The purpose of the RiverRoad Award (as the Mississippi Valley Blues Society [MVBS] "a river runs through it" guitar logo attests) is to honor those artists who have devoted their lives to bringing what we call "river" blues - music that runs deep with emotion, like a river of the soul - to anyone they meet on life's highways.
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.
Some bands are not cut out for the recording studio. They're great live, but when they get in that soundproofed room by themselves, they can't translate the energy. Often, the performances on studio CDs are too dry, and they reveal deficiencies in the songs that an audience isn't going to notice at midnight with a few drinks in them.
Mark Brenny of Brenny's Motorcycle Clinic has been building the annual Sturgis on the River festival into the Quad Cities' best showcase for local bands. And this year he's topped himself. For last year's event, Brenny booked roughly 40 bands on three stages.
With the Blues Festival just two weeks away, it's crunch time for the Mississippi Valley Blues Society (MVBS). There are travel, lodging, security, and logistical concerns to address, contracts to finalize, and volunteer lists to compile.
At Gumbo Ya Ya, the food might be hot, but the music is always hotter. (Quite a feat for an event serving Cajun sausage and spicy boiled shrimp.) That truism will certainly apply to this weekend's annual Mardi Gras in the District festival, at which nine bands will deliver crowd-pleasing performances of Cajun, zydeco, blues, funk, rock, soul, hip-hop, R&B, and reggae music.

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