LEGENDARY Chicago bluesman Willie Dixon has some wise words to say about his musical genre.
"The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits. It's better keeping the roots alive, because it means better fruits from now on," said the man who wrote blues masterpieces Little Red Rooster, Spoonful, and Hoochie Coochie Man.
Wollongong Blues Club is celebrating International Blues Music Day on August 2 at Corrimal RSL with 12 hours of top blues bands, great food and memorabilia. The free event celebrates blues legends and supports modern-day blues artists.
Dom Turner and Supro will headline the event. Turner has made a substantial contribution to Australian blues and roots with his band, The Backsliders.
Turner describes his eclectic four-piece Supro as "a mixture of three-parts blues, two parts surf-rock, a heavy spoonful of dub laced with a splash of Tabasco-spiced New Orleans funk, all blended with a helping of Tex-Mex jalapenos, salt, reverb and voices from the dead and traditionally served with your choice of ice cold beer".
Co-headliner Ali Penney is an Australian Blues Chain Award-winning artist, who won 2014 album of the year, female vocalist of the year and best album (with her band The Moneymakers).
Rounding out the line-up are Wollongong blues artists Ewan E. C. Sommerville, Illya Szwec, Chris Mawer, Big Erle, and Guy Munro with The Freeman Brothers, as well as Sydney's "Continental" Robert Susz and Milton's Johnny Cass.
