The Magic City Blues Fest will be held September 2 at Sloss Furnaces in downtown Birmingham from noon until 8 p.m. Gates open at 11:30 a.m.
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Photo by Glynn Wilson

The Magic City Blues Society staged a full house of local talent Sunday at Zydeco on Southside and two lucky acts will compete Jan. 31- Feb. 2 at the 2008 International Blues Challenge finals to be held in Memphis, Tennessee. Todd Simpson and Mojo Child, pictured above, took first in the Band category, followed closely by Dan and the Dusters in second and Midnight Train in third.

Glynn Wilson

With Bruce Andrews on vocals and blues harp and George Dudley on guitar, 2BLU came in first in the Solo/Duo category. Second place went to Sam Pointer. Troy Bland came in third.

The International Blues Challenge has evolved into the nation’s largest and most respected showcase for Blues musicians ready to take their act to the national stage, according to the Memphis Blues Foundation Website.

Note: Locust Fork News and Journal editor and publisher Glynn Wilson was happy to serve as a judge for the competition and would like to thank the Magic City Blues Society for putting on such a great show to promote the traditions of American blues. Like a lot of things in modern society, without good stewards, historic and cultural artifacts might be lost - including art forms like the blues.

The Battle of the Blues Bands in Birmingham will be held Sunday, July 29, beginning at Zydeco at 2 p.m.

Competing this year in the Solo/Duo category will be 2BLU, Troy Bland, Sam Pointer, Lenny Trawick, Leonard Watkins. In the full band cetegory: Blue Light Specials, Dan and the Dusters, Legal Aliens, Michael Carpenter Experience, Midnight Train, Todd Simpson and Mojo Child and the Lance Almon Smith Band.

For more information, contact the Magic City Blues Society.

The Phelan Park Music Series for 2007 starts this Sunday, April 15 in Birmingham in the park is located across from Dreamland BBQ at the corner of 14th avenue and 15th Street South. Liz Brown is the featured performer. Bring your lawn chair and cooler and enjoy FREE Blues music from 3-6 p.m.
 
Also, the Tuscaloosa Crawfish and Blues Festival is this weekend. Get all the info here.

The next open jam will be at The Burly Earl on April 20. Contact Leonard Watkins at watkins_leonard@yahoo.com for more info.

For more blues around Birmingham, check the full April schedule below…
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The last time we ran into Scott Boyer, he was jamming at a Florence lake house last year with Wayne Perkins and a Muscle Shoals rhythm section and feeling fine.

Scott Boyer

But since he’s come down with peripheral artery disease and had surgery that replaced much of his right femoral artery to improve circulation, and since he has no health insurance - like many musicians and Americans - the medical expenses are piling up.

So his friends in the music business and fans are putting on a benefit at Birmingham’s Alabama Theatre April 18 to help out.

And what a jam it promises to be.

Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band are headlining, and the lineup will include the Amazing Rhythm Aces, the Capricorn Rhythm Section and the Decoys, along with Bonnie Bramlett, Donnie Fritts, Paul Thorn, Wayne Perkins, Topper Price and “Nashville Star” runner-up Zac Hacker.

The first time I ever saw Scott Boyer play, his band Cowboy had joined up with the Allman Brothers on a gold record tour and appeared at the old Boutwell Auditorium in downtown Birmingham. I was 17 and playing the drums around Birmingham’s club scene already.

Cowboy recorded four albums with Capricorn in the early 1970s before merging with the Allmans. One of the most memorable cuts was Boyer’s “It’s Time,” a song that became the title track of Bonnie Bramlett’s first solo album. Perhaps Boyer’s most famous song is “Please Be With Me,” recorded by Eric Clapton in 1974 on the album “461 Ocean Boulevard.”

I used to run into Boyer a lot down on the Gulf Coast in the late 1980s, and remember many sweaty nights at Judge Roy Bean and even the Pink Pony Pub in Gulf Shores, where Boyer used to share the singing duties with his incredibly hot and talented sister. He also appeared with The Locust Fork Band and The Convertibles, with Topper Price.

“I’ve still got a lot of really close friends in that area that I still love,” along the Gulf Coast, Boyer told the Mobile Press Register in an interview.

Since 1988, he’s been based in Muscle Shoals as a studio musician, writing songs and performing.

The first benefit for Boyer went down last Wednesday in Florence. For the Birmingham benefit April 18, with the show starting at 7 p.m., tickets are going for $40 and $50 on Ticketmaster.

For details, visit the Boyer Benefit Myspace page.

For more information on Scott, visit his official homepage at ScottBoyer.Net.

Friends and fans who can’t attend but wish to make donations can do so by sending checks payable to the Muscle Shoals Music Association, earmarked for the Scott Boyer Benefit, at MSMA, P.O. Box 2383, Muscle Shoals, AL 35662. Online PayPal donations may be sent to sboyer-msma-med@yahoo.com.

We all wish Scott well and would like to see something like this benefit become a regular thing in Birmingham, with a monthly jam.

We are actively looking at rooms and talking to musicians about this now. If you would like to get involved, e-mail Locust Fork News and Journal editor and publisher Glynn Wilson at fast2write@charter.net.