Coming this September, a new event will be rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the tremendously popular Blues & Seafood Festival in Ilwaco. Renamed and moving up the Long Beach Peninsula to Ocean Park, Washington, the first Peninsula Rhythm & Blues Festival will host some of the finest blues musicians from the Northwest. Happening on Friday, September 15 and Saturday, September 16 the event will be held at Wilson Field, home of the Beach Baron’s Car Club, nestled between the Pacific Ocean and Willipa Bay.

Friday’s performances will begin with The Tim Kelly Band (6:00 pm), followed by The Hudson Rocket Band (7:30 pm) and closing the night with North Coast Blues with the Cadillac Horns (9:00 pm). Admission for Friday night is $15.00.

On Saturday, things kick off at noon with The Robin Gibson Band, Bottleneck Blues Band (2:00 pm), Tracey Fordice Band (4:00 PM), Blind Wolf (6:00 pm), with Franco Paletta & The Stingers for the festival finale (8:00 pm). Admission for Saturday is $18.00.

The Humane Society of Pacific County will be serving up adult beverages to benefit their wonderful animal shelter, and there will be food vendors, from BBQ to seafood.

Tickets for the Peninsula Rhythm & Blues Festival may be purchased in advance at Brownpapertickets.com.

Since 1997 Junkyard Jane has been one of the Northwest’s favorite bands with their mixture of Americana, blues, country, folk, funk, rock, and R&B — all in a conglomeration they call Swampabilly. Founding members Billy Stoops and Leanne Trevalyan have been constants with the band, who have included many of the region’s top players going through their ranks at one time or another. The band has been honored with numerous award nominations and wins over their tenure from both the Washington Blues Society and the Cascade Blues Association, and Junkyard Jane represented the latter at the International Blues Challenge in 2001 where they reached the finals.

In celebration of the band’s 20^th anniversary, they have put together a handful of shows featuring their original line-up with horn players Sue Orfield (sax), Randy Oxford (trombone) and Jim King (sax & harmonica), rhythm section Barbara Blue (bass) and Chris Leighton (drums) joining Stoops and Trevalyan.

Their anniversary tour will be heading down to Oregon on Sunday, September 17 with a stop at The Birk, 11139 Hwy 202 in Birkenfeld.  Show time is 3:00 pm show. Get your tickets in advance at Ticketomato.com for $10.00, or pay at the door day of show for $15.00. Expect a lot of songs about whiskey, frogs and all around good times with Junkyard Jane. It’ll be a party for sure!

Guitar camp for adults! This is the fourth annual Gorge Acoustic Blues Camp presented and hosted by the Menucha Retreat & Conference Center.  Immerse yourself in acoustic blues guitar for a long weekend with some of the world’s foremost and finest blues and fingerstyle guitarists. Participants can choose twelve classes with up to six from any one instructor/style you wish to concentrate on. There is at least one beginning level class each day. But make sure to register quickly, because space is limited to only 46 participants in order to provide each participant with plenty of instructor time and attention.

Artistic Director and instructor MARY FLOWER is renowned for her personal vision of roots music that blends ragtime, acoustic blues, and folk. She is technically dazzling yet grounded in the simplicity of early 20th century American music; her instrumental skill with the Piedmont blues guitar is at a level of mastery that takes most players a lifetime to hone. For this year’s event she’s joined by these outstanding musicians:

GUY DAVIS  is renowned for his songwriting, storytelling and performing at which he has excelled at for over twenty years. Influenced by the likes of Blind Willie McTell, Big Bill Broonzy, Lightning Hopkins, and Sonny Terry, he has spent his musical life carrying his message of the blues around the world, earning him the title “An Ambassador of the Blues”. As an instructor he wants to bring to both beginners and intermediate students the basics so that they can go into a jam session, and create more licks out of the ones they know, along with his philosophy that you can treat these songs as recombinant DNA, you can own it and you can create something new with it.

ORVILLE JOHNSON  can sing the blues, pick the guitar and dobro and just about anything with strings on it, write you a song and tell you a story and then teach you how to do it, too. He’s been doing it all his life since he grew up next to the Mississippi river and now, years later, after traveling the world and spreading the joy of music far and wide, he’s still at it. He’s a singer, player, songwriter, author, and record producer. He loves every aspect of music and wants to let you know about it.

VALERIE TURNER is a native New Yorker with southern roots in Virginia and Georgia who plays finger style Country Blues guitar, specializing in the Piedmont style of fingerpicking. Her eclectic repertoire was heavily influenced by the late John Cephas, a world renowned Country Blues musician in the Piedmont style, and her guitar playing is reminiscent of traditional blues greats like Mississippi John Hurt, Etta Baker, and Elizabeth Cotten.

The Acoustic Blues Guitar Camp is co-sponsored by the Cascade Blues Association and will be held from September  30 through October 4. Menucha retreat & Conference Center is located at 38711 Historic Columbia River Highway, in Corbett, OR. For more information about the Acoustic Guitar Camp, please visit the website Menucha.org.

On Sunday, October 1, a special staff concert will be held at 7:00 pm at the Corbett Grange Hall, 37493 NE Grange Hall Road, in Corbett. This Acoustic Blues Masters Concert is free for the Blues In The Gorge participants and open to the public with tickets available in advance through the Menucha website for $15.00 or $20.00 at the door.

For four decades, Johnny Nicholas has showcased his consummate musicianship and vocal skills and graced live music scenes across the country and abroad. The list of legendary musicians with whom he’s worked and performed alongside reads like a who’s who for blues and roots music, including artists such as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Muddy Waters, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Raitt, among many others. In fact, he gave guitarist Ronnie Earl his first gig, letting him play in his then band Guitar Johnny and the Rhythm Rockers. Nicholas also spent time as the lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for the Grammy Award winning band Asleep At The Wheel.

“Johnny Nicholas is one of the best bluesmen ever, black or white.” ~ Stephen Bruton

Scrappy Jud Newcomb is a Mississippi boy who hit Austin in the late eighties as a young guitar virtuoso, and has since evolved into a pillar of the local scene. He became the go-to guitarist in  the music city for both studio and on-stage work. He can play anything, with anybody, at any time, and when it comes his turn you’ll want to hear every phrase, every nuance, every lick. He’ll close his eyes and slip somewhere far away, and the beauty will just pour from his fingers like praise from a mother’s lips.

Johnny Nicholas and Scrappy Jud Newcomb have been touring together for some time now and will be appearing for an encore performance following their well-received gig at The Lake Theater & Café this past January on Monday, September 25 at 7:00 pm. Advanced tickets can be found online at Laketheatercafe.com for $15.00 general admission or VIP tables seating four closest to the stage for $80.00. The Lake Theater & Café is located at 106 N State Street in Lake Oswego.

Benjamin Booker is an American musician, singer, songwrite,r and guitarist who cites The Gun Club, Blind Willie Johnson, and T. Rex as influences. His music was described by the Chicago Tribune as “a raw brand of blues/boogie/soul,” by The Independent as “frenzied guitar-strumming and raw, soulful vocals that are hair-raising in intensity” and by SPIN as “bright, furious, explosive garage rock.”

With two recordings under his belt, Booker has been receiving huge praise from journalists and fans across the country. He has opened for performers such as Courtney Barnett and Jack White and his second album featured a duet with Mavis Staples.

Benjamin Booker will be returning to Portland for an all ages performance on Friday, September 8 at The Wonder Ballroom, 128 North Russell Street. Tickets are $18.00 – $20.00 through Ticketfly.com for this 9:00 pm show. Opening will be Brooklyn, New York-based rock band She keeps Bees.