Joe Price - 5 p.m. Joe Price comes from Waterloo, where he first began to play slide guitar using a slide he sawed from the handlebars of a neighbor's bike. Pretty old-school for an Iowa boy. He found his way to Iowa City, where he managed to solidify his craft when blues legends such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Honey Boy Edwards, and Hound Dog Taylor passed through town on their Midwest tours.
The Mercury Brothers - 2 p.m. The Mercury Brothers are Memphis-bound in early 2006 to compete in the International Blues Challenge after winning the local blues challenge and the Iowa Blues Challenge.
Daniel Burnside - 2 p.m. Opening on the tent stage at 2 p.m. on Sunday will be Blue Grass, Iowa's own Daniel Burnside. Originally from Como, Mississippi, Daniel is the son of legendary bluesman R.
The Tablerockers - 5 p.m. The current band is based in northwest Arkansas and premiered in December of 2001. It features Jason Davis on guitar and vocals, Texas native David Watson on drums, and Larry Boehmer on bass.
If you ever engage Carl Finch in a discussion about the health or politics of polka, watch out. And do not make any polka jokes. The singer/guitarist/accordionist/keyboardist for the Texas-based band Brave Combo is passionate about his polka, and he can work himself up into such a froth that you might mistake his tone for anger.
Hello and welcome to the 21st Annual I.H. Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. As is apparent from the name, the biggest change for this year will be the addition of "I.H." to our festival name. This addition of course stands for the I.
Part of the Ike Turner philosophy is that he'll play with just about anybody. For example, he appears on a few tracks on an album that was released last month. "They knew me, but I didn't know them," Turner said.
On their debut album, Roughhousin', Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials performed a song called "Car Wash Blues," in which Lil' Ed Williams referred to the "mean old Jew" who was his boss. There was one problem: Ed still worked at the car wash, and he was petrified about what might happen to him when his boss heard it.
"It's such a wonderful gathering of bands," says Marcia Ball of the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, and she should know. Not only has Ball made three previous appearances at the event, but she's emerged as one of the most acclaimed figures in music, a mainstay of the professional blues circuit for nearly 25 years.
Deanna Bogart's first appearance at the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest five years ago was so successful that a local Davenport club whose name she can't remember - but based on the general location and description, we think it might have been Boozie's Bar & Grill - invited her to play a gig.

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