I just wanted to brief you all on what is happening in the background with this years British Blues Awards. The weekend of September 8/9 has been set aside for the event at Newark Castle, with the Newark Festival weekend, of which the BBA results ceremony will be on the Sunday. ( I hope to be there for that, fingers crossed! )

This year, the organisers are doing things slightly different. They have approached around 50 people within the blues scene, including blues jocks, journalists, promoters, festival organisers, blues writers etc. Each person on the nomination panel will nominate three names in each category and then from there, final lists will be created and everyone will be able to visit the BBA website [ http://britishbluesawards.com/ ] and cast their votes.  I will of course plug this as soon as I have the news through to do this.

Blues Train will be participating with the Kevin Thorpe Award for the Best British Blues Song of 2011. Independent blues show jocks have been asked to nominate four songs from last year – once these have been authorised, I will be playing my choices on an upcoming show, you will then be able to use a link to cast your vote on your favourites. This process eventually leads to an overall national winner.

More details as I get them, including the show dates on when you can listen to my selection!

Click me!

I am very pleased to announce another station will be taking Blues Train as part of their schedules! Acoustic Spectrum Radio is due to launch online on April 1st and aims to be a platform for Indie artists mainly in the areas of blues, roots, folk, acoustic and singer/songwriter. Backed by Red Dragon Records [ website coming soon http://www.reddragonrecords.com/ ] and Fatea Magazine [ http://www.fatea-magazine.co.uk/ ] and based in Poole, this is an exciting idea and I feel privileged to have been contacted and asked if I would like to be part of it.

Again, thank you to Phil Moakes at FromeFM for agreeing – Blues Train will always be a FromeFM production and live show and this will be even more so on FM. At the same time, it is a reflection on the quality of programmes produced at FFM that other stations feel we are good enough for their schedules.

Once launched, Blues Train will air every other Wednesday night at 8pm UK time, which is a great slot as it avoids most other blues shows online. More details about the launch as I get them.

Click to visit

Blues Train will air every two weeks, on the 1st and 3rd weekends – Sunday 7-8pm NZ time [ they are currently 13 hours ahead of the UK, so I make that 6am here! ]. I’m hoping to reach some new listeners down under via RAG-FM and am very pleased Johny feels the show is good enough for his station.

Please come and ‘like’ the Facebook group to keep on top of the station news as it happens:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ragfm-1077-httpragfmcom/139909416115129?sk=wall

The first show is due to air this coming Sunday, 19th February.

My live show for February 12th is a themed special concentrating on blues and roots from New Zealand – I’ve played plenty of artists from Australia in the last year and through that, found that there are loads of great musicians over in NZ too. Most of them have a hugely interesting background and as I can’t tell you everything about them during the show, thought I would leave you the links to their websites here. Please try and investigate these great artists, see what they are all about and feel free to buy their music!

The show is LIVE on www.fromefm.co.uk 4-5pm UK time on the 12th Feb – the podcast link will be posted here during the following week and the repeats on KCOR and Charlietown Blues follow as usual.

http://www.blues.co.nz/ and http://nzmusic.org.nz/artists/search/?genre=35 are great resources for finding artists.

The Flaming Mudcats http://www.theflamingmudcats.com/

Mike Garner http://www.mikegarner.co.nz/

Carol Bean http://www.carolbean.com/

Riverhead Slide http://www.riverheadslide.com/

Nate Taiapa http://thebluesroom.blogspot.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebluesroom/

Darcy Perry Band http://www.darcyperry.co.nz/

Dave Murphy http://www.myspace.com/davemurphyblues

L’il Ian Goodsman http://www.iangoodsman.com/

Heart Attack Alley http://heartattackalley.bandcamp.com/ [ download a couple of free tracks here ]

Darren Watson & The Real Deal Blues Band http://www.darrenwatson.com/

Brian Glamuzina & Stingray http://www.rootsmusic.co.nz/harmonicamasters/artists.htm & http://www.myspace.com/stingraycampbell

The Thomas Oliver Band http://www.thethomasoliverband.com/

The Blues Buffet http://www.bluesbuffet.co.nz/

Please keep checking the page!

http://fromefm.co.uk/pcasts/media/120129-bluestrain-bluestrain.mp3

PLAYLIST:

Albert Cummings – Blues Makes Me Feel So Good [ album: True To Yourself ]

Hipshakin’ Mama & The Leg Men – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long [ Reclaim Your Land ]

Brander/Larsen & The Electric Blues Band – Crosseyed Cat [ Brander/Larsen & The Electric Blues Band ]

Richard Carr – Tell Everybody [ Tell Everybody ]

Rocket Rached & The Fat City 8 – Built For Comfort [ 7 Years of Thursdays ]

Babajack – Sunday Afternoon [ Rooster ]

Half Deaf Clatch – Amelia’s Train [ Sessions ]

Cherry Lee Mewis – Man Overboard [ Heard It Here First ]

Bare Bones Boogie Band – I’d Rather Go Blind [ BBBB 1 ]

Etta James – Too Tired [ The Dreamer ]

Brian Brazil – Alligator Alley/Broke Down Blues [ Sessions ]

Phil King – Give Me Some More [ They Come and They Go ]

Jimmy Bowskill Band – Salty Dog [ Back Number ]

Geoff Everett Band – Swine Fever Blues [ Adult Show ]

NEXT LIVE SHOW – Feb 12th www.fromefm.co.uk 4-5pm UK time – NEW ZEALAND SPECIAL!

I was informed this morning that it is due to be sorted today and so I should be able to post the link either on Friday evening UK time or Saturday morning.

In the meantime, I am now putting together the brand new show for Sunday Feb 12th at 4pm on FromeFM which will be a New Zealand Blues and Roots Special!

From there, you can click the ‘listen now’ button just below the webcam image – you can also watch me try and keep the whole thing together on a 30 second delay there!

The very first show was on January 22nd 2011, so this is as near as I can get to an anniversary show! So I’ll be playing a few of the artists from a year ago, as well as the best of the new releases. I haven’t quite finished the playlist but expect the usual top class, 60 minute mix of the blues.

So please join me if you can – I should be on Facebook via my personal page and the BT group page, so always love to hear from anyone listening. If you can’t join me ‘live’, then look out for the usual repeats and podcast during next week.

http://fromefm.co.uk/pcasts/media/120114-bluestrain-bluestrain.mp3

Playlist:

Son Roberts – How Far [ CD: Tell That Story ]
Innes Sibun – It Takes Time [ Sessions ]
Scotty McKnight – It’s The Blues [ EP ]
Clare Free – Dust and Bones [ Dust and Bones - as yet unreleased ]
Bare Bones Boogie Band – Midnight O2 [ Bare Bones Boogie Band 2 ]
Tommy Lee Cook – Love Me [ Mailbox Money ]
7Horse – Blackjack Moon [ Let The 7Horse Run ]
Big Boy Bloater & The Limits – Ugly Way Of Thinking [ Big Boy Bloater & The Limits ]
Bex Marshall – Gone Fishin’ [ The House of Mercy - as yet unreleased ]
Matt Andersen – Lay It On The Line [ Coal Mining Blues ]
Keef Hartley Band – Me and My Woman [ Little Big Band ]
Philipp Fankhauser – Jealous Kinda Fella [ Try My Love ]
The Motives feat. Matt Taylor – Gone Before – excerpt [ The Motives feat. Matt Taylor ]

Next show live on Jan 29th, podcast available soon after!

The reason behind this is pretty much due to family commitments and will allow me to come in and concentrate in the studio without my restless 5 year old distracting me! There is a small risk that anyone who listened to the Saturday night show might be saddened by this! But at the same time, a lot of people go out to gigs or the pub on a Saturday night and at 4.30 on a Sunday, I don’t believe there is a clash with any other blues show on the radio [ at least in the UK ] so just maybe, a few more people can listen live.

So…the next live show is on January 29th 6-7pm, then two weeks later, 4.30-5.30pm – at least ‘every other Sunday’ is easier to keep track of!