Last year around this time, Boogie Woogie Blues specialist Ricky Nye brought his musical pals from France to the U.S. for a series of local/regional tour dates to promote Ville du Bois, the album they recorded during one of Nye’s frequents treks to Europe three years ago. Now, Ricky Nye & the Paris Blues Band are in the midst of their second run of regional dates, supporting the combo’s second album, a self-titled affair.  

"Ain't nothing goin' on but the weather, time and old age," Big Joe Duskin is known to say. With all due respect, he's wrong. There's plenty going on for Big Joe these days. One might be tempted to call it a comeback, but in order to "come back" you have to go away, and that certainly doesn't apply to the King of Cincinnati Blues. Besides, he knew about coming back years ago.   

It seems like only yesterday that we were running all over Downtown trying to see a bazillion bands perform for the 2008 MidPoint Music Festival. Now it's time to start preparing for a bigger, badder, better MidPoint in 2009. Artists can now electronically submit their music for consideration to perform at MidPoint (Sept. 24-26) at www.mpmf.com.