Once again, the weekend is rolling around and it’s just about time for Time For The Blues! Henry Cook and I hope you will join us this Saturday night, June 11th, at 9:00 as we drop a very special episode of the show on you, our favorite audience. Be sure to catch us on one of the VPM Music stations or stream it online at VPM.org.
You may catch us sometimes saying that this artist or that artist is “our friend” and you wonder if we’re really being sincere about it. Well, the answer is yes. After nearly 16 years of producing the show, we’ve been fortunate enough to make many friends with artists when they come to town, whether they come on the show or we emcee their appearance at whatever venue they happen to be playing.
This week, we are featuring one of our best friends and favorite groups (it’s great when things work out that way) the Jon Spear Band out of Charlottesville! We’ve been hanging out with these talented men for nearly a decade and going to as many of their shows as we can. We’ve featured several of their albums on the show and we’re about to let loose with three more from their latest disc, B-Side of My Life.
This album has been well received and has been on the charts since its release. I’ve been wanting to play it for some time and finally found the right moment to bring it to you. And while I don’t want to give away the surprise of one of the songs, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that at least one of their songs has a special connection to Time For The Blues.
Curious? Please tune in to find out what I’m talking about.
We’re also shining the spotlight on another artist that we’ve had the pleasure to get to know a little bit, Albert Cummings, who has a brand new release out on Ivy Music. The album is titled Ten and Cummings has been out on the road promoting it. He was just in Gloucester where I heard he put on a terrific show. I’ve caught him at Parkfest and at the Tin Pan and wSpearould have gone down the road to see this show if I didn’t have a family commitment.
We’ve got three sides from the new album and one from a previous release just to give you a taste of the man’s talent.
That’s not all we’ve got for you on this summer’s night. No sir, no ma’am, no how. We’ve got new releases from Steve Marriner from his disc Hope Dies Last. We sampled another one of his recently and thought he deserved an encore. Also getting a return appearance is Sandy Haley from her EP Feels Like Freedom. And you know, we don’t play a lot of comedy on the show (mainly because we’re jealous of anyone funnier than we are, and that’s just about everybody!), but we’ve got a song from the tandem of Clint Morgan, Bob Margolin, and Watermelon Slim from Morgan’s release, Troublemaker that will be sure to tickle your funny bone.
You know there’s even more, right? We’ve got music from Skylar Rogers from Firebreather, Veronica Lewis from You Ain’t Unlucky and Shakin’ Woods (one of Peter Green’s groups) from The Blues Proper Sessions Volume 2.
We’ll be glad to have your company if you care to join us at 9:00 this Saturday night. That’s June 11th, and you can find us on one of these great VPM Stations: 89.1 WCNV, Heathsville; 90.1 WMVE, Chase City; and the flagships, 93.1 and 107.3 VPM-Music and 88.9 HD2, Richmond, and streaming online at VPM.org where it’s always Time For The Blues!