Rhino Entertainment has set a November 9, 2010 release date for the Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 concert DVD. The two-disc set will be available on both DVD and Blu-Ray, and features over four hours of performances, artist interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage. The third Crossroads Guitar Festival, an eleven-hour marathon jam, was held on June 26, 2010 at Chicago's Crossroads Park to benefit The Crossroads Centre, the addiction-treatment facility founded by Clapton on the Caribbean island of Antigua in the early-1990s.

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Next week is Jus' Blues Music Awards week in Memphis, Tennessee and this 10th anniversary event promises to be a real liver-quivering three-day span of music and entertainment. The party kicks off on Wednesday night, August 4, 2010 with the "Night of the Living Legends" dinner at the historic Daisy Theater on Beale Street. Held in recognition of the Jus' Blues Music Awards 2010 honorees, the theme of the evening is a tribute to blues great Albert King; among the guests are soul legends Eddie Floyd and William Bell, and blues artists Mable John and Chick Willis.

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Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy was born this day in 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana. Guy's musical career started in the early-1950s, Guy playing with bands on the Baton Rouge, Louisiana blues scene, overcoming a bad case of stage fright to become an onstage presence. The guitarist immigrated to Chicago in 1957 and quickly fell in with some of the best players on the scene, able to hold his own with performers like Muddy Waters and Otis Rush. Over fifty years later, Guy released his award-winning Skin Deep album in 2008, a critically-acclaimed late-career statement that reinforced Guy's status as the elder statesman of the Chicago blues. Guy continues to tour incessantly, performing in front of appreciative fans worldwide, and recently moved his Buddy Guy's Legends club into a new, larger facility in Chicago. Join us today in celebrating the life and career of the great Buddy Guy!

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Back in 1998, the New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC) was formed to provide much-needed healthcare to the city's many musicians and their families. The clinic was the first such health initiative in the United States, and has served as an invaluable blueprint for other cities. The clinic is part of the New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation (NOMAF), which provides social and occupational assistance to over 1,800 struggling musicians in the Crescent City.

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Guitarist Joe Louis Walker earned the coveted "Album of the Year" honors at the 2010 Blues Music Awards back in May for his critically-acclaimed 2009 album Between a Rock and the Blues. The Reverend called the album "a collection of barn-burner blues-rock and sizzling soul-blues that is sure to satisfy and pacify fans of both styles with stellar performances all around from the guitarist and his seasoned band of merry pranksters."

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From our friend and mighty blues harpist Bob Corritore (via blues guitarist Bob Margolin) comes the news of the death of legendary blues bassist Calvin "Fuzz" Jones due to complications from lung cancer. Although Jones had successfully fought cancer during the late 1990s, it had reoccurred, and after he developed pneumonia, he was rushed to the hospital in Southhaven, Mississippi where he passed away from a heart attack on Monday, August 9, 2010. He was 84 years old.

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The sixth annual Dutch Mason Blues Festival will take place on August 13th - 15th, 2010 at the Truro Raceway & Exhibition Grounds in the Bible Hill section of Truro, Nova Scotia in Canada. The three-day house-rockin' blow-out draws music lovers from across all of Eastern Canada, particularly motorcycle enthusiasts who come to participate in the custom motorcycle show (and "Best Tattoo" competition, too, I bet!).

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Canadian blues guitarist JW-Jones makes his Ruf Records debut on August 10, 2010 when the label releases his sixth album, Midnight Memphis Sun. Recorded primarily in Memphis, Tennessee at the legendary Sun Studio, the album features guest performances by legendary guitarist Hubert Sumlin and the equally legendary harp player Charlie Musselwhite.

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The Jus' Blues Music Foundation has announced the winners of its 10th annual Jus' Blues Music Awards, and it should come as no surprise to anybody who has witnessed their liver-quivering, earth-quaking live show that the Homemade Jamz Blues Band walked off with the organization's "Best Blues Band or Combo of the Year" award. Perennial favorite 'folk-funk' bluesman Bobby Rush walked off with the "Best Contemporary Blues Song of the Year" for "Blind Snake," from his 2009 album of the same name. We reveal all of this year's winners on our Jus' Blues Music Awards 2010 page....

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With issue #208, which hits a newsstand near you this week, the esteemed music publication Living Blues celebrates its 40th anniversary! There aren't many magazines that make it to 20 years, much less double that, and the fact that Living Blues has been going strong for four decades now is a tribute to the staff's dedication and love of the blues.

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Johnny Winter's Live Through The '70s DVD was a fine document of a seminal period in the blues guitarist's career, and a welcome addition to the collection of every J.W. fan. Start saving up your pennies, kids, 'cause on August 24, 2010 our friends at Music Video Distributors will be releasing Winter's Live Through The '80s on DVD, providing more of the same from the blues legend's personal archives.

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Joseph William "Pinetop" Perkins was born this day in 1913 in Belzoni, Mississippi. We're happy to say that almost a century later, ol' Pinetop is still going strong, recently releasing a new album - Joined At The Hip - with his friend Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. The legendary blues pianist is also performing at a select number of blues festivals this summer.

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The ol' Reverend is always getting email from readers asking "where can I hear some of this blues music that you're always writing about?" (or something to that affect). Thanks to Eagle Rock Records, and the label's brand-new This Is The Blues CD series, now you can check out a wide range of blues for a relatively-low $11.98 list price (which means that you can probably find the CDs for a tenner somewhere if you look hard enough).

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Chicago blues legend Willie Dixon was born this day in 1915 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Although Dixon's impact on the blues world may not have been as immediate as that of friends and contemporaries like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, his role in shaping the future of the blues is no less vital. Arguably the first professional blues songwriter, artists like Waters, Wolf, Little Walter, and Koko Taylor had hits with Dixon's songs.

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Sadly, we have to report that public radio station KKJZ-FM, sponsors of the annual Long Beach Blues Festival, have announced the cancellation of the 2010 event. Citing poor economic conditions, the Labor Day Weekend tradition is going on hiatus with plans to try and restore the festival in the future.

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"Spider" John Koerner isn't very well known outside of Minnesota, but the influence of the folk-blues artist can be heard far beyond the state's borders in the music of legendary artists like Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt. Artists as diverse as David Bowie, Lucinda Williams, and John Lennon have cited Koerner as a major influence on their own music.

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Legendary blues harpist Charlie Musselwhite returns to Alligator Records - where he recorded three ground-breaking albums during the early 1990s - for the release of his new album, The Well. Scheduled for August 24th, 2010 release, The Well is Musselwhite's first album, in a career that has spanned five decades, to feature entirely original material penned by the harmonica master.

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The ninth annual Ponderosa Stomp will be held on September 24th and 25th, 2010 at the House of Blues in New Orleans, Louisiana. Judging from the line-up announced for this year's event, festival founder Dr. Ira "Dr. Ike" Padnos, a notable record collector and music preservationist, is making sure that the ninth Ponderosa Stomp features the best in blues, garage, soul, funk, rockabilly, swamp pop and New Orleans R&B. Among the talents performing are Delta blues legend David "Honeyboy" Edwards, R&B great Sugar Pie DeSanto, and roots-rock icon Duane Eddy. See who else is playing at this year's Ponderosa Stomp....

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Voting for the 2010 Blues Blast Music Awards began yesterday, so what are you waiting for, eh? Get thy fleet-fingers on your keyboard and head on over to the Blues Blast magazine website where you can vote for your favorite blues artists and albums in eight different categories. The only catch is that you have to subscribe to Blues Blast magazine to vote, a pretty sweet deal, really, considering that the zine is emailed to your mailbox weekly and subs are free!

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We have a couple of newsworthy blues-related items for your reading enjoyment on this last day of the work week. First of all, the New York Times is reporting that Southern rock icon Gregg Allman is resting comfortably after receiving a liver transplant this week at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. The Allman Brothers...

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