On March 11, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, and Ally Venable will be performing at the Uptown Theater. The KCBS was asked by two local musicians to try and set up a masterclass with one, two, or all of them. So far, those efforts have not been productive. The Board of Directors discussed this and believe we have enough powerhouse Kansas City musicians who are recognized on the national and international music stages who could also hold a masterclass. So, we are trying to gauge local musicians’ interest if they see value having a masterclass. Some subjects that could be covered are career and life expe ..read more

After winning the KCBS’ challenge in September and doing many fundraising events and performances, Mark Montgomery (Solo category) and Coyote Bill and the Brood (Band category) made it to Beale Street, where they both really shone. A group of faithful supporters and just fun-loving blues fans also traveled to that mecca of music, Beale Street. There were over 150 bands and solo/duo musicians in the challenge from all over the world. We saw bands from Canada, which has the most blues societies registered with the Blues Foundation, Australia, South Korea, Finland, Norway, and the United Kingdom ..read more

You may feel like you’re living Groundhog Day over and over – but here’s a new word search puzzle! How many bluesy words or phrases can you find? Click below to play the word search! (A popup will load ..read more

Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, reflecting the practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the ritual sacrifices and fasting of the Lenten season. This year, Fat Tuesday falls on February 21. We found some boxes of beads and other Mardi Gras party favors, probably left over from when the KCBS did Mardi Gras pub crawls, so we decided to have a party. Join us at the Big Rip Brewing Company, 216 E. 9th Street, North Kansas City, MO, on Tuesday, February 21, for an evening of good clean Mardi Gras fun with music from 7:00-9:00 p.m. There will be creative drink specials and ..read more

2022 was a successful year for the Kansas City Blues Society; we have even bigger plans to expand on those successes in 2023. We greatly appreciate your support throughout the year! Accomplishments Hired a total of 17 bands this year to perform at monthly meetings/jams and other events. Restarted the tradition of sending out a monthly newsletter, which is vital for communicating with the membership and sharing information about events. Held a full year of monthly meetings/jams at different venues. The BOD traveled to Memphis to support our winning local band, Stone Cutters Union, at the IBC ..read more

It’s a new year and a new word search puzzle! How many bluesy words or phrases can you find? Click below to play the word search! (A popup will load ..read more

Guest Author: Mary Certain From the Pinetop Perkins Foundation: We wanted to thank every one of you for being a part of our Pinetop Family and wishing you a healthy, safe and prosperous New Year in 2023! If you’d like to join us for the June 13-17, 2023 Pinetop Perkins Masterclass session in Clarksdale, MS, please set your alarms to register NOW! Spots are limited and go quickly, so you don’t want to miss out! We have sessions in Piano, Harmonica, Electric Guitar, NEW Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar and Drums. Check out the fantastic Instructor line-up at: https://www.pinetopperkinsfoundation.org ..read more

The Strongman Blues Remedy Vol. 1 Artist: Steve Strongman Label: Stony Plain Records Released: 2022 Number of Tracks: 10 Duration: 36:05 Website: https://strongmanbluesremedy.com/ Review by Craig Whittington Same Covid story, over and over. Steve Strongman was shut down by Covid. Don’t let the name fool you, he’s not with the circus, he’s a musician. So he wrote a bunch of songs and brought a bunch a friends into the mix. Canadians, no less. He picked some good’erns, too. Jugglers, lion tamers. None of them are with the circus, as far as I know, but I like the sound of that, so I’m startin ..read more

Guest Author: Michael Shane Smith I subscribed to the KCBS Newsletter and have enjoyed the news and links re the music things going on in the KC area. I saw the mention that submissions were welcome so thought I would share. — Shane Smith   I was 15 years old in the fall of 1970, a junior at Wichita East High School, when I heard that Jimi Hendrix had died in London of drug-related causes.  I couldn’t say that I was a big Hendrix fan at the time though I was certainly aware of his music; everyone was.  Drugs and music and protest against the war were all intertwined and ver ..read more

Good Trouble Artist: Annika Chambers and Paul DesLauriers Label: VizzTone Label Group Released: 2022 Number of Tracks: 11 Duration: 55:51 Website: https://annikaandpaul.com/ Review by Craig Whittington Here’s a couple of blues artists that have both recorded and performed as solo acts and in support of others. Annika may be described as soul/gospel, Paul as blues/rock. They’re probably friends from the road and decided to do an album together. Umm, not exactly. They were briefly introduced to each other at the 2018 IBC. They met again at a recording session in 2019, by August of that year ..read more