SLO Blues Society

Written by Sara Kocher | 02 September 2010
Posted in The Arts

features Chris Thomas King for 30th Anniversary

The San Luis Obispo Blues Society will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Saturday, September 18 with Grammy winner Chris Thomas King.  The dance show at the SLO Vets Hall, 801 Grand Avenue in San Luis Obispo will open at 8 p.m. with Guy Budd and the Soul Gypsies.  Come early and celebrate the anniversary with free cake, punch, and commemorative Blues Society buttons. Have a glass of champagne, enjoy the decorations, and bid on silent auction items from the Blues Society CD collection, Gene Francis Studio, Li Li Clever, Novel Experience, Trader Joes, and other local businesses. The first San Luis Obispo Blues Society show took place on September 28 in 1980; it featured Phillip Walker.
Admission is $17 for Blues Society members and $20 for the general public. 21 and over, please. Free dance lessons by SLO Dance are offered at 7:30pm.

SLO Blues is honored to share this occasion with multiple Grammy winner Chris Thomas King,  a performer who has consistently worked to keep blues traditions alive while forging links to contemporary events and music genres. A musician, actor, and blues innovator with Louisiana roots, Kings most recent CD, Sketches of ‘Treme, contains elements of traditional and electric blues, the hip-hop blues fusion that he pioneered, and New Orleans inspired ballads, with densely layered guitars in non-standard tunings contributing an otherworldly sound.

Born in Baton Rouge, King is the son of bluesman and club owner Tabby Thomas. A tour of Europe with his father, and the receptive blues audiences encountered there, encouraged him to focus on the blues. His early recordings featured straight forward electric and acoustic blues, but by the mid-1990s, he had created a fusion of blues and hip-hop which led to the 1995 recording of 21st Century Blues…From da ‘Hood followed by Dirty South Hip-hop Blues in 2002. He also continued to record traditional and historic blues, notably The Legend of Tommy Johnson which built on the Grammy winning soundtrack from O Brother, Where Art Thou? This was followed by roles in several movies and documentaries, including the Oscar winning film Ray, which also featured a Grammy winning score recorded by King and Ray Charles. More recently, King has refocused on his career as a touring musician, and has made an effort to include smaller venues, to reconnect with the juke joint blues he grew up with. Rise, his 2008 self-produced collection of songs about Katrina and the rebuilding of the spirit of New Orleans, received a Blues Music Award nomination for the song “Baptized by Dirty Water.”

Guy Budd and the Gypsy Souls play a blend of blues, rock, funk, and jazz, highlighted by the masterful guitar work of Budd and his smoky vocals.  Their well-crafted live shows and three CDs have made them a mainstay of the Central Coast blues scene. The Guy Budd Band first opened for a SLO Blues Society show in 1989.

For more information, call 805/541-7930 or visit http://www.sloblues.org/.

Photo credit: CTKToursMedia