“Shemekia Copeland is a powerhouse, a superstar...She can do no wrong” –Rolling Stone

“Copeland provides a soundtrack for contemporary America...powerful, ferocious, clear-eyed and hopeful...She’s in such control of her voice that she can scream at injustices before she soothes with loving hope. It sends shivers up your spine.” –Living Blues

Please welcome back Shemekia Copeland, who brought down the house on our very first Blues Festival in 2014! She has performed thousands of gigs at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over the world, and has appeared in films, on national television, NPR, and in magazine and newspapers. She’s sung with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Dr. John, James Cotton and many others. She opened for The Rolling Stones and entertained U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait. Jeff Beck calls her “amazing.” Santana says, “She’s incandescent...a diamond.” In 2012, she performed with B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, Gary Clark, Jr. and others at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama. She has performed on PBS’s Austin City Limits and was recently the subject of a six-minute feature on the PBS News Hour. Currently, Copeland can be heard hosting her own popular daily blues radio show on SiriusXM’s Bluesville.

“A remarkable, contemporary bluesman...a powerhouse young guitarist and soulful vocalist. A major player...highly recommended” –Rolling Stone

“A skilled, energetic and original artist...His songwriting is observant, clever and pointed. His voice is smooth; his singing on target. His guitar fluency generates new licks and rhythmic surprises. Expectations have been high for Mr. Birchwood—and he lives up to them.” –Wall Street Journal

“With my music,” says groundbreaking young blues visionary Selwyn Birchwood, “I tell my stories in my own way, with my own voice. You won’t ever hear me on stage telling someone else’s stories. Muddy Waters, B.B. King and John Lee Hooker all told their own stories. That’s what I’m doing.” The young guitar and lap steel player calls his original music “electric swamp funkin’ blues,” defined by raw and soulful musicianship played with fire-and-brimstone fervor. His soulful vocals draw his audience deep inside his unforgettable tales of love, passion, pain and pleasure. Living Blues says, “Selwyn Birchwood is a master storyteller—both lyrically and musically. He’s an impressive, hard-crunching, modern blues guitarist. His fretwork is high-energy, raw and vivid...knife-edged leads and roadhouse-rattling grooves. He is graced with a depth and maturity that would be impressive in a grizzled veteran, let alone a fresh-faced young man.”

This band played our first festival in 2014! Joining the Lamont Cranston band for this show is renowned keyboardist Bruce McCabe. From the rural hometown settings of Hamel, Minnesota and the river banks of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the blues influence surfaced as early as the mid 1960's for what was to become The Lamont Cranston Blues Band.

Pat (Lamont) Hayes (with his brother Larry) founded the band in 1969 and he hasn't stopped driving the renowned boogie blues train of the one and only Lamont Cranston Band. This Minneapolis based band has a rich history in the music scene, having recorded 14 albums and written and produced a number of hit songs including the chart topping 'Upper Mississippi Shakedown." The band is going strong and turning out new material all the time.

Please welcome back Crow, who played at our 2018 festival. Crow formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. in August, 1967. Originally known as the "South 40", they were former members of the Rave-Ons and the Jokers Wild. The original band members were Dave Wagner (vocals), Larry Wiegand (bass/vocals), Dick Wiegand (guitar), Dave (Kink) Middlemist (Hammond organ/vocals) and Harry Nehls (drums/vocals). They released the "South 40 Live at Someplace Else" LP in 1968. In 1969 they added Denny Craswell (Castaways) on drums/vocals, changed their band name to Crow, and released the album "Crow Music" on the Amaret label. They had a number of Top - 40 hits from 1969 to 1972, including "Evil Woman", "Slow Down", (Don't Try To Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the) "King OF Rock n' Roll" and "Cottage Cheese", among others. They disbanded in 1972 but reformed again in 1988. They continue to play select concerts all over the United States. All the members have won Minnesota Music Awards for their own individual instruments. In 2005 they were inducted into the Minnesota Rock/Country Hall of Fame and in 2009, the Iowa Rock & Roll Music Hall of Fame. Crow were also inducted into the South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association in 2016.