January 6, 2009
Welcome to the New Year 2009. We are all looking to make this the best musical year ever. 2008 gave us so many live events and fest and we know that 2009 will be even larger and better. How about the Lehigh Valley River Blues Fest, Pocono Blues Fest, Musikfest, and so many others that I hope I will have listed below as the year goes on. We have seen some music venues end and we see some new ones coming and some old ones changing or updating. Many of the old bands and friends will be back, some the same and others changing, while many new titles will be out there for us to listen to and enjoy. As I have said so many times before, all you have to do is Get Off the Couch, turn off the Boob Tube and join your friends dancing and listening to the many great live musicians that were are blessed with, and the opportunity to be able to enjoy in the Lehigh Valley. Happy New Year 2009.
The local Clubs are doing their
best to offer you enjoyable venues to come out and hear LIVE music. These are great LIVE performances, not the
same reconstituted recordings that you listen to each day on your player or
radio, but LIVE presentations just for you.
Being Scottish I have said before “I am not concerned about what it costs for a Dram, but we will go to war over the price of barley”.
Below is a list of just some of
the entertainers and venues that are offering you the chance to listen to great
Live Music. If it is not LIVE music,
it’s dead.
01/04/2008 The Lehigh Valley Blues Network’s
Sunday Jam is now located at the Salisbury Fire Company Social Hall, 1226
Marlow Street, Allentown, Pa. They
invite everyone to come Sundays at 7 PM for Live Music and Friends. Check The Lehigh Valley Blues Network’s
site to make sure of the jam schedule.
Phil Stahl
has an Open Mic at the Candlewyck Lounge.
01/05/2008 The Wildflower Café has an open Mic.
01/06/2008 The
Leather Corner Post Bar & Grill Jam with Glenn Wasserman & Friends. The Wildflower Café has and
open Mic. The Dynamic Duo is
at Magnolia Vineyards.
01/07/2008 Todd
Wolfe & Friends are Jamming at Pearly Bakers Ale House,
The
Ravens Nest their Jam hosted by Don Mayer.
There is an Open Mic at the Sterling Hotel
and Open Mic at the Bally Inn (More of an Acoustic thing) hosted by Steve
Walker. Phil Stahl has an open Mic at
the Geryville Publick House and Jazz (JAZZ Music) is at Starfish Brasseri. The Wildflower Café, they
morphing their bi-weekly Jazz based Open Mic into a Jazz Workshop with the aid
of Steve Rosati and Jeff Beck. The Dynamic Duo is at the Vintage
Restaurant.
01/08/2008 The Jam at Pitcher’s with your host The Sarah Ayers Band. The Open Mic at Grumpy’s hosted by Mat Roman. Spencer Reed or Jesse Green Host the Jam at The Deer Head Inn. The Rising Sun
Blues Jam hosted by Rollin the
Dice. Open Mike with Phil Stahl at The Pub On Main and there is
an open Mic at Porters Pub.
Scott
Marshall With the Hillbilly Souls are at Jelly Beans and AJ Silverberg
is at the Funhouse. Scott
McDaniels is at the Leather
Corner Post.
01/09/2009 Sarah Ayers
is at Riegelsville
Inn and The Groove
Dawgs are at the Maingate. The Mississippi
Pig Farmers are at Grumpy’s and Steve Brosky and Jimmy Meyer are at Rookie’s. Bluzin is a Stefano’s
Sicilian Grill and Leechboy
is at the Hawthorn House. Nite Flyte
is at the Top Dinner and She Said Sunday
is at the Pig Pen. Mary Hawkins
is at the Red Lion and Dave Mell is
at Moselem Springs. Dropin Trou is at
the Leather
Corner Post and The
Dirty Blonds are at De Vinci’s Pub.
01/10/2009 Sarah Ayers is at the Mezza Luna and Rayz N Kayn is at Braveheart. The Aardvarks are at Pitchers and Leechboy is at Conway’s. Nite Flyte is at the Top Dinner and Scott Mckenna is at Paddy’s. Midnight Shift is at the Center Valley Tavern and Scott Marshall With the Hillbilly Souls are at The Widows Tavern. Indecision is at the Pub on Main and Elvis Davy J is at Grumpy’s. Blyss is at the Riegelsville Inn and Flash Light Annie is at the Riverside Bar & Grill*. Bluzin is at the Summit Bar & Grill and Rum Runners are at Leather Corner Post.
If you are looking to see and
hear great Blues music, that is not necessarily with an established band. Just music that comes from the heart and
preformed, by players who want to do their best to please you, and a place you
might find a future Blues Star. One of
our local blues jams might be your answer.
Here are a Few.
Sunday: LVBN is Jam, at the Salisbury Fire Company 7-10
and the open Mic at Godfrey Daniels.
Phil Stahl Open Mic at Candlewyck Lounge, Mountain Jam at Blue Mountain
Summit, Sebastiano's 2-7 (RT57, NJ), John & Peters .
Monday: The Funhouse Open Jam every other week, The Wildflower Café.
Tuesday: The Leather Corner Post, Fossils Last Stand (1st & 3rd), The Wildflower Café, Havana’s, Ship Inn (Milford NJ), Washington House the 4th Tuesday of the month.
Wednesday: Ravens
Nest, Todd Wolfe & Friends’ Jam at Pearly Baker’s Alehouse, Open Mike at the Sterling Hotel and Open Mic
at the Pa. Roadhouse, Open Mic with Phil Stahl at the Buckeye Tavern, Leechboy
is at the Leather Corner Post, Puck Live, Open Mic at the Bally Inn and Pub,
Godfrey Daniels the last Wednesday of the month.
Thursday: Grumpy’s,
Pitchers, The Deer Head Inn, Porters Pub, Stanhope House, Phil Stahl has an open Mic at the Pub on Main.
As they say at the Rum Boogie Café; “Eat, Drink, Boogie, Repeat”.
The Music is there for you, all you have to do is go and enjoy it.
If you want to see some of the fun from the past area, jams check out: JB’s Jamerama
Always check http://www.hayblue.com & News and Notes for updates.
Looking for some other things to do in the Lehigh Valley area? Check out;
Real Rock for Rockabilly in the area http://realrock.5u.com/
The Blues Collaborative http://www.bluescollaborative.com/bc_schedule.html
The off the Couch Gang http://www.offthecouchgang.com/
Another location to check out is www.somethingeye8.com
The Low Country Blues Bash February 6th – 16th 2009 http://www.bluesbash.com/
Acoustic Blues Festival February 28th 2009 http://www.columbusblues.com/TF.htm
River City Blues Fest March 20th, 21st 2009 http://www.bjfm.org/Templates/festival.htm
The Berks Jazz Fest- March 27th thru April 5th 2009 www.berksjazzfest.com
The Ravens Nest Annual Blues Fest – March 2009 215-536-5369
Tampa Bay Blues Fest March 20th, 21st,
22nd 2009 http://www.tampabaybluesfest.com/
SOME KIND OF JAM 2 April 24th – 26th 2009 http://www.jibberjazz.com/
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival- April 24th – 26th, April 30th - May 3rd 2009 http://www.nojazzfest.com/
Carolina Blues Fest May 2nd 2009 http://www.piedmontblues.org/
Beale Street Music Festival May 1st,
2nd, 3rd, 2009 http://memphisinmay.org/bsmf.htm
Riverfusion May 3rd 2009 http://www.illicksmill.org
Simply The Blues Fest May 8th, 9th 2009 http://simplemanenterprises.com/stb.htm
Joshua Tree Music Fest May 15th thru 17th 2009 http://www.joshuatreemusicfestival.com/
Blues Fest & Mustang / Muscle Car Rally May 30th 2009 http://www.spyglassridgewinery.com/events.htm
Red Bank Jazz and Blues Fest- June 5th, 6th, 7th 2009 http://redbankfestival.com/
Western Maryland Blues Fest- May 28th, 29th, 31st 2009 http://www.blues-fest.org
The Crawfish Fest- May 29th, 30th, 31st 2009 www.crawfishfest.com
State Street Blues Festival June 13th 2009 http://www.statestreetblues.com
The Chicago Blues Fest June 12th thru June 14th 2009 http://egov.cityofchicago.org
The Billtown Blues Festival June 14th 2009 http://www.billtownblues.org
Lehigh River Blues Jam June 19th, 20th, 21st 2009 http://lehighriverbluesjam.com/
The NEARfest- June 20th, 21st 2009 http://www.nearfest.com/
National Capital Barbecue Battle June 27th, 28th 2009 http://www.bbqusa.us/
Great Pa. Wine and Food Fest June 13th, 14th 2009 http://www.splitrockresort.com/winefest/index.php
Briggs Farm Blues Festival July 10th & 11th 2009 http://www.briggsfarm.com/
Carolina Festival of Discovery July 9th, 10th 2009 http://www.uptowngreenwood.com/Events_FestivalofDiscovery.aspx