North Central Florida Blues Society

A Blues Festival where all the acts play Blues!

The North Central Florida Blues Society is starting an all-day Blues Festival with Heartwood Soundstage in Gainesville on September 19, and it will be exciting!

The lineup for the inaugural North Central Florida Blues Festival includes many award-winning acts: Doug MacLeod, EG Kight, Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones, Sheba the Mississippi Queen & the Bluesmen, the Josh Miller Blues Revue, JC and the Backscratchers, JW Gilmore, and Dr. Jules’ Cool Blues, providing a mix of national touring acts and Florida Blues favorites.

One aspect that sets this Blues Festival apart is that four acts will play the outdoor stage at Heartwood Soundstage, and four acts play inside the famous Heartwood Soundstage listening room, alternating sets so no one needs to miss a single note! Doors open at 2, the music starts at 3 pm, and eight fantastic Blues acts play until 10:45.

General Admission & VIP Tickets Available at

https://www.heartwoodsoundstage.com/shows/north-central-florida-blues-festival-19-sep

If you are getting advance tickets (please do) and you are an NCFBS member, please reach out to the Society for the discount code.

Here’s why live Blues music is so good: the performer is channeling REAL authentic emotion to the audience in real time, so everyone can truly feel something. Blues music is the truth – it deals with real-life things that people can relate to – transcending hard times, broken hearts, and reminding you that you are not alone.

So, the opportunity to see eight quality acts, all playing BLUES music, being respectful to the genre and creating something REAL right in front of you is something not to miss, and the North Central Florida Blues Society and Heartwood Soundstage are bringing performers that you are really going to enjoy.

This is not just a festival. I’m asking you to be there for the beginning of something. Something that is really good for music lovers in Gainesville, Alachua County, and all of Florida, and an event that we can be proud of.

 

Sheba the Mississippi Queen and Dr. Jules’ Cool Blues will be performing a free show at the A. Quinn Jones Museum & Cultural Center (1013 NW 7th Ave, Gainesville, FL) from 7-9 on the Patio.

Sheba was born Martha Booker in Sunflower Mississippi to a sharecropper family, whose father was a gospel singer. As a teenager, she and her twin sister came to South Florida in a migrant’s worker bus. The family started working in the tomatoes, bean fields, and lime groves in Homestead, Florida. Sheba formed a singing group that she named the Grove Girls that would sing in all the fields and on the bus on their way to and from work.

She later moved to New York City to form a band The Swingers, which recorded with New York Jazz Big Bands. Later she restarted her career in Miami, playing Jazz in supper clubs, but returned to her Blues Roots with the band Sheba and The Rhythm Kings.

She formed the band Sheba the Mississippi Queen & the Bluesman in 2018, and were International Blues Challenge semifinalists in 2019. Sheba’s influences are Billy Holiday, Etta James, Tina Turner, Aretha, and Big Mama Thornton. Blues Festivals that she has performed in include Springing the Blues, the Coral Gables Blues Festival, and the Long Island Blues Festival. She will, as will as Dr. Jules, also be a part of the inaugural North Central Florida Blues Festival later in September.

Dr Jules spent almost 30 years in academia as a graduate student and faculty member. 20 of those years were spent as a Historical Linguist at the University of Florida. He brings this same interest in history to music, and the result has been his affection for the Blues as well as his desire to preserve and promote the Blues. As a singer-songwriter-musician, his output to date has produced several CDs worth of original material, with a new project to be completed soon.  Keith Caton will join Dr. Jules and Sheba on guitar for this special performance.

The A. Quinn Jones Museum & Cultural Center, housed in the former Jones Family home at 1013 NW 7th Avenue in Gainesville, serves as a tribute to one of the most influential educators in the history of Alachua County. The Museum features a permanent exhibit on “Prof” Jones, the people and places of the Fifth Avenue/Pleasant Street neighborhood, and houses a collection of oral histories centering on the African-American experience in Gainesville. The rest of the space houses rotating exhibits.

This event is part of our series featuring local and regional Blues artists.  We hope you find it entertaining and informative.

The North Central Florida Blues Society is an affiliate of the Blues Foundation, which holds the International Blues Challenge every year in Memphis. As an affiliate, the North Central Florida Blues Society holds a regional competition, which allows for a winning band, solo/duo, and self-produced CD to compete as a representative of the North Central Florida region in the IBC in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee in the Beale Street Historic District.

The 2026 Regional Blues Challenge for the NCFBS will be held on Sunday, October 11 at Heartwood Soundstage in Gainesville, FL.

The NCFBS has been represented in Memphis since 2008. Four different NCFBS acts have advanced to the Semifinals. 21 Blue and Sauce Boss made the Finals for Best Self-Produced CD. Which acts will be next? Who will take the prize and represent North Central Florida?

Support your favorite Blues artist or discover your new favorite!

Registration deadline is September 19, so do not miss out on this opportunity!  Please contact rob@ncfblues.org for rules and questions, and clarify if you need rules for solo/duo (1-2 performers), band (3 or more performers), or Self-Produced CD.

The categories the acts  for solo/duo and band will be judged on (set by the Blues Foundation in Memphis) are:

Blues Content, Originality, Vocals, Instrumental Talent, and Stage Presence.

Blues Content is the highest weighted category, followed by Originality.

The 2026 annual meeting/members appreciation party for the North Central Florida Blues Society will be on Sunday, September 20 and will be held at Creeks 19th at the Turkey Creek Golf Course (11400 Turkey Creek Blvd, Alachua, FL 32615).

This is to thank everyone for your support of the North Central Florida Blues Society -We’d love to have you get together with us – members can enjoy some delicious food and CD giveaways, and elect our Board of Directors. We will also be showing videos of some of the fantastic concerts we’ve been having.

It’s a perfect time to renew your membership or join for the first time! Event is from 3-5.