The North Central Florida Blues Society is excited to announce that some of the area’s finest Blues performers will share the High Dive stage on September 12 for the 2nd Annual Gainesville Blues Showcase.
- Little Mike & the Tornadoes
- Reverend Billy C. Wirtz
- Sheba the Mississippi Queen & the Bluesmen
- The Bridget Kelly Band
- JuJu Junction
Little Mike & the Tornadoes is well-known for its flawless, high-energy blues sound, modeled after the great Chicago bands of the ‘50s. Little Mike is a mean harmonica player who cut his teeth in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s, backing up legendary Bluesmen Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, and Jimmy Rogers, among many others. Blues Blast Magazine called their music “old-school Blues delivered the right way by folks who feel it down to the core.”
Reverend Billy C. Wirtz is a comic genius, gifted pianist and American musicologist who defies easy classification. Likely the only person on earth to be mentored by Chicago Blues pianist Sunnyland Slim and also to work with Root Boy Slim, Wirtz has also worked with the famed DC Blues band the Nighthawks for decades.
Inspired by classic and electric Blues, the Gainesville-based Bridget Kelly Band has placed their unique stamp on the Blues genre, with high-energy live performances and a hybrid sound that mixes Texas and Memphis Blues with various southern Blues traditions. The powerful and sultry vocals of singer Bridget Kelly along with the incendiary lead guitar work of Tim Fik forge a signature hybrid sound that combines female urban Blues with riff-driven rockin’ Blues guitar. Also boasting a rock-solid rhythm section, their star continues to shine and rise.
JuJu Junction is an electric Blues Band fronted by guitarist Lothar Weimann, and also boasting drummer Rob Thorne, who was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and also played with Charlotte power pop band The Spongetones for over 30 years. JuJu Junction was a 2018 International Blues Challenge participant. Ju Ju means energy; the experience of positive and negative forces all around us that charge our lives and shape each unique day on this planet.
And we are happy to announce that Sheba the Mississippi Queen & the Bluesmen are also joining the Showcase!
Sheba the Mississippi Queen & the Bluesmen were International Blues Challenge semifinalists. Sheba’s influences are Billy Holiday, Etta James, Tina Turner, Aretha, and Big Mama Thornton, and she has performed at Springing the Blues, the Coral Gables Blues Festival, and the Long Island Blues Festival. The band includes top musicians steeped in the Blues that have played alongside Bo Diddley and other greats.
Tickets are only $10! Advance tickets are available at: https://highdivegainesville.com/events/439434-2nd-annual-gainesville-blues-showcase/
Of course, we’d love to see you there in person! But streaming tickets can be purchased at https://highdivegville.veeps.com/stream/events/b41f7e86-a067-40ae-874c-43658499d993