Opener: Joe Johnson & the Bluebacks
Joe Johnson and the Bluebacks is a West Michigan based blues band playing high energy Chicago Blues and blues-rock music. The four members consist of Joe on guitar and vocals, Dave on bass guitar, Greg on drums, and Scotty on guitar and harmonica. The band was born from Joe's passion for the blues, and desire to play live. Blues music is our main focus, but we've been known to throw curve balls all the time playing rock, funk, and even country songs from time to time. JJBB is the most recent West Michigan Blues Society's International Blues Challenge winner and recently competed nationally in Memphis, Tennessee as the West Michigan regional winner. During the national competition, the band finished in the top 25 as a semi-finalist out of hundreds of bands that performed from across the country and beyond. Joe Johnson & the Bluebacks are extremely proud to call West Michigan home and are excited to share our vision of the blues with you!
Headline: King Solomon Hicks
Solomon Hicks aka King Solomon Hicks the 28-year-old guitar phenom from New York City [Guitarist, Vocalist and Composer] He invested in music from a very young age, started playing guitar at six years old. Growing up in Harlem he was constantly surrounded by music. Solomon witnessed performances that made a significant impact on his ambitions as a musician and he says: “When you’re around good musicians, it gives you that spark . “Being around those types of musicians also taught me to NOT be the fastest guitar player I wanted to be the one who knew the most riffs and drew on a lot of knowledge so I could play anything and with anyone. Solomon won the 2021 Blues Music Awards for Best Emerging Artist for his 2020 CD release, Harlem on Provogue Records. The set, produced/recorded by multiple Grammy Award winner Kirk Yano (Miles Davis, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey), showcases Hicks as a writer, player and interpreter. He was WXPN’s “Artist To Watch” for August 2020 , His original song “421 South Main” made the Top 20 Blues songs of 2020 on Spotify and the song “What the Devil Loves” still gets spins on “Sirrus Bluesville” Radio. Has performed on KISS Kruise V, Joe Bonamassa’s Blues Alive at Sea [2017 & 2019]. He's shared stages with Buddy Guy, Samantha Fish, Tony Bennett, Jeff Beck, Ringo Starr, Jimmie Vaughn, Beth Hart, Mavis Staples, Robert Cray, Eric
Gales, Norman Nardini and many others. He is a member of the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Solomon has been Judge the IBC's in Memphis [International Blues Challenge] being a supporter of young Musicians and The Blues Foundation. He paid his own success forward by teaching music for the Children's Aid
Society, working with the Harlem Arts Alliance and the New York City Jazzmobile. Solomon will have a New Record released in 2024 on Provogue/Mascot Records.
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