Great with an audience, Grammy-nominated David Bromberg brings his David Bromberg Quintet to Silo City.  David’s past adventures in music include Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and Jerry Garcia.  His recent album is a blues primer of many styles.  His band will include two guitars, bass violin and drums.  John Nemeth, American electric blues and soul harmonica player, singer, and songwriter, brings his 4-piece band to Buffalo.  John has a large fan base in the national blues community.

Tom Hambridge Review will be playing with our 5-piece WNY Blues Band.  A Grammy-winner, Tom has made a career of writing and producing for the likes of Buddy Guy and B.B. King, and has been described by AXS as “… definitely a voice worth being heard”.  Also, a 2018 International Blues Challenge (IBC) 1st place award winner, Keesha Pratt Band from Houston, TX will be performing during the festival and also at the post-party on the Silo City grounds.  Lady sings the blues!

Reverend Raven and the Chain-Smoking Altar Boys, with West Side Andy Linderman on harp.  You asked for it… straight-up blues with guitar, harp and sax.  Bring your dancing shoes!  Josh Paxton will be playing solo piano boogie-woogie in the New Orleans Professor Longhair style.   “Laissez le bon temps rouler”!

This is the society’s primary annual fundraiser.  Proceeds support the Blues Society of WNY’s Blues in the Schools (BITS) programming for K-12 students and also other community outreach programs including Nursn’ Blues, a music therapy program for those suffering from chemical dependency, provided in conjunction with Horizon Village and Kids Escaping Drugs.  Other programs being funded include Youth Mentoring, where up-and-coming musicians get a chance to be coached by professionals, and the Amateur Jam (AMJAM) program which provides amateur musicians of any age a chance to play with a full band. 

The Blues in the Schools stage will entertain between sets with youth performers from WNY schools and colleges.

New for this year, a limited number of “Preferred Seating” tickets will be sold at a premium; see site for details.  Also new, we will be thanking our U.S. military veterans by matching the first 100 tickets sold and will donate those tickets to veterans, to be distributed via Pathfinders for Vets.