Summer may be over, but the Mississippi Valley Blues Society is still keeping the Blues ALIVE in the Quad Cities. MVBS is proud to present “Beat the October Blues” featuring three blues acts throughout the month of October including Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, Laura Rain and the Caesars, and Hamilton Loomis Band.
Alligator Recording Artists, Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, will be live at The Establishment, 220 19th Street, Rock Island, IL, on Saturday, October 8th. Doors open at 9:10 p.m. The cost to see this performance will be $22, if you buy your tickets in advance (http://embed.showclix.com/
Born in San Jose, California, Tommy continued to fall in love with the blues guitar work of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Elmore James, and singers like Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett and James Brown. By his late 20s he was playing in a variety of San Francisco-area blues and soul bands. For over 40 years now, it’s been full-steam ahead for Tommy, releasing 16 albums filled with original blues, soul, and West Coast rock.
Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, currently featuring bassist Randy McDonald, keyboardist Michael Emerson, and drummer Bowen Brown, have toured non-stop, playing hundreds of dates at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over the United States, Canada and Europe. On the road is where he learned to turn his band into a dynamic, high-performance engine, able to bring down the house with a soulful ballad, and then bring fans to their feet with a blistering blues rocker. Billboard says the band plays “irresistible contemporary blues-rock” with “street-level grit and soul.”
Laura Rain and the Caesars are a powerhouse soul, blues, and r&b quartet, fronted by the dynamic Laura Rain. They will be playing at the Little Brown Jug, 1315 18th Avenue, East Moline, IL on Friday, October 14. The show will start at 8:00 p.m., and the admission cost will be $8, if you are a Mississippi Valley Blues Society member or $10, if you are not a member. Membership applications will be available at the door.
Laura Rain has been performing on the Detroit and Los Angeles music scenes for well over a decade. Starting out in the trenches of the Motor City blues circuit, Laura quickly encompassed more versatility, and began branching out from her blues roots, and thus adapted a soul drenched, high energy, sensuous format that is the essence of her show. Classically trained as a Verdi Soprano, she has an exceptional, diverse range that will take you on a musical journey.
Often compared to Aretha Franklin, Rain's fire, feeling, and expressiveness are all her own. The Caesars are veterans of the Motor City's r&b, jazz, rock, and blues scenes. Producer, co-writer, and guitarist George Friend, another Detroit native, returned home from L.A., has made his mark in multiple genres—rockabilly (Robert Gordon), r&b (The Sun Messengers), and blues (Janiva Magness)—and released a solo album of West Coast blues, Looka Here!, in 2004. Keyboardist Phil Hale has played with many well known artists including Martha Reeves, George Clinton, Stanley Jordan, Bettye Lavette, and James Carter. Drummer Ron Pangborn, an original member of Was (Not Was), lays down beats that are perfectly fitted to the Caesars' retro-modern soul and blues. Laura Rain & the Caesars have produced three CDs: Electrified, Closer, and the recently-released Gold.
“If blues, soul, and rock can be said to form a triangle, you’ll find Hamilton Loomis right in the center of it” (says Guitar Player Magazine) and you will find Hamilton Loomis and his band at Harley Corin’s, 1708 State Street, Bettendorf, IA on Sunday, October 16 starting at 6:00 p.m. Because of a generous offer from the Hamilton Loomis Band to keep the blues alive in the Quad Cities, this show will be FREE to the public.
Hamilton Loomis is one of the young artists at the forefront of bringing blues based American music into the 21st century and redefining it for a contemporary audience. Spanning youth and tradition, Loomis bridges the gap between generations of music-lovers both in the U.S. and around the world.
"When I was coming up in the music scene, I was lucky to have musical mentors like Joe ‘Guitar’ Hughes, Johnny ‘Clyde’ Copeland, and of course, rock icon Bo Diddley,” stated Loomis. “These ‘veterans’ took the time to teach and give advice to us youngsters, as if ‘passing the torch.’ Now that they have passed, it’s my duty, not just an obligation, to do the same with this generation’s young musicians.”
The Mississippi Valley Blues Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Davenport, Iowa serving Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois with a variety of programs that go on throughout the year that keep us busy and help support our mission. For more information check the website for the Mississippi Valley Blues Society: www.mvbs.org.
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