David Grisman and The Giving Tree Band,
performing during prime time at the
Chicago Blue Grass and Blues Festival,
three counting Grisman's axman Frank Vignola
(ours and Les Paul's favorite guitarist).
Interviews are available now and on location.
Press list is open for media wishing to attend,
press rooms available for Grisman, TGTB, Avetts...
INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS DEFY GENRES AND STRIKE A CHORD FOR CHARITY WITH THE INAUGURAL CHICAGO BLUEGRASS & BLUES FESTIVAL
Chicago, IL - The Congress Theater, in conjunction with newly-formed KingTello Presents, is proud to announce the inaugural Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival (cbgbfestival.com) . While rooted in the foot-stomping influences of bluegrass and blues, the Festival will transport the concertgoer through the genre-defying evolution of music today. The one-day event, held on Saturday, November 22nd from Noon to Midnight, will serve as a tribute to two schools of music that continue to shape and inspire contemporary rock, jamband, funk, folk, roots, Americana, and indie cultures.
Against the backdrop of an official Chicago landmark and one of the last of the classic "movie palaces," fans will be treated to a party with a purpose, featuring 2 stages and 16+ bands for less than the typical price of the headliners alone. "Newgrass" legend and longtime Jerry Garcia collaborator David Grisman and his David Grisman Quintet will be sharing the headlining duties with surging festival sensations The Avett Brothers and their massive following of rowdy devotees. The Avett Brothers have recently teamed up with legendary producer Rick Rubin, and signed with American/Columbia Records, home of Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, and The Black Crowes. Special "balcony performances" from The Giving Tree Band have been added to the headlining extravaganza.
Tickets for the festival go on sale on at an early-bird price of $31 this week through the event’s website (cbgbfestival.com), ticketmaster.com, and frontgatetickets.com.
The Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Fest will offer a musical reprieve from the merciless Chicago Winter by adapting elements of a summer music festival to the historic and intimate indoor setting. The Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Fest stands alone as the only music festival experience offered during the otherwise depressing Chicago winter. In addition to 12 hours of 2 stages worth of nonstop music, the day’s activities will also include a pickin’ circle, Chicago’s largest live-art exhibition and indoor gallery, charitable raffles, an improv comedy showcase, and one of the Midwest’s leading alternative DJs.
The main stage will feature the co-headliners, as well as festival favorites Ha Ha Tonka, Chicago Blues giant Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, Chicago alt-country mainstays Dollar Store and Majors Junction, and country’s Next Big Star Competition winner Billy Childers. The participation of artists from both Alligator Records and Bloodshot Records marks a rare collaboration between two independent Chicago labels universally considered leaders in their respective genres.
The opening spot on the main stage will feature the winner of "LAST BANJO STANDING," an online contest that will scour Chicagoland to find the top bluegrass/blues artist.
The Pavilion Stage will feature some of the best musicians from the local Chicago music scene, as well as Nashville bluegrass veterans including Blue Mother Tupelo, Blackdog, How Far to Austin, Mike Mangione, Cobalt & the Hired Guns, Lindsey O’Brien & Friends, Jessica Lee, and Blue Room Hero.
And while the festival will serve to break a band or two, festivalgoers will get to save a heart. A portion of each $31 ticket will be donated to the Saving Tiny Hearts Society (www.savingtinyhearts.org), a non-profit organization that raises money for grossly under-funded, crucial, life-saving research of congenital heart defects (CHD), America’s #1 birth defect. Nearly one of every 125 babies born in America each year is affected by a Congenital Heart Defect.
CHICAGO’S MOST POPULAR ROCK CLUB HOPS ON BOARD TO KEEP CBGB FESTIVAL PICKIN’ INTO THE NIGHT
FRESH OFF ANOTHER FIRST PLACE FINISH AT THE CHICAGO MUSIC AWARDS, ELBO ROOM TO HOST OFFICIAL CHICAGO BLUEGRASS & BLUES FESTIVAL AFTER-PARTY
Chicago, IL - Seven nights a week, for longer than most of us have been alive, the Elbo Room has been offering up two floors of laid-back drinking and delightfully schizophrenic live music. With numerous "Most Popular Rock Club" titles under its belt at the annual Chicago Music Awards, the most recent coming this year, it was a natural choice for the CBGB Festival’s official after-party revelry.
So after a day full of raucous rockabilly, roots, bluegrass, blues, and foot-stompin’ indie music over at the Congress Theater on November 22nd, the CBGB Fest crowd will descend upon the Elbo Room as night turns into early morning.
From Midnight to 3am, the Elbo Room stage will host an assortment of Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival performers to remain nameless until the day of the show. So call your friends who were at the show to find out what you’re in for, or show up to the Elbo Room with a few drinks under your belt and an open mind.
While CBGB Festivalgoers will be able to use their ticket for free after-party entry, all music and drinking lovers are encouraged to attend and pay the standard Elbo Room cover charge.
SAVING TINY HEARTS SOCIETY PROVIDING THE HEART BEAT BEHIND INAUGURAL CHICAGO BLUEGRASS & BLUES FESTIVAL
Charity Integral in Planning Chicago’s Largest Independent Music Event
Chicago, IL - It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The holiday season Brian and Tracy Mazzei had envisioned for 2005 didn’t take place in a hospital. Yet here they were, with their infant son Trevor about to undergo heart surgery.
Tracy had initially taken Trevor for a routine examination when he was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect known as Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return (TAPVR), a condition that prevents the body from receiving proper blood circulation.
"I was in total disbelief," Tracy admits. Trevor would be spending his first Christmas in a hospital bed.
The saving grace for the Mazzei family resided in the capabilities of modern medicine. TAPVR is a treatable condition.
Under the expert care of the Children’s Memorial Hospital staff, and with his family close by, Trevor endured a successful surgery.
Nearly three years later, Trevor is a happy and healthy toddler. The story doesn’t end here, however.
The Mazzeis have become dedicated members of the Saving tiny Hearts Foundation, a volunteer organization that raises funds for congenital heart defect research.
This fall, funds will be generated for the foundation via the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival (www.cbgbfestival.com). The idea for the fest hatched out of Brian’s love of music.
To help get the wheels rolling, Brian called upon Mike Mulcahy, an old friend and former college band mate, and local producer Mike Raspatello. After one conference call and a couple of beers, the idea for Chicago’s largest independent music event was hatched, and within weeks the Congress Theater was on board to make it a reality.
Mulcahy’s current band, Majors Junction, is one of 16 groups on the bill, excited to join the Avett Brothers, David Grisman, Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, Ha Ha Tonka, Dollar Store, and Billy Childers on the historic Main Stage.
And in the end, a portion of each ticket will be donated to the Saving tiny Hearts Foundation, in addition to awareness-building activities that will go on throughout the event.
Meanwhile, the Mazzeis still marvel at their son’s courage and the delicate care bestowed upon him.
"It is my hope that all children with congenital heart defects will be able to obtain the same quality of care," Tracy explains. "With continued research, no parent will have to hear that their child’s heart defect is not fixable."
A portion of each $31 ticket will be donated to the Saving tiny Hearts Society (www.savingtinyhearts.org).
TWO GREAT TASTES, TASTE GREAT TOGETHER: FAMED CHICAGO INDIE LABELS JOIN FORCES TO HELP INJECT SECOND CITY’S FINEST INTO INAUGURAL CHICAGO BLUEGRASS & BLUES FESTIVAL
Chicago, IL- It’s almost a given that the assortment of music at the Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival will go together like biscuits and gravy this November 22nd.
"The variety of bluegrass, blues, roots rock, and indie acts we put together for the CBGB Fest makes sense for me as a fan and a Chicagoan. I’ve met very few folks here that aren’t looking for some range when they go out to catch a show," says Mike Raspatello, the festival’s founder and organizer.
When you add two Chicago-based record industry powerhouses, pivotal in cooking up the very cultures that embody the event itself, it seems like a classic recipe.
Blues label Alligator Records and roots-rock label Bloodshot Records are sharing a bill for the first time this fall at the Congress Theater, teaming up to bring some homegrown legitimacy to the young festival.
"Surprisingly," admits Raspatello, "it’s rare to find a one-day festival with this much to offer by way of variety and Chicago flavor. Nevertheless, without the scene’s more influential Blues and Roots music labels on board it just wouldn’t have been kosher in my book."
Bloodshot will be adding Lollapalooza standouts Ha Ha Tonka and Waco Brothers-offshoot Dollar Store to a stacked bill co-headlined by The David Grisman Quintet and The Avett Brothers. Alligator will throw Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials into the mix to make sure classic Chicago Blues are represented on festival’s main stage.
Nan Warshaw, co-owner of Bloodshot Records since its inception in 1994, admits that this truly independent festival immediately intrigued her.
"Chicago has the best indie music scene of any city in the world," she says. "A festival like CBGB, and a label like Bloodshot, can thrive here."
The seeds were sown for collaboration between the record labels when Heather West, Bloodshot’s publicist, advised the CBGB producers to contact Tim Kolleth, her contemporary at Alligator. Since 1971, Alligator has released more than 250 blues and blues/rock albums.
"We suggested Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials to play CBGB," says Tim Kolleth, Director of Radio Promotion at Alligator. "In my opinion, they are one of the greatest live bands in the city."
Aside from creating what Tim predicts, "a fun and unique live experience at a legendary venue," both labels are in it for the charity. A portion of all proceeds will be donated to the Saving Tiny Hearts Society.
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