Year: 2025

With unflinching honesty and poetic force, Ruth Lyon’s debut album, ‘Poems & Non-Fiction’ is a soul-searching odyssey through heartbreak, disability, identity, and resilience. Set to haunting strings, jazz-tinged brass, and intimate piano, Lyon weaves personal pain into songs that confront silence, celebrate survival, and find fierce beauty in imperfection.

Blues lifer Larry McCray has walked through Heartbreak City and come out with songs that carry both scars and soul. Produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, his new album draws from a lifetime of hard knocks and the fire first lit by his sister Clara. With ‘Heartbreak City,’ out June 13 via KTBA Records, McCray proves once again that he’s singing the blues like he means it.

This free, family-friendly event transforms the Pike into a vibrant celebration of music, culture, and community—featuring everything from soulful guitar and harmonica-driven blues to zydeco, funk, and jazz. With standout performances by Rick Franklin, Sol Roots, Anthony “Swamp Dog” Clark, Everyday Everybody, and Little Red & The Renegades, this year’s festival is a heartfelt tribute to the artists and sounds that keep the blues alive and thriving in the nation’s capital.