The Chicago Blues Festival will celebrate the genre’s music legacy in Chicago with live performances on six stages by local and national blues artists in the city’s premier outdoor music venue.

Southern Avenue combines the talents of a prodigiously talented set of young musicians who bring their individual backgrounds and wide-ranging musical interests to the table, carrying the Southern soul legacy into the 21st century.

If it’s not already in your personal library we can only ask why not? To paraphrase the Bard, if music be the food of love, Tal Wilkenfeld, play on!

Although each of the 15 songs represents Broussard’s best known material and fan favorites from throughout his storied career, ‘Home (The Dockside Sessions)’ is more than simply a reminder of past glories.

Perhaps no track sums up the band’s journey better than the gently gorgeous title track, which finds Turpin and Jean’s voices twisting and turning around each other like beautiful, tangled vines.

“It may be a bit premature to crown Albert Castiglia America’s newest King of the Blues, but there’s little doubt that he at least deserves the title of heir apparent.” — Miami New Times

Julia entitled his new album INSPIRED because he’s very aware of the debt he owes to the musicians who have inspired him.

Manx Marriner Mainline might have roots in the blues, but some of the album’s nicer moments are when they take the blues and gospel in more personal directions.

“I have a large variety of influences and I listen to a lot of music. I incorporate it into all of the music I make. It is still blues music but it comes from different angles.” Mike Wheeler

This year’s Festival will feature two-nights of musical performances with once-in-a-lifetime guitar collaborations. Known as pioneers in their field, the roster of artists spans old and new.

“’Alligator Fish’ is a freestyle blues incantation over one cord, channeling dire predictions à la Charley Patton,” Mathus told us. “I’m related to Charley through my Delta family.”

If ‘Soulfire’ stands as the last word at the end of one chapter of Van Zandt’s long career, ‘Summer of Sorcery’ marks the start of what comes next.