the San Luis Obispo Blues Society will kick off the new season with headliner Ana Popovic on Saturday, September 24 at the SLO Vets Hall at 801 Grand Avenue. The Cadillac Angels will open the show at 8pm. Tickets are $17 for Blues Society members; $20 for the general public. All tickets are sold at the door; 21 and over, please. SLO Dance offers free dance lessons at 7:30pm.
Guitarist, singer and songwriter Ana Popovic is one of the most dynamic and innovative performers on the blues scene today. Her rise to fame accelerated after playing for the European tours of Bernard Allison, Solomon Burke and Walter Trout, followed up by her first US release, “Still Making History” (Electro Groove, 2007) which spent 19 weeks on the Billboard charts. Popovic has been compared to Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Sonny Landreth. However her passion for the blues combined with fluid and varied guitar playing, highly personal songwriting coupled with a feminine yet tough-edged voice and a dynamic stage presence is both distinctive and compelling.
Read more about the artist on line: wwwinformationpress.net
Born in 1976 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Popovic formed her first blues band “Hush” at age 19. By the late 1990s, she was studying jazz guitar in the Netherlands and playing at major blues festivals throughout Europe. American blues performers marveled at her guitar prowess, inviting her join them on tours in Europe, including the Jimi Hendrix Tribute Tour. She later recorded a Hendrix song on “Blue Haze”, the tribute album that evolved from these tours. She traveled to the United States in the early 2000s, becoming the first European to be nominated for a W.C. Handy Award for Best New Artist in 2003. She has also received numerous nominations and awards in Europe for her blues and jazz guitar playing and singing, along with rave reviews of her three recordings with Ruf Records. Her first U.S. album release, “Still Making History” (Electro Groove, 2007) spent 19 weeks on the Billboard charts. Her most recent release “Unconditional” (Electro Groove, 2011) was recorded in New Orleans and is a soulful approach to contemporary blues. In July 2011, Ana appeared as a special guest at all of BB King's shows in Germany.
Ana says of her performances, “What I feel on stage, that place is simply unconditional. It is magical. It’s just me and my guitar, notes, sounds and drum grooves. I let the band lift me up, and I feed off of their energy. I hate to think when playing. I only feel. Unconditional is how I stand towards my music - it’s mine, it’s sacred and it’s with no boundaries. Absolute, definite. I tend to put everything I have into it and don’t let anything or anyone get in between, except the people that truly inspire me."
The Santa Barbara-based Cadillac Angels combine rockabilly, surf and rock. Their latest album “Kicks Like a Mule” adds Chicago, West Coast, Texas and New Orleans blues to the mix. The band is composed of Tony Balbinot (vocals and guitar), Micky Rae (vocals, upright bass, and electric bass) and Lumper Lebowski (drums).
The San Luis Obispo Blues Society presents seven dance concerts a year. Upcoming concerts include Sista Monica on October 29 and Kim Wilson’s Blues All-Stars on December 3. For more information, call 805/541-7930 or visit the website: www.sloblues.org.
Blues Society events are run entirely by volunteers who set up, sell tickets and drinks or clean up after the show. Volunteers get free admission to the show and a drink ticket. If you are interested in working a shift at the show, call the voicemail number (805/541-7930) and we will contact you.

PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Hakins

The San Luis Obispo Blues Society presents Cafe R&B on Saturday, January 29. It’s not easy to describe the power of a Café R&B performance. Not only does lead singer, Roach have a haunting voice with an astonishing vocal and emotional range that is hot enough to melt the polar icecap, Byl Carruthers, the lead guitarist, alternates seamlessly between soulful and sizzling. As one reviewer said, “Stunned is not a strong enough word to describe what they did to the audience.” The mix of original compositions and classic material like "Born Under a Bad Sign" makes each Café R&B show an unique and unforgettable experience.

The dance concerts begin at 8:00 pm at the SLO Vets Hall, 801 Grand Avenue in San Luis Obispo. SLO Dance offers free dance lessons at 7:30pm. Tickets are $17 for Blues Society members; $20 for the general public. All tickets are sold at the door; 21 and over, please.  For more information, call 805/541-7930 or visit the website: www.sloblues.org.

On Saturday, March 12 the San Luis Obispo Blues Society welcomes Donna Angelle & the Zydeco Posse Born in a southwest Louisiana farming community, Donna's love of music began at a very young age. Over the years, she's developed a music style that enhances zydeco with elements of blues and R&B. Donna has played with both Barbara Lynn and Archie Bell and the Drells, and her band has opened for a number of well-known blues and zydeco performers. Donna is one of the hardest working musicians on the zydeco circuit and one of the few females fronting a zydeco band today. A recent recipient of the "Wilson 'Boozoo' Chavis Heritage Award" this zydeco diva is hot, hot, hot.
Additional Vets Hall dance concerts are slated for April 9 and May 14.

Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures
& Prints by Local Artists

Think you can't afford great art?  Well think again!  The ARTery is proud to be hosting over 80 art pieces by 33 accomplished local artists at the "Under $200 Art Show."  This show features both aspiring artists and well established professionals.  Naturally, this show is very diverse. The vibrant colors and broad range of subject matter makes this show truly exciting.  So come by The ARTery and check out the art you can buy for Under $200!

The Under $200 Art Show is a benefit for "Coats for Kids" with at least 20% of all art sales to be donated.  This show will run through January 2011.
The ARTery is located at 5890 Traffic Way, Atascadero

Participating Artists:
George Asdel, Denise Schryver, Marie Ramey, Paulette Gill, Jean Neas, Anna Plotkin. Stephanie Laird, Eleanor Blake. Peggy Koten, Peggy Archuleta, Tracy Di Vita, Kim McDaniels, Nicolas Rangel, Damian Culliton, Ana Lake, Olivia Barrell, Richard Mortensen, Maureen McPartlan, JoAnn Goodman, Penelope Monmonier, Anna Sexton, Martha Wright, Tisha, Mike Healey, James Redfern, Lillian Germond, Meg Bourget, Amber Wickersham, Tori LePore, Kellie Reamer, Charlene Martin, David Lewis. B. Nunez.

PHOTO CREDIT: Earl Thomas

The San Luis Obispo Blues Society will celebrate the holiday season with Earl Thomas and the Blues Ambassadors on Saturday, December 4. The show starts at 8:00 pm with Dr. Danger at the SLO Vets Hall, 801 Grand Avenue in San Luis Obispo. SLO Dance offers free dance lessons at 7:30pm. Tickets for Blues Society members $17; general public $20. All tickets are sold at the door. 21 and over, please.

Earl Thomas and the Blues Ambassadors
Singer and songwriter Earl Thomas has a rich and varied performance history. Originally from Tennessee, Thomas started his musical career playing with a jump blues band in the late 80s and is a four-time San Diego Music Award winner. Earl made his European debut at the Montreaux International Jazz Festival in 1992 and has since toured Europe with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Elvis Costello, and, most recently, as the frontman for Ike Turner’s Band, the Kings of Rhythm. His high-energy stage shows elicit comparisons to Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, and Al Green. Thomas has recorded fourteen albums, with a stylistic range that includes blues, soul, funk, rock and gospel. His current project is a recording with the Blues Ambassadors, Introducing the Blues Ambassadors (Greaseland Records, 2010). For Thomas, an important part of the project is the make up of the band, whose backgrounds embody both San Francisco's cultural diversity and the stylistic roots of the blues, with musicians from African-American, East Indian, European and Asian heritages, including keyboardist Taki Komori, drummer Paul Revelli, bass player Kedar Roy, guitarist Robert Sidwell, and Bob Welsh on both guitar and keyboards. As Thomas describes it, “Spectacle and rhythm merge in the band's new release, Introducing the Blues Ambassadors, with the tracks "Standing In The Rain" and "How Come?" evoking social commentary through traditional blues structures and vibrant, contemporary sound. In these songs, the cadence of the Blue Ridge Mountains blends with Chicago's sharp city lights; and gospel, work songs, ballads, spirituals and European art music weave through an American national identity.

Place—whether a country, a city, a front porch, a nightclub, a street corner, a juke joint—becomes the common ground for recalling and creating life experiences anew.”
The Dr. Danger Band carries on a soulful blues based rock tradition that includes a mix of covers and originals which extend from the birth of rock and roll, to the sound of the Bay Area in the 60s and 70s, and up through the soul revival of Amy Winehouse. Band members include Brad Kyle (lead guitar and vocals), Linda Lucille (vocals), Jerry White (bass), Ray Wells (harp), Jim Clark (drums) and Brent Dannells (keyboards).

For more information, call 805/541-7930 or visit our website (www.sloblues.org).