The 4th Annual Inner City Blues Festival is THIS WEEKEND!
Every blues fan in the northwest knows about the Waterfront Blues Festival in July, but it has two big drawbacks. First, it’s about three months away, and second, every blues fan in the northwest already knows about it! But Portlanders aren’t waiting three months for blues, and they aren’t dealing with the July crowds and expense. They’re dressing up for a night on the town THIS WEEKEND, April 11th, at the 4th Annual Inner City Blues Festival benefitting Health Care for All Oregon (www.hcao.org). The biggest names in northwest blues will all be there, and the crowds? Just big enough to make it a party instead of a show!
This is the fourth year for the resurrected Inner City Blues Festival, which ran as an annual event by the Portland Rainbow Coalition from 1988 to 2003. Norman Sylvester, Northwest Boogie Cat and blues legend, will head the bill as he has every year since the Festival reconstituted in 2012. Celebrity emcees Paul Knauls and Renee Mitchell will present this year’s slate of powerhouse musicians including Andy Stokes, Bill Rhoades, LaRhonda Steele, King Louis & Friends, The Strange Tones with The Volcano Vixens, Tevis Hodge Jr, Steve Cheseborough, Bloco Alegria, Richard Arnold, Dave Kahl, Sarah Billings, Jay “Bird” Koder, Newell Briggs, and The Mad As Hell Doctors.
The Inner City Blues Festival’s roots in the socially conscious Rainbow Coalition continue to bear blooms today, because the Festival is about more than just music. It’s also about Health Care for All Oregon (hcao.org), the group supporting single payer healthcare in the Beaver State and beyond. Musicians may have been helped by Obamacare but as “independent contractors” they’ve long faced difficulty obtaining stable health insurance. This year’s show will recognize Janice Scroggins, Mel Solomon, Linda Hornbuckle, Jim Miller, Lucinda Tate and Geneva Knauls, all community and music ambassadors who have passed in the last year and all of whom had horror stories to tell about corporate health care before they died. It’s only appropriate that musicians take such a leading role in supporting single payer healthcare, and on behalf of the entire Inner City Blues Festival we hope you reach beyond the music to remember the reason for the party.
The 4th Annual Inner City Blues Festival Benefitting Health Care For All Oregon is Saturday, April 11. Doors open at 5:30 pm, the show starts at 6:00 pm and the party goes until midnight. The location this year is the North Portland Eagles Lodge, 7611 N Exeter & Lombard. Admission is $20.00 and if you hurry you can still buy advance tickets at TicketTomato.com, Music Millenium, Geneva’s Shear Perfection, or the American Federation of Musicians Local 99. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door, but this event usually sells out… don’t wait for the last minute!
Proceeds from the concert will go to support the work of Health Care for All-Oregon. For more information about the Inner City Blues Festival and Health Care for All-Oregon go to: www.hcao.org or www.facebook.com/healingthehealthcareblues.
The Inner City Blues Festival is co- sponsored by the Cascade Blues Association, KBOO Community Radio 90.7 FM, and almost one hundred other businesses, groups, and individuals like Portland Jobs with Justice, Cascade Blues Association, KBOO Community Radio 90.7 FM, American Federation of Musicians Local 99, Hollywood Impress Printing, Music Millennium, Rusty Truck Brewing, Bipartisan Café, Art Heads Custom Framing, Geneva’s Shear Perfection, Portland Observer, Tom Dwyer Automotive Services, Main Street Alliance, Hawthorne Auto Clinic, Morel Ink, May Wallace Design and more. Please go out of your way to thank them for their support!
