Click here to hear our radio ad for the event
The Oregon Single Payer Campaign is putting on a benefit to help establish a Single Payer system that would cover all Oregonians for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventative care, and more, paid for by a dedicated Medicare-like tax that everyone pays into. Join us at the Melody Ballroom on April 14 to enjoy NORMAN SYLVESTER, LLOYD JONES, LARHONDA STEELE, SONNY HESS, BILL RHOADS, JANICE SCROGGINS, JIM MESI, RENATO CARANTO, RICHARD ARNOLD, LLOYD ALLEN, SHOEHORN, CHATTA ADDY, AND LENANNE SYLVESTER. All the details are below, and we’ll see you there!
What: Inner City Blues Festival Reunion—“Healing the Healthcare Blues”
Featuring Norman Sylvester and a host of Northwest blues stars
Food and Drink available for sale, no host bar, 21 and over
When: Saturday, April 14, 2012, Doors open at 6:30 pm–Show, 7:00 pm till Midnight
Where: Melody Ballroom, 615 SE Alder
Tickets: $15.00 ($1 discount for CBA members). Tickets available at:
Music Millennium: 3158 E Burnside
Geneva’s Shear Perfection: 5601 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Reflections Coffee House: 446 NE Killingsworth St.
Patties Home Plate: 8501 N Lombard
Since the last concert in 2003 musicians, fans and community members have been waiting for the return of the Inner City Blues Festival. The time has come!!
The Oregon Single Payer Campaign is throwing a party on Saturday, April 14 at the Melody Ballroom called the INNER CITY BLUES FESTIVAL REUNION—“Healing the Healthcare Blues”. The Inner City Blues Festival was a popular, annual event sponsored by the Portland Rainbow Coalition that ran from the 1988 “Jam for Jesse” Jackson until the last Inner City Blues Festival concert in 2003. In the spirit of the Rainbow Coalition, many Northwest blues stars that performed in the festival in the past are coming together for a night of music that will benefit the work of the OREGON SINGLE PAYER CAMPAIGN for a universal, affordable healthcare system for all Oregonians.
Included in the program are:
- Norman Sylvester Band with special guests: Lloyd Allen, Sara Billings, LaRhonda Steele, Sonny Hess, Jim Mesi, Richard Arnold, Bill Rhoades and Peter Moss
- Lenanne Miller-Sylvester & Janice Scroggins in a “Tribute to Lady Day” (Billie Holiday).
- Lloyd Jones Struggle—Rhythm and Blues
- Chatta Addy—African Drum Procession and Performance
- Mad as Hell Doctors—Local doctors “sing out for single payer healthcare”.
- Shoehorn—Tap and Sax sensation
Celebrity Masters of Ceremonies for the evening are Paul Knauls, a NE Portland businessman and former owner of legendary blues/jazz clubs Geneva’s and the Cotton Club & Renee Mitchell, former columnist for the Oregonian.
Reforming the healthcare system would benefit all Oregonians by replacing an expensive and complicated system which is dominated by a multitude of private insurance companies, with a single non-profit agency that would collect and distribute funds equitably and fairly according to the principle of Universal, Affordable Healthcare for All, “Everybody in—Nobody Out”. For more information about the Inner City Blues Festival Reunion and the Oregon Single Payer Campaign go to: www.singlepayeroregon.org. To purchase tickets online go to www.ticketsoregon.com.
Benefit: Proceeds from the concert will go to support the work of the Oregon Single Payer Campaign.
Sponsors: KPOJ Radio, Portland Jobs with Justice, Physicians for a National Health Program, Health Care for All Oregon, Mad as Hell Doctors, Tom Dwyer Automotive Services, Cascade Blues Association, Portland Jobs with Justice, American Federation of Musicians Local 99, Albina Community Bank, Por Que No Taqueria, Paloma Clothing, Neil Kelly Company, Terrell Brandon Barber Shop and Sports Apparel, The Candlelight Room, Tom Dwyer Automotive Services, Clyde’s Prime Rib, Beaterville Café, Bipartisan Café, Mirador Community Store, Show Dogs Grooming Salon and Boutique, Gazelle Natural Fibre Clothing, KPOJ Radio, Streetroots, Hollywood Impress Printing, Heather Killough and Stan Amy
