DAVINA AND THE VAGABONDS

Davina and The Vagabonds are known in The Twin Cities, Minnesota as being the busiest band in town because of their hard-working professionalism, high-energy stage performance and original sound. Averaging more than 300 performance dates a year, DATV has shared the stage with such notable musicians as Pinetop Perkins, Aaron Neville, Los Lonely Boys, Scottie "Bones" Miller and more. They are winners of the "2009 Road To Memphis MM" award, 2009 "King of Beale Street" award and were finalists in the 2010 International Songwriting Competition.

TINSLEY ELLIS

Hard-rocking blues-soaked guitarist/vocalist/song-writer Tinsley Ellis sings and plays with the energy and soul of all the great Southern musicians who have come before him. Ellis attacks his music with rock power and blues feeling, following in the tradition of Deep South musical heroes Duane Allman, Freddie King, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes. Live shows feature extended fretwork filled with melodic & rhythmic experimentation, in the spirit of jam bands as his friends Widespread Panic and The Allman Brothers.

Friday's Headliner

RONNIE BAKER BROOKS

Chicago's own guitar hero Ronnie Baker Brooks, on tour with his third release, "The Torch," sings with soulful fire and plays with a white-hot intensity, as though he's carrying the torch from the previous generation of soul and blues greats and moving the music into the future. The son of blues great Lonnie Brooks, he came of age watching the fieriest guitar players and most soulful singers of a previous era express their deepest feelings through their music.

MIKE MILLIGAN AND STEAM SHOVEL

Kokomo, Ind., native Mike Milligan grew up listening to his father's soul-rock bands. As a boy, he traveled with them and The Drifters in the mid 1970s throughout the southern United States. At age 5, he recieved his first guitar; by age 10, he bought his first electic guitar with money he earned from his paper route. Today, his vocals and guitar performances have been called "gritty and soulful." He first performed with Steam Shovel in the summer of 1993, naming the band after his favorite children's book, "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel," by Virginia Lee Burton.

RAY FULLER AND THE BLUESROCKERS

Ray Fuller's talent as a singer and guitarist has allowed him to share the stage with many blues giants including Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and so many more. John Lee Hooker was so impressed with the band and their performance that he took the Bluesrockers and his own band out to dinner and picked up the tab! These opportunities to hang out and learn at the feet of the masters were not wasted on young Ray, as he paid close attention to every pearl of wisdom and every nasty riff and blues lick generously shown to him. Since then Ray Fuller and the Bluesrockers have been performing their brand of low-down, gutsy blues and red-hot rock 'n' roll for years, leaving a trail of scorched stages and satisfied fans from Michigan to Florida, and from California to New York State.

V-GROOVE

Since 1998, V-Groove has established itself as one of the premiere bands in the Ohio Valley area. Their performances show fluency and versatility in the genres of roots music: blues, soul, R&B, funk, and rock. V-Groove is hard to define due to this diversity. The band plays regularly at Louisville venues, such as Stevie Ray’s and Gerstle’s.

BIG BILL MORGANFIELD

He is about as close to blues royalty as one can get – the son of the inimitable McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters – Bill Morganfield has emerged in the past few years as one of the top young blues talents in America. Bill has played all over the world in the past 11 years, bringing pure joy to those who have had the pleasure of seeing his live performance. Morganfield was a late-bloomer – he didn't take up the challenge of following in his father's footsteps until several years after his dad passed away in 1983. He spent six years teaching himself to play the guitar and continues as a student of blues styles of the past.

SUGAR RAY AND THE BLUETONES

Sugar Ray Norcia started to play his harmonica-based blues in high school, later forming the Bluetones, which became the house band at a Providence, R.I., nightclub. Eventually, they backed touring acts, such as Big Walter Horton, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner and Roosevelt Sykes in nearby clubs. Also former frontman for Roomful of Blues, he and his Bluetones came into their own in the 1980s and have released seven albums. Norcia has contributed to recordings by Pinetop Perkins and Doug James, has released solo albums and also tours with Sugar Ray Norcia's Big Band.

Saturday's Headliner

Born in 1936 as George Guy, Buddy is a critically acclaimed, legendary blues guitarist and singer. He is s a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation. Buddy is known, too, for his showmanship on stage, playing his guitar with drumsticks, or strolling into the audience while playing solos. He is ranked No. 30 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and his song "Stone Crazy" ranked No. 78 in a list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time," also published by Rolling Stone magazine.

As New York Times music critic Jon Pareles noted in 2004: "Mr. Guy, 68, mingles anarchy, virtuosity, deep blues and hammy shtick in ways that keep all eyes on him... [Guy] loves extremes: sudden drops from loud to soft, or a sweet, sustained guitar solo followed by a jolt of speed, or a high, imploring vocal cut off with a rasp...Whether he's singing with gentle menace or bending new curves into a blue note, he is a master of tension and release, and his every wayward impulse was riveting."

Guy's pathfinding guitar techniques also contributed greatly to rock 'n' roll music. Guy’s guitar playing was loud and aggressive; used pioneering distortion and feedback techniques; employed longer solos; had shifts of volume and texture; and was driven by emotion and impulse. These lessons were eagerly learned and applied by the new wave of 1960s British artists and later became basic attributes of blues-rock music and its offspring, hard rock and heavy metal music.