Check out the amazing performers for 2008!

Headliners:
      • Watermelon Slim & The Workers
      • Roomful of Blues
      • Jimmy Bowskill
      • Gary Clark Jr.
      • Julian Fauth
      • Georgette Fry

In The Clubs:
Coming Soon!
 

Headliner Bios:

Watermelon Slim & The Workers
Born in Boston, Mass., and raised in North Carolina, Bill “Watermelon Slim” Homans has taken his blues all over the USA, Europe, and Southeast Asia. During a career spanning over 30 yrs, Watermelon Slim has played with the late Henry “Sunflower” Vestine of Canned Heat, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray and the late John Lee Hooker.

Watermelon Slim garnered a record-tying six 2007 Blues Music Award nominations for Artist, Entertainer, Album, Band, Song, and Traditional Album of the Year. Only the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray have ever landed six.

Slim was born in Boston and raised in North Carolina listening to his maid sing John Lee Hooker and other blues songs around the house. His father was a progressive attorney and ex-freedom rider and his brother is now a classical musician. Slim dropped out of Middlebury College to enlist for Vietnam. While laid up in a Vietnam hospital bed he taught himself upside-down left-handed slide guitar on a $5 balsawood model using a triangle pick cut from a rusty coffee can top and his Army issued Zippo lighter as the slide.

In the following 30 plus years Slim has been a truck driver, forklift operator, sawmiller (where he lost part of his finger), firewood salesman, collection agent, and even officiated funerals. At times he got by as a small time criminal. At one point he was forced to flee Boston where he played peace rallies, sit-ins and rabbleroused musically with the likes of Bonnie Raitt. He ended up farming watermelons in Oklahoma hence his stage name and current home base.

Now joined by veteran players, Michael Newberry- drums, Ronnie Mack- guitar, Cliff Belcher- bass, the Watermelon Slim & The Workers is quickly becoming the most talked about blues band today.
www.watermelonslim.com

Roomful of Blues
Roomful of Blues, according to Down Beat magazine, "is in a class by themselves." With their masterful combination of jumping, horn-heavy, hard-edged blues and R&B, it's no wonder why the great Count Basie called them "the hottest blues band I've ever heard."

Since 1967, the group's deeply rooted blend of swing, rock 'n' roll, jump, blues and soul has earned it five Grammy Award nominations and a slew of other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards (with the nod for Blues Band Of The Year in 2005).

Roomful of Blues was born in Westerly, Rhode Island in 1967 when guitarist Duke Robillard and keyboardist Al Copley started a band that played tough, no-holds-barred Chicago blues. They soon began exploring the swinging, jumping blues, R&B and jazz of the 1940s and 1950s, and added a horn section (including Rich Lataille) in 1970.

The band's ability to ignite a sedate crowd into a dancing frenzy solidified their reputation as the best "little big band" in New England and expanded their following into New York and Washington. In 1974, they performed with Count Basie, and a few years later legendary songwriter Doc Pomus helped them land their first record deal. In 1977, Roomful of Blues' self-titled debut album on Island Records (recently reissued on Hyena Records) brought them to the attention of fans and critics from coast to coast.

Over the years there have been at least 46 Roomful of Blues members, each bringing his or her own unique talent and vision to the mix
www.roomful.com

Jimmy Bowskill
Seventeen year old Jimmy was discovered playing guitar in front of Jeff Healey's Club in Toronto at age 11 and was invited to the stage that night for the first time by Healey. He went on to record his 1st CD shortly after strongly supported by the Toronto Blues community. His second release a year later got the nod for a Juno nomination his third self-titled CD, released in 2007 has been receiving rave reviews.

Jimmy has had the privilege of opening and sharing the stage with such legends as Dickey Betts, ZZ Top, Jeff Healey, Garth Hudson and Deep Purple. ZZ’s Billy Gibbons took special interest and invited Jimmy to join him for lunch after catching his performance… an honour Jimmy will never forget.
www.jimmybowskill.com

Gary Clark Jr.
Gary Clark Jr., recently named Best Blues Artist at the Austin Music Awards, is one of the most exciting young guitarists in the country. Self-taught, he hit the Texas music scene in 1998 at the age of fourteen, and since has opened for talents such as Gatemouth Brown, Jimmie Vaughan, Bobby Bland and Joe Ely, while steadily building a substantial club following of his own. A singer/songwriter who also plays bass, harmonica and drums, Clark is working on his fourth and most ambitious CD and has begun to write soundtrack music for films. Honeydripper is his first appearance in a movie
www.garyclarkjr.com

Julian Fauth
A superb piano player, guitarist and harpist with a voice that reminds you of the old field holler blacks in the Mississippi Delta, Julian Fauth plays blues, roots and barrelhouse jazz with abandon and “occasional flights of insanity”.

His love for the blues, study of the old masters and constant playing has honed him into one of the best new young artists in the country.

He travelled to Russia in 2002 with David Rotundo (whom he has played with for many years) and Cuba that same year where they were very enthusiastically received. His latest CD ‘Ramblin’ Son was released this year to excellent reviews.
www.julianfauth.com

Georgette Fry
Juno nominated Georgette Fry is an accomplished blues and jazz vocalist from Kingston, Ontario. A veteran of the concert and festival circuit, she receives rave reviews for her live performances. Georgette has been described as a “powerful and expressive singer”.

She has received multiple nominations from Maple Blues Awards for "Female Vocalist of the Year". In January 2004 she received Real Blues Awards for “Best Blues Songwriter”, “Best Blues Release – Female Artist” (Let Me Drive) and Best Canadian Blues Vocalist (Female). In 2006 CBC’s “Saturday Night Blues” awarded her the “Great Canadian Blues Award”. She has also been honoured to be included on the Toronto Blues Society’s album “Women's Blues Revue LIVE” and on CBC’s Saturday Night Blues “20 Year Compilation CD”.
www.georgettefry.ca

In The Clubs Performer Bios:

Coming Soon!