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Bob
Kieser, Scott and Tracy are keeping the blues alive in Pekin,
Illinois as organizers for the River City Blues Society.
They have undertaken the task of putting on a concert every
Wednesday night for the 2009 year. They are following some
of the same things that the Central Illinois Blues society
and the Friends of Blues in Kankakee are doing. This means
that the shows are affordable, local, have early starts,
and book on weeknights to attract a more quality band on
their off nights. During the summer they have been putting
on a series that they call Bluz Guitar Gurlz. In May they
had Shannon Curfman, in June they had Joanne Shaw Taylor,
in July 22 it was Joanna Connor, and last but not least,
in the month of August they had the Laurie Morvan Band.
Picture this if you would, in the middle of a vast corn
field there lies this white bubble that looks like a dropped
toasted marshmallow that came from the stick of the Jolly
Green Giant's skewer while he was making s'mores from some
large inferno. This bubble is an inflatable arena that houses
and an indoor football arena where the Pekin Dragons, a
semi pro arena football team, practice. In the front of
this is a meeting facility where the River city Blues Society
holds its shows.
It has been a joy to play for the blues societies on this
tour as they are a ready made audience primed to hear some
blues and some red hot smokin' guitar work. The River City
Blues Society did not disappoint. Some folks saw us at the
Alamo in Springfield and wanted to see us again. Some of
the River City Blues Society members rode their motorcycles
to St. Louis to see us at Beale on Broadway. The crowd hung
in with us through out the night and many compliments were
lavished on the band. When we mentioned to Scott that we
would like to go back to the International Blues Challenge
held in Memphis in 2010, he said if we did not have a blues
society that would send us his would be more than willing
to sponsor us. Wow! What a gracious compliment. We are humbled.
You guys are wonderful! Hope to see you all very soon.
Here's a good one for ya. Ollie goes to the Sons of Norway
dinner one night and he wins the door prize which was a
toilet brush. When asked several weeks later how the brush
was working out for him he says, "Oh, it verked great
for a vile, don't cha know, but now I'm back on da paper."
Bucket-of-fish.
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