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JULY 2, 2009 ISSUE

There Ain’t No Cure…

2nd Annual Summer Blues Fest at Hayes Center Monday

The King Bees Blues Revue, along with award-winning Mississippi blues and soul man Johnny Rawls (pictured right) and Winston-Salem bluesman Big Ron Hunter will take the stage at the Hayes Center on Monday, July 6, for the 2nd annual Summer Blues Fest.

The mercury in Blowing Rock just skyrocketed to steamy with the return of the Hayes Performing Arts Center’s second annual Summer Blues Festival. A trio of smoking-hot blues artists takes the stage to combat the dog days of summer with their cool, sultry sounds for one night only, Monday, July 6, at 7:30 p.m. at Blowing Rock’s Hayes Performing Arts Center.

The festival marks the return of The King Bees Blues Revue, the crowd-pleasing international act that has made the High Country its home for more than 20 years. From concert and festival settings as varied as Rome, Manhattan, Paris and Amsterdam to spots all over the High Country, The King Bees, with their deep musical sensibilities and unquestionable joy in performing, prove that they can rock the blues in any language.

Joining The King Bees on the festival ticket is Johnny Rawls. A longtime friend of The King Bees, Rawls appeared on the cover of the April 2002 issue of Living Blues Magazine and has been nominated four times for the W.C. Handy Award. His most recent major award came in 2006 courtesy of the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame when he was named R&B Male Vocalist of the Year.

In 2008, Rawls’ most recent album, Red Cadillac, was nominated for the Blues Music Awards Soul Blues Album of the Year. Blues Revue praised the recording as “powerful and inspired, replete with top-notch instrumental and vocal performances and a superb, soulful batch of songs.” The single “No Boundaries” earned rave reviews from all the major blues publications and a rare four-star rating from Downbeat, who said of the musician, “Rawls envelops his wise blend of soul and blues in the aura of believable emotional intensity.”

All songs on Red Cadillac were penned by Rawls and bassist Bob Trenchard, and they run the gamut from love songs and lost love songs, to cheating and party-time songs, to social commentary tracks remarking on the current condition of our country and our world.

Rounding out the festival is Big Ron Hunter, an emerging acoustic bluesman who traverses from sweet and melodic to uplifting and hard-hitting. This versatile Winston-Salem-based musician—who has opened for such groups as Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys—performs solo acoustic concerts, electric guitar shows with his band and even bluegrass. Hunter performed at the Hayes Center during 2008’s Winter Blues Fest.

Longtime King Bees collaborator and Charlotte-based musician Big Mike Kincaide will be on hand at the Summer Blues Fest to lend his considerable saxophone talents to the proceedings.

Tickets to the 2nd annual Summer Blues Festival are $20 for adults and $14 for students. Purchase tickets at the Hayes Center Box Office by calling 828-295-9627 or by clicking to www.brcac.org.