Daytrotter We're busy as always this week, bringing in a number of bands that will be playing this week's Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. The sessions that we'll be recording here in Rock Island include visits by Candle, Bear Country, The New Year, The Icy Demons, Jennifer O'Connor, Secret Machines, The Dutchess & the Duke, the Prairie Spies, Ani DiFranco, and Supergrass.

Natalia Zukerman Natalia Zukerman might as well have been born on the road. She is the child of two classical musicians who traveled a lot. (Her father is violinist, violist, and conductor Pinchas Zukerman.) She said last week that she got on a plane for the first time when she was six weeks old, and "I've learned to pack and unpack since I was a little kid.

"Having a regular, stay-at-home home life, that's the challenge for me and my family," she continued. "I love that it's something that is definitely in my blood. My grandfather was a klezmer musician and a gypsy of sorts. Traveling troubadour is part of my DNA."

She's carrying on the tradition.

Daytrotter It's a relatively calm week at Daytrotter headquarters this week, but the few things that are happening are exciting.

We here at Daytrotter have been overjoyed with the response to the last two Daytrotter Presents shows at Huckleberry's -- Amos Lee/Shelley Short and Justin Townes Earle/David Vandervelde. We have to thank everyone for coming out, and if you were one of those people, bring two others with you for the next one.

We promise to continue bringing in high quality acts -- putting together diverse bills that you're only going to be able to see here. The next two shows that we have upcoming promise to be just as eclectic.

Mississippi Valley Blues Festival cover To blues it may concern:

Peace and blues to you all, and welcome to the 2008 IH Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. Come hell or high water, the fest must go on! This year's Mississippi River flood only strengthened our resolve to bring you the best in blues, even if we can't be in LeClaire Park.

Carolina Chocolate DropsThree years ago, the Black Banjo Gathering was held in North Carolina to celebrate "the African American heritage of the banjo, which has not only a historic past, but also a resurgent present, and a great future," according to the event's Web site (http://blackbanjo.com).

Part of that future is the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African American string trio whose members first met at the gathering. The young group - two members are in their mid-20s, and one is 31 - should help keep alive a rich tradition of the Piedmont string band.

The Kinsey Report The blues musicians of the Kinsey Report - composed of Kinsey brothers Donald on guitar, Kenneth on bass, and Ralph on percussion - haven't released a new CD since 1998's Smoke & Steel, and during a recent phone interview, Ralph states that "we don't tour as much as we want. One reason is because the venues aren't there anymore, and another reason is because we've been working on a new record for some time now, and we want to come out with something fresh."

Elvin Bishop Elvin Bishop, who lived outside the small town of Elliott, Iowa, as a child, attributes his connection with the blues community to his rural upbringing. "The reason I fell in so easy with the old blues guys," he said, "is because I knew the feeling of being out in the country and not much going on. ... You grew up with kerosene lamps and wood-burning stoves and shit like that."

Marie Knight "I got started singing when I was five years old," Marie Knight said in a recent phone interview. "My mother used to stand me up on the table in the church. That's been my life, the church."

Unlike those black sanctified singers who crossed over from gospel to pop (like Sister Rosetta Tharpe) or who started in blues but ended up preaching (like the Reverend Gary Davis), Knight's story has generally stayed within the bounds the church. And this year she's being inducted into the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Detroit.

Tinsley Ellis When Tinsley Ellis first came to the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival in 1989, he was just beginning his solo career. "I just remember we were a new band out of Georgia, got the deal with Alligator [Records], and the blues society booked a concert there," he said. "We started off that concert by being like, I think, one of the first bands to play of the day, and now, here I am being the closing act of the main stage."

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