(Long Beach, CA) – Returning for its third big year is the New Blues Festival III, Saturday, September 3 and Sunday, September 4, at El Dorado Regional Park, 7550 E. Spring St. in Long Beach, California.
Over thirty top-caliber Southern California-based blues acts will appear simultaneously on both the “Main Stage” and “Golden Groove Stage”. Main Stage performers include: Blues legend Bobby Rush (Saturday’s headliner) and root/rockabilly great Lee Rocker (Sunday’s headliner), plus Christone “KINGFISH” Ingram, Big LLou Johnson, Bobby Cochran, Diana Rein & The Papermoon Gypsys, New Blues Revolution, West Coast Caravan of Allstars, Ray Goren, Downtown Rulers featuring Teddy Lee Hooker + many more. Gates open 10 am, music starts at 10 am each day. Tickets are $30, available now on the website and will also be sold at the gate both days. Special Guest Emcee: Big LLou Johnson, on-air personality at Sirius XM heard daily on the B.B. King’s Bluesville show, also performs on the main stage this year as Big LLou & His Chicago Blues Band.
“The New Blues Festival, now in its third year, honors the thirty-five year tradition of the Long Beach Blues Festival and promotes the future of the blues artform for the next generation,” says William Grisolia, Producer of the New Blues Festival. “The greater southern California community comes together for a weekend of fun in ocean-breezy, shady El Dorado Park to preserve the past and provide for the future evolution of the blues and other popular music. Partnering with the Long Beach Blues Society, the festival provides for music education and “blues in the schools” for children in the greater Long Beach area as well as Los Angeles and Orange counties. Don’t miss it!” New Blues Festival amenities include a huge Vendor Village, Food Court, Beer Garden, and VIP Lounge. Bring the family and settle in amidst the cooling Long Beach ocean breezes! Over 5,000 music lovers of all ages filled El Dorado Park for New Blues Festival II on Labor Day Weekend 2015.
About Some of the Performers at New Blues Festival III
*Returning from last year by popular demand, and performing on the Main Stage both Saturday and Sunday, is teen guitar prodigy Ray Goren, who’s received tremendous media attention since he first picked up the guitar at age eight. Dazzled by his raw, intense live performances, Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich once wrote, “No one rattles the place like Ray Goren.” Saturday it’s the Generation Blues Experience with Ray Goren, consisting of older blues players; Sunday sees Ray Goren & the Soul Fixers, Goren’s “younger band,” onstage.
*Sunday Main Stage headliner, singer/songwriter/guitarist Bobby Cochran, is the nephew of Eddie Cochran (“Summertime Blues”), who first found fame playing with the likes of Steppenwolf, Leon Russell and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He then joined forces with the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, drummer extraordinaire Billy Cobham, Alphonso Johnson, Kenny Gradney (Little Feat) and Dave Garland (Righteous Bros.) to form super-group Bobby And The Midnites. Cochran’s guitar playing has been favorably compared with Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Albert Lee, and Jeff Beck, to name a few.
*Downtown Rulers featuring Teddy Lee Hooker, a SoCal favorite, whose front-man bears the same name as his famous uncle, the late, great John Lee Hooker. Teddy recalls how John Lee baby-sat him while living with his family in Cleveland. “Unbeknownst to him, I would watch him practicing playing guitar in the living room. One day, he got up to use the phone and left his guitar plugged in and I went over and strummed it; it amazed me when these sounds came out of the amp. The next day, John Lee bought me a real acoustic guitar and said, “This is yours; now leave mine alone!”
