Saturday, August 4 at 3:15 p.m.
RBF Main Stage

Robert Kimbrough Sr. continues the Cotton Patch Soul Blues style created by his father, the legendary Junior Kimbrough. From an early age, Robert was steeped in the sounds and life of North Mississippi and its distinctive styles of blues. Growing up, Robert listened first-hand to Mississippi blues royalty that played with his father at home, at Junior’s juke joint club, as well as the ever frequent weekend house parties and porch jam sessions. The blues was simply part of everyday life as a Kimbrough. Robert continues his father’s tradition, along with some of his siblings on his father’s side. You can often find many of them sharing the stage on any given night in Mississippi. The Kimbrough name, along with the Burnside name, is part of a blues dynasty that remains strong today, bringing people from all over the world to see and hear them play.

The Cotton Patch Soul Blues style that Robert plays is a straight link to the music that his father originated in North Mississippi. It is a deep soul sound that can be linked back to the sounds of his ancestors coming from the cotton fields as field hands, singing out as they worked in the rows of Mississippi cotton. This distinct and somewhat underground style of blues is rooted in a foundation of hypnotic, droning rhythms and extremely dance-able drum beats. This style and musical vibe, was best heard in the smoky, hidden juke joints of lore. Up until the mid 80s, the only way to hear this music was to visit a church-turned-blues-den founded by Junior Kimbrough in Chulahoma, MS that unfortunately burned down in 2000.

Robert Kimbrough Sr.’s musical journey started at an early age and took him to Aurora, Illinois where he lived and played for a few years. He then returned to Holly Springs, MS to play with his dad and focus on his music, as well tour with Junior in 1996. Shortly after, he wrote all the tracks for his first release, Willey Woot. Robert became focused solely on sharing his families unique style of cotton patch soul blues under his new moniker – Blues Connection – as one of the hardest working guys in the blues business.

Robert Kimbrough Sr. Blues Connection can be seen on the Mississippi blues series “Mojo Hands and Moonshine,” Episode 2: Paul MacLeod Has Left.

Biography courtesy http://robertkimbroughsr.com/

Saturday, August 4 at 12:00 noon
RBF Main Stage

Featuring Jeffrey Attakorah, Anna McLaughlin, Jon Hay & Zach Lees

Saturday, August 4 at 1:30 p.m.
RBF Main Stage

The Backtrack Blues Band is one of Florida’s longest running and most accomplished blues bands. Founded in 1980, the group has performed continuously for over 30 years. Backtrack’s high energy Chicago-style blues with exceptional guitar, harp, and vocals, has made the band a constant on the Florida blues concert, club, and festival scene for over three decades.

The group has established a strong reputation for creative songwriting and has released five CDs and a DVD of original music, all of which charted on the U.S. blues radio charts. The band released its newest CD, “Way Back Home,” in 2016, and it represents Backtrack’s best recording to date. The record is receiving international radio play and has positioned the band to gain a much wider following. In the words of Art Tipaldi, Editor of Blues Music Magazine, “On its fifth CD, ‘Way Back Home’, the first class band has recorded one of its strongest traditional blues recordings to date and is now poised to carry its musical message to a larger audience.”

The quintet consists of Sonny Charles on harmonica and vocals, Kid Royal on lead guitar and vocals, Little Johnny Walter on rhythm guitar and vocals, Stick Davis on bass, and Joe Bencomo on drums. Backtrack has appeared as an opening act in concert with many legendary blues artists including B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Gregg Allman, Robert Cray, Johnny Winter, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and others. The group has also been recognized by the Tampa Bay community as a leader in the blues music arena by garnering three Tampa Bay Music Awards as the area’s “Best Blues Band.”

The band members are serious students of blues music and bring a lot of authenticity and talent to the group. Sonny Charles and Little Johnny formed the band in 1980 and have played together for over 35 years. Sonny is an accomplished blues harmonica player, whose tone and style are reminiscent of Little Walter and Paul Butterfield. Kid Royal has appeared at many major blues festivals throughout Canada and America, and his style is influenced by the great Texas guitar players. He is widely respected as one of the very top guitarists in Florida.

Joe Bencomo is an exceptional drummer, who has played in the best blues and jazz bands in Tampa Bay for over 40 years. Little Johnny adds solid rhythm guitar and backup vocals to the band. Stick Davis is a gifted bass player, and he was a founding member of the Amazing Rhythm Aces and has traveled the world, touring with BB King, John Mayall, Al Green, Jesse Winchester, Pure Prairie League, and others.

Together, these guys comprise one of Florida’s best and most accomplished blues bands, and their live show is an original and exciting display of electric blues at its very best! The band’s leader has significant experience in producing top quality blues music shows, having founded and managed the award-winning Tampa Bay Blues Festival for over 20 years.

Biography courtesy http://www.backtrackbluesband.com/

Friday, August 3 at 8:30 p.m.
RBF Main Stage

SAMANTHA FISH
“Belle of the West”
Ruf Records / Release Date: November 3, 2017

“You should always get outside of the box,” Samantha Fish says while discussing her boundary-breaking new album Belle of the West. “Challenging yourself is how you grow.”

After launching her recording career in 2009, Samantha Fish quickly established herself as a rising star in the contemporary blues world. Since then, the charismatic young singer-guitarist-songwriter has earned a reputation as a rising guitar hero and powerful live performer, while releasing a series of acclaimed albums that have shown her restless creative spirit consistently taking her in new and exciting musical directions.

The New York Times called Fish “an impressive blues guitarist who sings with sweet power” and “one of the genre’s most promising young talents.” Her hometown paper The Kansas City Star noted, “Samantha Fish has kicked down the door of the patriarchal blues club” and observed that the young artist “displays more imagination and creativity than some blues veterans exhibit over the course of their careers.”

Having already made it clear that she’s more interested in following her heart than she is in repeating past triumphs, Samantha Fish delivers some of her most compelling music to date with Belle of the West, her fifth studio album. The deeply soulful, personally charged 11-song set showcases Fish’s sublime acoustic guitar skills as well as her rootsy, emotionally resonant songwriting.

Such memorable new originals as “American Dream,” “Blood in the Water,” “Need You More” and “Don’t Say You Love Me” demonstrate the artist’s knack for organic Americana songcraft, while a trio of cover tunes—R.L. Burnside’s “Poor Black Mattie,” Lillie Mae’s “Nearing Home” and the Jimbo Mathus-penned title track—attest to her substantial interpretive skills as well as her varied musical interests.

“To me, this is a natural progression,” Fish notes. “It’s a storytelling record by a girl who grew up in the Midwest. It’s very personal. I really focused on the songwriting and vocals, the melodies and emotion, and on bringing another dimension to what I do. I wasn’t interested in shredding on guitar, although we ended up with a few heavier tracks. I love Mississippi blues; there’s something very soulful and very real about that style of music, so this was a chance to immerse myself in that.”

Fish recorded Belle of the West in the relaxed, rural creative atmosphere of the legendary Zebra Ranch Studios in the North Hills of Mississippi with producer Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars fame), with whom she worked previously on her 2015 album Wild Heart. The studio team included some of the region’s most iconoclastic musicians, including Dickinson, solo artist and Jack White associate Lillie Mae (whose distinctive vocals are featured on “Nearing Home”), much-traveled juke-joint blues artist Lightnin’ Malcolm (whose featured on “Poor Black Mattie”), Squirrel Nut Zippers founder Jimbo Mathus, upright bassist and beloved solo artist Amy LaVere, Tikyra Jackson, Trina Raimey and Shardé Thomas, granddaughter of the legendary Southern bluesman Otha Turner.

“I wanted to do this acoustic-electric record, and tap into the style and swagger of Mississippi,” Fish states, adding, “Any time you dive into another place, another vibe and a new group of people, you’re challenging yourself to grow musically. I felt very at home a Zebra Ranch, and I’ve known Luther and Malcolm for years, so it was a very comfortable situation. When you’re making a record like this, it has to feel natural if you want people to respond to it.

Belle of the West follows on the heels of Fish’s March 2017 release Chills & Fever, which achieved top 10 status in the Billboard Blues charts. Here she expanded her stylistic arsenal to take on a set of lesser-known vintage R&B gems, with help from members of garage-soul stalwarts the Detroit Cobras. “Having these two very different records come out back to back this year has been really liberating,” says Samantha.

The creative drive that fuels Belle of the West and Chills & Fever has been a crucial element of Samantha Fish’s approach from the beginning. Growing up in a musical family in Kansas City, Missouri, she became obsessed with music early life, taking up drums before switching to guitar at the age of 15. By the time she was 20, she had formed her own trio and self-released her first album. She soon caught the ear of the renowned blues label Ruf Records, which in 2011 released Girls with Guitars, which teamed her with fellow axewomen Cassie Taylor and Dani Wilde. The same year saw Ruf release Fish’s solo studio debut Runaway. The album was named Best Artist Debut at the 2012 Blues Music Awards in Memphis.

Black Wind Howlin’ (2013) and Wild Heart (2015) followed, winning considerable critical acclaim and further establishing Fish as a prominent presence in the blues community. Wild Heart reached the top slot on Billboard’s blues chart. She also collaborated with blues-rock veterans Jimmy Hall and Reese Wynans on the 2013 project The Healers. The same year, she jammed onstage with blues icon Buddy Guy, and guested on Devon Allman’s album Turquoise.

Fish continues to maintain the same hardworking, prolific approach that’s carried her this far. “I think I’ve always had that,” she says. “Music is my life, so what other choice do I have but to go out and make music? We do tour quite a bit, and maybe it’s kind of crazy to put out two dramatically different albums in one year. But I like to work hard. This is who I am and this is what I do, and when I’m writing and recording and touring is when I feel the most like myself. And now we have a moment where people are paying attention, so I have to make the most of it. I feel like I have a lot to say right now, so why not say it?”

As far as Samantha Fish is concerned, her musical future is an open road. “I’m never gonna be a traditional blues artist, because that’s not who I am,” she asserts. “But it’s all the blues for me. When Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf came out, what they were doing didn’t sound like anything that had been done in blues before. You’ve gotta keep that kind of fire and spirit. I’m never gonna do Muddy Waters better than Muddy Waters, so I have to be who I am and find my best voice.

Biography courtesy http://www.samanthafish.com

Friday, August 3 at 6:45 p.m.
RBF Main Stage

The son of Dallas-based R&B guitarist Johnny B. Jones, “Tutu” Jones was truly a product of his environment — growing up in a house frequently populated by guests including Freddie King, Little Joe Blue and Ernie Johnson, his own future as a bluesman was never in doubt. Born John Jones Jr. on September 9, 1966 in South Dallas, Texas. As a child, Tutu was constantly surrounded by blues luminaries such as Ernie Johnson, Little Joe Blue, and even Jones’ uncle L.C. Clark who was a fine guitar player in his own right. Tutu grew up steeped in in-house jam sessions of truly stellar quality. He was 4 ½ years old when he first began his musical career as a drummer. “Next thing I know, I’m playin’ drums in some club in Southeast Dallas,” says Tutu. Jones turned pro with R.L. Griffin, with whose band Tutu took on the road. He became a professional drummer while still a teen, backing his uncles Curly “Barefoot” Miller and L.C. Clark before moving on to work with the likes of Z.Z. Hill and R.L. Burnside. His life became a dizzying mélange of tours and Texas dates, hiring out as drummer for Z.Z. Hill, Al “TNT” Braggs, Ernie Johnson, and Little Joe Blue.

One night, Tutu was fooling around with Joe Blue’s guitar backstage at a gig in the part of Dallas called Oak Cliff (turf to T-Bone Walker and more recently, the Vaughn Brothers). Joe Blue told him, if he could play guitar that well he should be fronting his own band. Not long after, Tutu started showing up at the myriad blues jams in the clubs in North Dallas. Joe Blue’s advice had been good, and things started happening for Tutu Jones. As Jones steadily honed his guitar and songwriting skills, he eventually began fronting bands of his own; he cut his solo debut “I’m for Real” in 1994, followed by “Blue Texas Soul” in 1996. Two years later, he released “Staying Power”.

Tutu is more than the sum of his influences (though distinguished influences they are!) He is first and foremost an individualist, who puts a very personal stamp on every note that he plays and every syllable that he sings. You could call him the living personification of the sound of South Dallas, where Blues and Soul meet and are stronger for it.

Tutu Jones has released a red hot CD aptly titled “Tutu Jones Live”. This CD contains what many of the critics have called “One of the hottest live Blues to be released in quite some time”. Tutu is truly one of our brightest stars in the future of the blues in the 21st Century.

Biography courtesy http://www.tutujones.com/bio.html

Friday, August 3 at 5:00 p.m.
RBF Main Stage

“There’s a young lady [Vanessa Collier] came onstage with me, I forget where I was, but she’s playing an alto saxophone, and man, she was amazing.”

Those are the words of Buddy Guy in a recent issue of American Blues Scene, describing an impromptu performance with Vanessa Collier on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to meet Vanessa and witness one of her head-turning, fiery, and passionate performances, you should definitely make sure you do. As a master musician and multi-instrumentalist, Vanessa Collier, weaves funk, soul, rock, and blues into every powerful performance and she is downright impressive. With soulful vocals, searing saxophone, and witty songwriting, Vanessa is blazing a trail, racking up an impressive arsenal of honours, and has already singled herself out as an artist of distinction and one we would all do well to watch.

It’s not simply the accolades she has accumulated so far, although they’ve been many — three Blues Music Award Nominations (BMAs), a Blues Blast Award nomination, the Jammingest Pro Award bestowed by the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, First Place for lyrics in the International Songwriting Competition, Best of 2014 Blues Breaker on Dan Aykroyd’s BluesMobile — it’s the fact that she has accumulated all these honours even while her career is still in its infancy. A 2013 graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music, she’s toured nationally and internationally, released two critically acclaimed albums (2014’s Heart, Soul & Saxophone and 2017’s Meeting My Shadow), and will release her highly anticipated third album, Honey Up, in July 2018.

It’s not surprising that the press has been quick to commend her efforts as well. Blues Blast Magazine affirms, “Vanessa Collier is a fresh face on the American blues scene, and in addition to her soulful vocals, she brings a mighty sax to the table…” Blues Music Magazine proclaims, “Collier is a fresh face who comes to the blues stage carrying her reed instruments, a dual degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston, a major label debut, almost two years of touring with Joe Louis Walker, and a mature musical vision…Collier commands center stage with her vocals, soloing, and stage presence.” Midwest Record exclaims, “This bluesy singing sax player knows how to bring the slinking funk to her captivating, award winning sound that has echoes in young Bonnie Raitt/Maria Muldaur vocal sounds…Killer stuff on every level, this sounds like one of the reasons you first became a music fan. Killer stuff.” and AXS.Com declares that she “might as well go ahead and add another shelf to her trophy case because clearly, she’s going to need it. With a voice that often recalls that of blues-rock stalwart Bonnie Raitt, Collier turns up the heat…”

Having first picked up the saxophone at the age of nine, Collier embarked on her road to recognition at Berklee, earning dual degrees in Performance and Music Production & Engineering. While still completing her degree, Collier landed a position touring with Joe Louis Walker for a year and a half before Joe encouraged her to strike out on her own. And strike out she did.

These days, Collier spends much of her time on the road, performing at some of the most prestigious music festivals in the world. Her talents have taken her to the Blues Music Awards Show where, in the words of the Blues Foundation, Vanessa “blew the doors off the Blues Music Awards!”; Ottawa Blues Festival, where she earned two front page newspaper photos and rave reviews after her foot stomping debut there; twice on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise, where she earned the Jammingest Pro Award and was a featured artist with Tommy Castro’s Blues Review; Briggs Farm Festival, where she was the “most popular Briggs Farm act in 2017” (Elmore Magazine), and the list continues. In 2017, Vanessa was also a featured artist in three major tours across Europe as part of Ruf’s 2017 Blues Caravan.

In early 2018, Vanessa was nominated for TWO 2018 Blues Music Awards, the first one for Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year, which puts her in elite company with artists such as Beth Hart, Samantha Fish, and Shemekia Copeland, and a second nomination for Instrumental – Horn Player of the Year, in company with veteran artists like Trombone Shorty, Al Basile, and Jimmy Carpenter.

As for Collier, she says she’s happy performing on stages across the world, hoping that she can make a difference with fans and followers along the way. “I am driven to do this because I find it a total form of expression and connection,” she explains. “I love connecting with an audience and feeling their energy and I hope to inspire people to follow their dreams and passions, to find what brings them joy, and then to pursue it doggedly.” Vanessa also takes that message to young people as she runs clinics across the country and is active with Blues in the Schools programs. At a recent Blues in the School program, Vanessa invited a stage full of elementary and middle school aged kids up to dance around her while she performed a blues shuffle. Watching the joy on the faces of Vanessa, the kids, and everyone in the auditorium, it is no wonder why Vanessa has become awe-inspiring to all who meet her. On top of talent and hard work, Vanessa shares an incredible heart and a strong purpose. To borrow from the words of an article in Blues Blast Magazine, “Vanessa is an important part of the future of the blues, and it would be cool to support her journey.

Biography courtesy https://www.vanessacollier.com/