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JACKIE PAYNE, STEVE EDMONSON, & BOBBY JONES AT THE "DARKFEST" IN NORWAY
Photos by Toresen Freddy
JACKIE PAYNE STEVE EDMONSON BAND WITH DELTA GROOVE CEO RANDY CHORTKOFF
DELTA GROOVE MUSIC & FESTIVALS EXCLUSIVE STORM EUROPE AND SCANDINAVIA!!!
Fresh off the road with select musicians from the Festivals Exclusive roster, Delta Groove Music has left those East of the Atlantic thoroughly satisfied! In conjunction with Festivals Exclusive, Delta Groove Music had the pleasure of lending the musical talents of the Jackie Payne Steve Edmonson Band and Bobby Jones featuring Kid Ramos to two major summer blues music festivals!
Thanks to the hard work of everyone at Festivals Exclusive, Blue Mountain and Intrepid Artists, the lineup at the Cognac Blues Festival was wrought full of the extreme talent of the Delta and Eclecto Groove labels. Rick Booth and the guys at Intrepid secured Cedric & Malcolm a prime slot on the lineup to conclude their jaunt through Italy before heading stateside for the Poconos Blues Festival! Hugh Southard and his staff at Blue Mountain delighted the locals of Cognac by booking The Soul of John Black on the Eden Blues stage in the park for four afternoons in a row. This gave those who weren’t planning on catching the shows later in the evening a chance to catch some tasty free blues music in the park while enjoying a lazy afternoon in the sun!
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What could possibly be better than tasty free blues music? Well, for those lucky enough to score a ticket and grab a prime seat Saturday night at the main stage, they found the answer to that question. After playing an intimate, acoustic gig in the Otard Castle the day before, the Jackie Payne Steve Edmonson Band were back in full swing, or should we say full funk? Armed with their Sweet Meet Horn section, with Geechi Taylor on trumpit, Carl Green on sax, the steady core of the band, featuring Nick Otis (son of legendary Johnny Otis) on drums, Bill Singletary on bass, Steve Edmonson on guitar and newest member, Jeffrey Mehl on keys, the band lead singer, Jackie Payne took the entire audience on a wild ride of blues, soul, funk, and much, much more! The entire town of Cognac put down their glasses and got real funky with the band!! While Cognac may have been delighting their palates for generations, the bands from the Delta and Eclecto Groove labels left their musical palates insatiable and yet equally satisfied. Our sincere thanks goes out to Denis LeBon at Tempo Spectacular and the entire Cognac Blues Passions staff of employees and volunteers for making this festival yet another memorable experience we were all lucky enough to be a part of! We hope to see you all again very soon! |
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Now if you’re up for the journey, follow us on up to Notodden, Norway for yet another weekend of blues music jammed packed full of Delta and Eclecto Groove artists. While the others were scorching the stage in Cognac, France, Bobby Jones and Kid Ramos joined up with JT Lauritsen and his band, The Buckshots, in Drobak, Norway for the Drobak Blues Festival. The following weekend, everybody got together and tore down the house at the Notodden Blues Festival. After playing various gigs throughout the town on different stages and at different times, the Delta and Eclecto Groove family got together and gave the audience a real treat! A one stop shop, reminiscent of what the Delta Groove All-Star Blues Review has in store for blues fans every year! Albeit on a much smaller scale, the venue was packed full of music fanatics who knew exactly what they had in store for them with a lineup consisting of Bobby Jones featuring Kid Ramos (with help from Randy Chortkoff and JT Lauritsen and The Buckshots), Cedric Brunside and Lightin’ Malcolm, and The Soul of John Black; and they weren’t going to miss it for the world!! Kudos go out to Jostein Forsberg and Ed Murphy from the Notodden Blues Festival for putting together a venue where our artists are able to come together and play music with each other, showing all facets of where the blues has been, where it is now and where it’s going! Year after year, everyone involved with the Notodden Blues Festival, puts forth 150% and makes it one of the greatest weekends of the blues calendar! Thank you for all of your efforts and for supporting our artists as you have in the past. And for all of you music fans out there, keep your eyes and ears open for future stages of similar caliber, featuring arsenals of Delta and Eclecto Groove artists, throughout Europe and The United States! You never know which festival we’ll show up at next!! As for all the festival bookers, we’re ready and willing… Dare you try us on for size?
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