Third Annual Soul of the Blues Summer Festival at Cornelia Street Cafe, July 23-28

Bagel&Rat Entertainment and the Downstate New York Blues Association are pleased to present the Third Annual Soul of the Blues Summer Festival at Cornelia Street Cafe, July 23-28, 2007.

Monday, July 23, 8:30 p.m.: Eighty-Eights Night

TOMMY KEYS preserves the traditions of barrelhouse boogie and stride piano at concerts all over the region. His first solo CD covers Pinetop Perkins, Otis Spann, Jimmy Reed and more, and also features five first-class originals, including the solo pieces “TK Boogie" and “Two Left Hands Boogie." With the release of his second solo CD, “Side Street Boogie", the 2006 International Blues Challenge Finalist truly embodies the soul of an good-time blues piano man. We're pleased as punch to have Tommy back at the Cafe, bringing up the curtain on this year's Festival.

DEBBIE DEANE, a native of Brooklyn, NY, Deane “has a languid, yet crisp and emotive delivery... soul to burn," says Jazzreview. A European reviewer described Deane's debut CD as “polished and cool... sometimes passionate, sometimes aggressive, sometimes desperate but always expressive and supported by pros like Joshua Redman and Wayne Krantz."

OLI ROCKBERGER, the London-born jazz/gospel/R&B pianist, vocalist and songwriter, brought down the house at last year's Festival and is back to headline this year's opening night. Oli combines astounding musicianship with soulful high spirits - truly a “scary talent." He has “a repertoire rippling with hip pop and R&B harmonies laced with jazz devices ... At 25, Oli Rockberger has made short work of the distance from his London birthplace to Boston's Berklee College of Music where he earned every formal accolade they could hand him. Rockberger's a jazz, soul, and funk piano man with a heavy melancholy streak expressed through emotive, brawny pipes, reminiscent of the most popular rasps of our era: Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel and Sting"--All About Jazz

Cover $10 (plus $ 7 Drink Minimum) http:// souloftheblues.com

Tuesday, July 24 8:30 pm

Blues Jam Trio Night

DAN FREEDMAN, a highly sought-after guitar instructor, infuses his original material with snaky grooves and a rich sense of place. Songs like “NYC Blues" and “Long Beach" bring it all home. His solo set sets the stage for a couple of fine blues trios.

THE KINGS COUNTY BLUES BAND features Aviv Roth on guitar, Jon Sobel on bass and piano, and Jeremy Kaplan on drums. Combining hard-edged blues with piano-driven soul, the band proves that alternative rock isn't the only hot music coming out of Brooklyn.

FILLET OF SOUL, from New Paltz, NY, descends on the Big Apple to close out the night with its unique blend of blues, funk, Latin, reggae, and soul. Their infectious grooves should send the crowd home wiggling.

Cover $10 (plus $ 7 Drink Minimum)

Wednesday, July 25 8:30PM

Fireworks Night

Musical fireworks, that is! The evening opens with the Red-Headed Howitzer herself:

HALLEY DeVESTERN (Big Brother and the Holding Company) blasts in with her personal brand of heavy blues. Her band includes David Patterson (Shawn Mullins), Rich Kulsar (Zen Tricksters, Toasters), and Tom Heineg (Dave “Snaker" Ray, Lamont Cranston). The Village Voice famously called New York's blues-rock queen a “ballsy, bluesy, roots- rocking mama who's got a little Bonnie and Melissa and a whole 'lotta Janis," while Rambles called her latest CD “Superhero Killer" “an intense juxtaposition of serious tone and catchy music... Don't expect to be uplifted... This is an album with depth that will challenge your perceptions."

KEVIN SO, a native of Boston, is equal parts R&B crooner, blues- rocker, and authentic Dylan-inspired folkie. Steve Morse of the Boston Globe calls So “riveting...a smooth, impeccable guitarist... An Asian American bluesman who offers his articulate take on the blues," while in fewer but equally powerful words, folk legend Richie Havens simply calls Kevin So “a real one."

JIMMY WOLF, from upstate New York, brings his eight-cylinder blues to our stage for the first time. A Turtle Clan Mohawk, Jimmy Wolf performed in Washington DC for the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, and has been nominated for two Native American Music Awards. He has been a fixture at blues festivals and concerts in upstate New York. This is a rare opportunity to see one of the Northeast's most exciting blues talents at an intimate New York City venue.

Cover $10 (plus $ 7 Drink Minimum)

Thursday, July 26 8:30PM

Take the Blues and Run With It Night

Tonight's performers take classic blues tunes and give 'em their own spin.

ROBERT ROSS “Robert Ross is a fine singer, a snappy lyricist, and an even better blues rock guitarist... cut from the same cloth as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Johnny Winter. Time after time Ross delivers the goods." - NY Daily News. He has put out seven albums and worked with the likes of John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, and Dr. John. The great Albert King called Ross “so fast, lightning would have to get on roller skates to catch him." But he's “equally at ease with softer and subtler nuance as he is tearing into harder-edged 12-bar blues." - The Long Island Press This is Ross's second appearance on our Soul of the Blues stages and his first Festival appearance.

DOGHOUSE BLUES BAND Fueling this big band's excellent musicianship and good-time energy is a knack for finding wonderful, obscure blues songs, which they arrange tightly and inventively and make their own. These, combined with a smattering of more familiar blues and blues- rock covers, make Dog House more deserving of the term “original" than many bands that write their own material.

SPEEDO'S BILLY ROSE BAND This six-piece force of blues nature has made its name by churning out classic rock, blues and originals, with male and female vocals alternating with founder Speedo Jones's soulful harmonica stylings. Jones has jammed and recorded with Albert Collins, Charles Brown, Larry McCray, Climax Blues Band, Matt “Guitar" Murphy, Kim Simmonds, and more. In 1988 he recorded the album “Have Blues Will Travel" with the great Mick Taylor.

Friday, July 27 9:00PM

Road Warriors Night

TERRY GARLAND has toured Europe more times than he can count and played more American blues festivals than we can possibly list here, but this world-traveling troubadour is rarely seen on stage in New York City. Terry features country and delta blues covers complemented by spirited originals. A master slide and acoustic guitarist, his meticulous finger-picking, his driving, percussive foot-stomping, and his vocal prowess combine for an evocative, engaging performance not to be missed.

ONE 2 MANY BAND brings its high energy blues and rock show back to our stage for a long-awaited return engagement. Just try not to get up and dance as the band, fronted by powerhouse vocalist Bette E. Ford, the hardest working (drinking) girl in show business, kicks out the jams. “Not smart enough to write originals, we just steal other bands' stuff and do it our way. Perfect music for dancin' and drinkin'."

PAT CISARANO reigned for years as queen of the Greenwich Village blues scene. A one-time protege of Tony Bennett, who famously called her “the greatest white blues singer on the planet," Pat returned to regular gigging last year and sounds as sultry and strong as ever. We're proud to have her on our stage.

Cover $10 (plus $ 7 Drink Minimum)

Saturday, July 28 9:00PM

Downstate Attack Night

Acoustic blues troubadour Jon Short sets the table for two of Long Island's top blues bands.

JON SHORT: “Steeped in the tradition of southern bluesmen who played in the era before World War II, Short stomps through his tunes on a National Reso-Phonic Delphi steel-bodied resonator guitar. He uses open and standard tunings, as well as finger-picking techniques and a bottle slide. Performing solo, Short says, allows him to stay truest to the genre he is passionate about, constantly rotating his intake of slide guitar masters Charley Patton, Son House, Bukka White and Robert Johnson."--Worcester Magazine

BREAKAWAY: A mainstay of the L.I. scene, the hard-driving men of Breakaway recently gained a whole new set of citified fans at the Fifth Avenue Festival in Brooklyn and the Outside Madison Square Garden Concert Series at One Penn Plaza in Manhattan. “Heavy Les Paul leads, sharp harmonica solos and three part harmonies put them someplace on the rock scale between Led Zeppelin and The Band." --Good Times

DARE YA BLUES BAND brings its sharp, boogie-flavored blues-rock right to the doorstep of your heart. Made up of seasoned veterans of the thriving Long Island blues scene, the band's uniqueness is all about original blues and adding twists to their favorite cover songs.

Cover $10 (plus $ 7 Drink Minimum)