What’s on Tap for September’s General Membership Meeting . . .

Melody Ballroom, 615 SE Alder St., Portland
Wednesday, September 3rd 7:00 pm
Members always Free – Non-members $3.00
Opening Acoustic Set – The Mudbugs
Second Electric Set – Billee Reis with guests The Stevens Hess Band

Oh yeah, we’re going to kick September off with an exciting night of blues at the Cascade Blues Association’s General Membership Meeting, with good friends. In fact, for the next few months until the end of the year you will be seeing new faces and some very familiar ones, too. Always one of the best blues nights of every month, you’re not going to want to miss this one.

The opening set for the meeting will be a newly formed acoustic duo called “The Mudbugs,” pairing one of Portland’s favorite couples, KG and Candy Jackson.

KG has been a Portland blues mainstay for over two decades and is currently the bass player for Michael Osborn and The Drivers.  KG also plays rhythm and lead guitars, and is a Muddy nominated Best Male Vocalist.  He is a prolific songwriter and many of The Mudbugs tunes will be originals.

Candy Jackson, on accordions and washboard, studied piano as a child.  She didn’t discover the accordion until her 50th birthday when she woke up on that day and declared to KG that she wanted to learn accordion.  KG realized she is a very determined gal when she puts her mind to something and watched her wrestle that accordion to the ground.  He invited her to join his band “KG Jackson and The Shakers” and she was honored to be part of that band’s Muddy nomination for Best New Band.  She has learned to play accordion at Centrum’s annual Blues Week up in Port Townsend under the tutelage of blues and zydeco greats such as Jude Taylor, Sunpie Barnes, Curley Taylor, and most recently Corey Ledet, and her mentor Washboard Chaz.

The Mudbugs have diverse musical interests and will play some Blues, Zydeco, Country, and all things Americana.  This is their debut performance so let’s give them a very warm and friendly CBA welcome!

For the second set of the night, we will present Billee Reis. Known for her passion and authenticity, When Billee started her own band in Montana she realized she was made for music and hit the ground running. Since then she has been performing regularly in Montana and Portland including being a finalist in the Colgate Country showdown as well as performing at several festivals. Billee sings Soul, Blues, Country, Rock, Jazz, Pop, R&B and is known for her unique ability to change her voice to suit the style of her music. Once she moved to Portland she joined forces with the highly regarded 12 Media Music Studio with producers Erick Gilbertson and Tony Coleman. She has also been selected for and looking forward to making her first television appearance as a featured musical act for a nationally syndicated network and then coming up this month she will be a guest feature for a radio interview where she will be airing some original pieces from the studio as well as performing live.

Joining Billee for her set will be CBA favorites and last year’s recipients of the Best New Act at the Muddy Awards, The Stevens Hess Band. With Sonny “Smokin’”Hess’ stellar guitar playing, Vicki Stevens hard blowing harmonica and vocals, Kelly Pierce on drums and Jim Hively on bass, this is an outstanding outfit that will not only shine in their own talents, but will draw out Billee’s incredible voice as well.

The Stevens Hess Band has been working steadily over this summer performing at venues and festivals all over the Northwest. And they’ve just completed a brand new CD titled Gold Mine that releases this month.

The music line-up for September is over the top, but don’t forget to pick up a drawing ticket when you come in so you’ll have the chance to win CDs, concert tickets and other prizes. And yes, we will also have the multi-CD winner take all package that you could potentially win by purchasing a $1.00 ticket. Or purchase as many as you’d like as all the money brought in by these ticket sales go to help the CBA in a variety of ways.

Don’t miss out on the meeting, it’s always the best way to start every blues month!