Tina Nina Nu - Silver Spring Blues Festival Finale

Mary Shaver sings Tina Nina Nu!

The Second Annual Silver Spring Blues Festival at Downtown Silver Spring 2010 was held on Saturday, May 22, 2010.

Organized by the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc., this year's Blues Festival headlined the legendary "Nighthawks," one of the region's hardest working blues bands and winners of the Washington Area Music Association2009 awards for best duo/group and best recording for 2009's "American Landscape," in the Blues/Traditional R&B category.

Also on the program were Silver Spring's favorite son, Jonny Grave, Choo Choo Charlie Williamsand Baltimore Red Jones, the Andy Poxon Band, the DC Blues Society Band, the Daryl Davis Band featuring Ida Campbell, and Mary Shaver and the Smokin' Polecats featuring Pete Ragusa.

The Silver Spring Blues Festival was sponsored by the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc., the DC Blues Society, Downtown Silver Spring, RCN, Lee Development Group, Southern Management Corporation, the Silver Spring Voice, Dale Music, WPFW-FM and the Silver Spring Regional Center. The Festival was videotaped by Montgomery Community Television, Inc.

For more information, visit www.silverspringblues.com

Photographers! Post your Silver Spring Blues Festival pics to Flickr

Got pics from the Silver Spring Blues Festival at Downtown Silver Spring. Post them to the Blues Festival flickr group located here.

On Facebook? Post your pics to the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. Facebook page at this link.

A Spectacular Silver Spring Blues Festival!

The Silver Spring Blues Festival 2010 was spectacular!

The Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. wishes to express its appreciation to the hundreds and hundreds of fans who attended the 2010 Silver Spring Blues Festival at Downtown Silver Spring.

Concert-goers were treated to high-energy performances by the legendary “Nighthawks,” Silver Spring’s favorite son, Jonny Grave, Choo Choo Charlie Williams and Baltimore Red Jones, the Andy Poxon Band, the DC Blues Society Band, the Daryl Davis Band featuring Ida Campbell, and Mary Shaver and the Smokin’ Polecats featuring Pete Ragusa.

At the Festival’s end, blues fans witnessed an incredible jam session featuring the Nighthawks, Mary Shaver, Clarence “The Bluesman” Turner, Andy Poxon, and Sam’i Nuridden of the DC Blues Society Band.

The Silver Spring Blues Festival was sponsored by the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc., the DC Blues Society, Downtown Silver Spring, RCN, Lee Development Group, Southern Management Corporation, the Silver Spring Voice, Dale Music, WPFW-FM and the Silver Spring Regional Center. The Festival was videotaped by Montgomery Community Television, Inc.

Many thanks to all who supported the Silver Spring Blues Festival at Downtown Silver Spring!

Silver Spring Blues Festival 2010

Check out Silver Spring Blues Festival pics on Flickr

Check out the Blues Festival Slide Show on Flickr

Limited Edition Silver Spring Blues Festival T-Shirts

Don't forget to get your Limited Edition Silver Spring Blues Festival T-Shirts at the Silver Spring Blues Festival at Downtown Silver Spring!

These high quality commemorative t-shirts were designed by the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. and pressed at Planet Cotton in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Your purchase supports the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc., our spectacular blues performers, and community arts & entertainment programming in Silver Spring.

Schedule of Performances - Silver Spring Blues Festival 2010

Harmonica Workshop 3pm - 4pm
Choo Choo Charlie teaches anyone to play!
Bring your harmonica (Key of C) to learn techniques and songs.

Under the Big Top 2pm - 6pm
Musical Instrument Petting Zoo by Dale Music

On the Fountain Stage*
2:00-2:20pm
Choo Choo Charlie Williams and Baltimore Red Jones – acoustic Delta, Piedmont, Ragtime, and Texas style blues featuring harmonica and guitar

2:25-2:55pm
Jonny Grave - acoustic blues from the Heartland, steeped in the traditions of R.L. Burnside, Fred McDowell and others.

3:05-3:50pm
Andy Poxon Band – get up and go with this 15-year-old who's writing his own blues songs and has a blues groove of his own!

4:00-4:50pm
Daryl Davis Band – a Montgomery County local performing nationally with legendary greats such as Chuck Berry – featuring festival MC / WPFW89.3fm "Don't Forget the Blues" Friday host, Ida Campbell.

5:00-5:50pm
DC Blues Society Band - DCBS brings you Clarence "The Bluesman" Turner and more entertainment coming from the local blues scene!

6:00-6:50pm
Mary Shaver and the Smokin' Polecats – Muddy Waters style with a female touch – featuring Pete Ragusa (Nighthawks drummer for 35 years).

7:00-7:50pm
The Nighthawks – world renowned and legendary blues group – WAMMIE winners of Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) best duo/group and best recording for 2009's "American Landscape," in the Blues/Traditional R&B category. Get your signed award-winning CD at the festival!

* Schedule Subject to Change

Website: http://www.silverspringblues.com/ Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ssbluesfest

Cable Provider RCN Supports Silver Spring Blues Festival!

A public service announcement about the Silver Spring Blues Festival has been appearing frequently on RCN, one of the area’s leading providers of cable television programming!

In the D.C. metro area, RCN’s network extends to the Washington, D.C. neighborhoods of Capitol Hill, Glover Park, Friendship Park, Friendship Heights. Dupont Circle, Cleveland Park, Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Brookland, Shaw, Chinatown, Benning Road, Congress Heights, Anocostia, Mt. Vernon Square, Tenleytown, Mount Pleasant, Van Ness, Fort Totten, Georgia Petworth and cities in Maryland including Gaithersburg, Silver Spring, Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Takoma Park and in Virginia in the city of Falls Church.


RCN’s broadcast of the Blues Festival PSA is a reflection of the company’s strong support of communities and neighborhoods in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.

RCN encourages its employees to be socially active and to volunteer their time to improve the well being of the communities where they live and work. The company also sponsors a number of local programs that give back to the community. In addition, RCN has a number of commercial partnerships with local sports and entertainment facilities and programs, which reinforce our goal to help promote the concepts of competition and choice.

RCN continues to bring competition, better prices, premier programming, high-value bundles, superior services (including one of the fastest Internet connections in the market), and quality customer care to residents in its service areas. As a competitor to the telecom and cable giants, the company feels it is also important to champion and support the local communities they serve. Their goal is to be viewed by their customers as their hometown service provider – a company that cares.

The Silver Spring Blues Festival will be held on Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 2 pm at the Silver Fountain on Ellsworth Street in Downtown Silver Spring.

For more Festival information, check out www.silverspringblues.com

Click here to learn more about Silver Spring Blues Festival sponsor, RCN.

Choo Choo Charlie Williams at the Silver Spring Blues Festival!

Choo Choo Charlie Williams, harp virtuoso, brings his internationally known musical talents to the Silver Fountain stage for the Silver Spring Blues Festival at Downtown Silver Spring, on Saturday, May 22, 2010. Baltimore Red Jones joins Choo Choo Charlie at the Silver Spring Blues Festival.

With his band, the "SPITFIRES," Choo Choo Charlie performs a broad range of musical styles including Classic Rock and Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Swing, Jazz, Zydeco, Chicago, Jump and Country Blues, and a variety of popular and seasonal tunes plus his own originals to bring good times to music lovers of all ages. Choo Choo has played in a wide range of musical groups over the past 25 years in the mid-Atlantic region and in Europe. He resided in Germany for five years (1981-86) where he performed throughout western Europe and returned to perform for the Millennia 2000 New Year Eve at the Hotel La’ Sapiniere in Chamonix, France with the “German” SPITFIRES.”


Picture above is of Choo Choo Charlie and the Spitfire Allstars at Hot August Blues. The Spitfires include Josh Scheps on drum, Rick Hagman on bass and Mike Kavanaugh on guitar (wearing shorts). Three featured Allstars included Daryl Davis on piano, Ron Holloway on sax, and Linwood Taylor on guitar

Andy Poxon Plays the Blues at the Silver Spring Blues Festival

The Andy Poxon Band is a high-energy trio that plays a variety of originals and bluesy covers. The band brings fresh ideas to songs by blues legends such as B.B. King, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Albert King, and Albert Collins, resulting in new, original covers.

[See the Andy Poxon Band at the Silver Spring Blues Festival in Downtown Silver Spring, Saturday, May 22, 2010 www.silverspringblues.com]

Fifteen-year-old guitarist and singer/songwriter Andy Poxon combines youthful enthusiasm and energy with a maturity and intensity of emotion beyond his years. Backed by the solid, steady presence of Russ Wasson on bass and Mike O'Donnell on drums, this trio is developing a real following and is not to be missed!

Andy started playing guitar when he was 9 1/2 years old after he got an electric guitar from his parents for Christmas. Initially, he was in to metal and hard rock, but when his parents took him to hear B.B. King and Joe Bonamassa in 2007, he fell in love with the blues.

Around the same time, he realized that he loved to sing as much as play guitar, and quickly began learning to play and sing as many blues songs as he could. In early 2008, at the prompting of his teacher at the time, Tony Fazio, he played in his first blues jam at the Old Bowie Town Grille, and soon after was playing at other jams in Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia. It was at these jams that he discovered the great joy of playing with other musicians.

The Old Bowie Town Grille played a huge part in helping Andy gig regularly, and gave him his first paid gigs. In July 2008 he started opening for a few local bands, and in August joined his first group, Hot Rods and Old Gas, along with saxophonist Scott Ramminger and members of The Idle Americans. He continues to perform regularly around the DC area; for upcoming performances check his Calendar.

Check out the Andy Poxon Band on http://www.andypoxon.com/fr_home.cfm

Growing List of Sponsors Support 2010 Silver Spring Blues Festival

The Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. is pleased to announce the 2010 sponsors of the Silver Spring Blues Festival in Downtown Silver Spring. We welcome their generous support of our work to provide exciting arts & entertainment programming for the Silver Spring community.

The 2010 Sponsors of the Silver Spring Blues Festival are:

- Dale Music
- DC Blues Society
- Lee Development Group
- PFA Silver Spring LLC
- RCN
- Silver Spring Regional Center
- Silver Spring Voice
- Southern Management Corporation
- WPFW-FM

Mary Shaver Band and the Smokin' Polecats at the Silver Spring Blues Festival

Get ready for Mary Shaver and the Smokin' Polecats at the Silver Spring Blues Festival in Downtown Silver Spring!

Picture this…a five year old with fiery curls that shadow the famous Bonnie Raitt, an artist this girl will one day come to be compared to, pulls out an old ukulele to serenade a family audience at her grandmother's house with “Hello Dolly” – again and again.

The little girl grows up and buys her first record albums. Janis Joplin is a favorite. Later she sees Stevie Nicks in concert and is mesmerized by her sultry vocal delivery. These are the sounds that inspire a teenager's passion for blues and R&B - music with grit and soul.

Mary Shaver has been singing all her life. She is first and foremost a blues artist influenced by the likes of Slim Harpo and Big Mama Thornton. She labels her own style as “Texas, Louisiana and Chicago Blues meets Memphis Soul,” and local critics and musicians have likened her powerful voice to all her idols. But her path as an artist has not been a particularly straight or smooth one.

Her twenties saw Mary's music confined mostly to acoustic jam sessions with friends. (Remember, in addition to six-string guitar, this woman plays a mean ukulele.) Then, in 1989, Mary joined the rock/blues cover band One Thin Dime. They had a few original tunes and opened for some national acts. But as is often the case in the competitive music business, the band members each had day jobs and other interests. They never got around to recording and Mary grew restless.



Priority for her music had to be juggled with the bill-paying necessities and challenges of everyday life. Mary returned to school and now works full-time as a paralegal for a non-profit organization. Yet she has long had the inner awareness that recording was in her future. Her catalyst came in the form of personal maturation and family crisis as Mary's fortieth birthday loomed and her mother was in a near fatal auto accident. In early 1998, Mary found herself making the difficult decision to leave One Thin Dime to create music on her own terms.

She had some savings. She had her talent and her voice. It was time to finally say “yes!” to her driving desire. Over the next 16 months of obtaining rights, gathering musicians and finalizing a varied play list of classic and less covered blues and R&B tunes, Mary, with the help of Nighthawks drummer Pete Ragusa as producer, assembled and cut her first disc, No Time Like Now. It was a long time coming, a labor of patience and love.

The release of her first album raised Mary’s profile on the DC music scene, and built a buzz around her live shows. Regular airplay of No Time on WPFW 89.3 FM, and Wammie nominations for best female blues vocalist followed, along with hard-earned respect from fellow musicians. Tapping this momentum, Mary gathered a group to include guitarist Keith Grimes and drummer Raice McLeod, both original players with the great Eva Cassidy. Since then, the Mary Shaver Band has had steady gigs at blues festivals and favorite local clubs.

Soon the group will move its performance chemistry to the studio. A live album, recorded at Blues Alley, will be followed up with a studio CD where original songs of Mary’s and Keith’s take center stage. No Time Like Now was mostly cover tunes, and since then, Mary has focused on her songwriting – a crucial component to shaping her voice as an artist. Mary’s evolution is also evident in her broadened scope of genres – soul, R&B, hints of jazz – new directions first nurtured by Pete Ragusa, and later Keith, who introduced her to Stax Records material.

Music is an all consuming passion for Mary, evident in her hectic schedule. When not playing with MSB, Mary can often be found belting out old-school blues with Dave Sherman (guitar) and Roger Edsall (harmonica), a pair she’s known since 1999. They are blues purists, whose emotionally raw rhythms draw out much of the very best in Mary’s vocals. Mary has also joined forces with Cindy Cain and Janine Wilson as Les Tomates Chaudes / The Hot Tomatoes, an all-girl blues power trio that delivers the goods on such classics as Etta James’ “I Prefer You.” And yes, it is a mystery where the hell she finds the time.

Born and raised in Prince George's County, Mary still calls Maryland home and has a special affection for local audiences and outdoor venues. To see her play live is to truly experience Mary's music. With complete focus she becomes, in her own words, “entranced. All I know at that moment is what I'm singing." For her growing following of fans, that moment sounds just perfect.

http://www.maryshaverband.com/audio/home.html

Mary Shaver is coming to Silver Spring. Check her out on Saturday, May 22, 2010 at the Silver Fountain on Ellsworth Street.

For more information, visit the Festival website at www.silverspringblues.com

Daryl Davis at the Silver Spring Blues Festival

Silver Spring’s Daryl Davis—keyboardist, vocalist, guitarist extraordinaire—will perform at this year’s Silver Spring Blues Festival, Saturday, May 22, 2010 in Downtown Silver Spring.

1n 1985, Pinetop Perkins, considered to be one of the greatest Blues and Boogie pianists, selected 27-year-old Daryl Davis to succeed him in the piano and vocal slot in the Legendary Blues Band. The late and legendary pianist Johnnie Johnson praised Daryl’s ability to master with authenticity, a piano style that was popular 50 years before he was born. Both pianists claimed Daryl as their godson.

As a performer, in addition to his own Daryl Davis Band, he has worked with countless greats including Elvis Presley’s Jordanaires, Chuck Berry, The Legendary Blues Band (formerly the Muddy Waters Blues Band), Hubert Sumlin, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Platters, Percy Sledge, Wanda Jackson, and many others. Daryl’s CD American Roots, received rave reviews from the two top Blues magazines, Living Blues and Blues Revue and received the WAMA (Washington Area Music Association) Award for Best Roots Music Artist as well as the WAMMIE for Best Blues Instrumentalist. Daryl has toured nationwide and Europe and just released his second CD, Alternate Routes.

As an actor, Daryl has lent his abilities to stage, big screen and most recently has appeared the critically acclaimed television show, The Wire.

For more information on Daryl Davis, please visit www.DarylDavis.com