime of working together on stage and in the studio. Their father and musical mentor, the late Mississippi-born Lester "Big Daddy" Kinsey, introduced his sons to gospel and blues early on. As youngsters, they saw firsthand the emotional power of music in their grandfather's church in Gary, Indiana. By the time Donald was 13, he was an accomplished guitarist who performed with Big Daddy around Gary. During the late 1960s, Big Daddy began taking the family act on the road. In 1972, Albert King recruited Donald as his rhythm guitarist. In 1975, Donald and Ralph formed the heavy metal group White Lightning, cutting an album for Island Records and touring nationally.
At an Island Records reception in New York, Donald met reggae superstar Bob Marley, who in turn introduced him to Peter Tosh. Tosh invited Donald to sit in on the recording of Legalize It. After touring with Tosh for a year, Marley asked Donald to overdub some guitar parts for Rastaman Vibration. Donald moved to Jamaica in 1976 and toured with Marley, but he left the band after he was nearly killed in an assassination attempt on Marley's life.
The Kinsey Report came together in 1984, with Donald returning home to join Ralph in re-forming the family band with Big Daddy. Youngest brother Kenneth took over the bass slot. The band, Big Daddy Kinsey & the Kinsey Report, combined the sons' funky, rock-influenced sound and their father's Mississippi Delta blues roots. The Kinsey Report's debut album for Alligator Records, 1988's Edge Of the City, led to three Blues Music Award nominations. Downbeat declared,"The band is telepathically tight, and its impact is devastating." And that description stands true today for the Kinsey Report, with their mix of fiery guitar, funky rhythms, streetwise lyrics, and boundless energy.
- From the Alligator Records Web site
Elvin Bishop, 11 p.m.
Elvin Bishop was a member of the legendary Paul Butterfield Band back in the day. And now he has been a solo artist in his own right for many years. He looks to be at home on any stage, playing and singing his blues music. He has a newly released album titled Booty Bumpin'.
Elvin was born and raised right here in Iowa, then the family moved to Oklahoma. And on an old radio he found his music, or I suppose his calling. Yes, it was the blues. Sound familiar?
If you haven't seen or heard Elvin Bishop on stage, you are in for a fun time listening to his songs entwined with his own way of storytelling. Elvin Bishop is known for his sense of humor, his unique style of slide guitar, and his fusion of blues, gospel, R&B, and country flavors. He seems to be able to take the things that happen to all of us at one time or another in life and make a darn good song out of it. He looks to be having fun up on stage, and the audience seems to pick up on this real quick and in no time is right with him having a good time, too. Here is a person who has studied his craft very well and applied his own sense of humor and style to it. Elvin Bishop is one of those guys that you will want to be sure to go see because you never really know what will happen. But when it does, and it sure is to be good, you will want to be able to say, Remember that Elvin Bishop guy back in 2008? Man, what a show!
- Michael Livermore
