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.

Three 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.

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."

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."