Any band with decent musical aptitude and a passion for the days of sheet music stores, phosphates and the Charleston can churn out covers of songs gleaned from thrift shop 78s and attract a sizable, loyal audience. The real gift is taking that Hot Jazz/Country Blues/Ragtime/Western Swing inspiration and translating it into original and completely contemporary songs; Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three possess that gift.   

 Although Natural Child coalesced back in 2009, they sound like they’ve been around forever. Almost stereotypically young, the Nashville trio’s influences date to their parents’ record collections and that sense of musical classicism is infused with an appropriate dose of hormonal rage and rebellion.   

First staged in 1999, Thunder is the Mt. Adams theater’s best selling musical during producing artistic director Ed Stern’s tenure. It’s the final mainstage production of his 20th and final season. The show tells a mythical tale of dueling Blues guitarists; it’s stuffed with emotionally conceived songs by renowned singer and composer Keb’ Mo’ working with Anderson Edwards.  

I became CityBeat’s arts and entertainment editor in 1998, following a few years of being a contributing writer, covering the local theater scene. In 1999 I wrote my first big cover story — it was about Keith Glover and his Blues musical, Thunder Knocking on the Door.    

  Like the star-crossed events that improbably introduced peanut butter to chocolate, the universe conspired to match Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks at a beautiful personal and professional crossroad.  

When Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady assembled Hot Tuna in 1969, it seemed like little more than a busman’s Blues holiday for the respective guitarist and bassist from Jefferson Airplane, a way for the duo to work out their Delta and Piedmont obsession while the Airplane sat on the runway. Amazingly and against all conceivable odds, Hot Tuna is still a vital musical entity 43 years after its formation.  

Some artists form in the womb and emerge ready to push their instrument's limits and in turn be pushed by them, using their childhoods as a proving ground for the brilliance to follow. That is   

Nobody understands life’s cyclical, circular nature any better than Tinsley Ellis. After learning guitar at an early age and then joining The Alleycats in the late ’70s and in 1982 forming The Heartfixers, Ellis eventually felt the pull of a solo career when he realized he wanted to be a Blues songwriter, not merely a Blues interpreter.