News Release

2005 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival announces blues-cruise performers

Tickets now available for four-day festival pass and blues cruise

PORTLAND , Ore. (May 19, 2005) -- Tickets are on sale for four-day festival passes and for blues cruises for the 2005 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, presented by First Tech Credit Union, July 1 to 4, festival organizers announced today.

NEWS UPDATE: Friday night's Hoodoo Moon Blues Cruise and Saturday night's Midnight Mambo Blues Cruise are SOLD OUT. Tickets are still available for Sunday's night's cruise and for all afternoon cruises.

“Blues cruise tickets sold out quickly at last year’s Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, disappointing many blues fans. So we’ve added an additional evening cruise to this year’s schedule,” said Peter Dammann, festival talent coordinator.

The 8th annual Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, presented by First Tech, offers blues fans a chance to enjoy SIX blues cruises: three afternoon and three late-night cruises.

Blues fans will have a chance to hear festival artists perform on intimate stages on multiple decks of the Portland Spirit as the boat leisurely cruises the beautiful Willamette River .

To purchase tickets, call TicketsWest at 503-224-8499 or
1-800-992-8499, or visit www.ticketswest.com .

Blues Cruises are in addition to the festival’s stellar line-up of more than 100 performers on four stages at Tom McCall Waterfront Park on the banks of the Willamette River in downtown Portland .

Four-day festival grounds passes , also for sale in advance through TicketsWest, are $15 plus a convenience fee.

Without a four-day grounds pass, daily admission is a donation of $5 and two cans of food per person per day. All donations benefit Oregon Food Bank’s work to eliminate hunger in Oregon and southwest Washington … because no one should be hungry.

Blues-cruise performers include:

* Hoodoo Moon Blues Cruise : Friday, July 1, 10:45 p.m. to 1:15 a.m. Board at 10:15 p.m. For ages 21 and older. Photo ID required. $25 plus convenience fee ($30 after July 1).

The dance floor on the Portland Spirit’s middle Columbia Deck will rock to a double-bill featuring acclaimed blues harmonica ace, Charlie Musselwhite, presented by First Tech Credit Union, and Baton Rouge guitarist Kenny Neal and his band. Musician Magazine calls Neal “an all American bluesman ... He lays into the blues like nothing can stop him or tame him.” The Chicago Tribune calls Musselwhite “a venerated blues harmonica elder at his creative peak. His approach is imaginative, stunning and utterly convincing.”

On the Portland Spirit’s river-level Willamette Deck, Salem ’s Handy-Award nominated guitarist Mark Lemhouse will split the bill with Portland duo Steve Bradley and Thad Beckman.

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* Sail On, Sister! Women in Blues Cruise: Saturday, July 2, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Board at
2 p.m. For all ages. $15 for adults and $10 for children 12 and younger (plus convenience fee). ($20 for adults and $15 for children after July 1). Photo ID required for adults.

 Chicago blues-belter Zora Young, backed by keyboard ace Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne and his band, will put a tough, female spin on roadhouse blues on the Columbia Deck. On the lower deck, pianist Janice Scroggins will team up with vocalist Patrick Minner. The cruise will also feature Portland blues chanteuse, Duffy Bishop, and acoustic blues guitarist and educator Mary Flower.

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* Midnight Mambo Cruise: SOLD OUT!!!

Saturday, July 2, 10:45 p.m. to 1:15 a.m. Board at
10:15 p.m.  For ages 21 and older. $25 plus convenience fee ($30 after July 1). Photo ID required.

Indulge in a night of Mardi Gras voodoo-funk with some of Louisiana 's most acclaimed blues and funk acts.

On the middle Columbia Deck, Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, will show why Bonnie Raitt called funky, Crescent City-based, keyboard wizard, Jon Cleary, “the Ninth Wonder of the World” and made him a member of her band.

Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, hailing from Lafayette , La. , will serve up “exhilarating dance-floor zydeco … Spirited party-music, the band dashes, sprints and zips through crowd-pleasing boogies.” (CD Review). (more)

On the lower Willamette Deck, New Orleans saxophone expatriate Reggie Houston (an alumnus of the Fats Domino, Irma Thomas and Charmaine Neville bands) will team up with Portland’s DK4. Powered by piano ace D.K. Stewart (an alumnus of Robert Cray and Curtis Salgado bands), the DK4 also will host a set with Louisiana-born guitar ace Sherman Robertson, who, in the words of Living Blues magazine, delivers “some of the best Texas-Louisiana soul-blues anyone could hope for.” The upper deck will feature Portland ’s Ron Rogers Band.

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* Gospel Ship Cruise: Sunday, July 3, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Board at 2 p.m. $15 for adults and $10 for children 12 and younger (plus convenience fee). ($20 for adults and $15 for children after July 1). Photo ID required for adults.

Sunday afternoon's cruise will feature uplifting, blues-based gospel music by Campbell Brothers, masters of Sacred Steel, the tradition that fuses the twang of pedal-steel guitars to the upbeat grooves of Afro-American Pentecostal Church .

Sharing the bill, will be Roy Tyler & New Directions, led by the former lead singer for the Gospel Hummingbirds. Based in Oakland , Calif. , this group is fast emerging as one of the nation's finest gospel-blues groups. The cruise will include Portland blues belter Rae Gordon & Friends doing a gospel set.

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* Moonlight Shanghai Cruise: Sunday, July 3, 10:45 pm to 1:30 a.m. Board at
10:15 p.m.  For ages 21 and older. $25 plus convenience fee. ($30 after July 1).
Photo ID required.

The Moonlight Shanghai Cruise will feature blues guitar pyrotechnics from national and regional guitar slingers.

Rock the boat with legendary blues guitar ace Guitar Shorty on Portland Spirit’s Columbia Deck. Guitar Shorty’s blazing guitar and incredible stage antics influenced the likes of Jimi Hendrix (his nephew by marriage) and Buddy Guy. Sharing this hard-rocking bill is Austin Texas guitarist/songwriter and Bonnie Raitt Band alumnus Stephen Bruton. “He’s a guitar player’s guitar player, a songwriter’s singer and the producer of some of the finest alternative country and R&B recordings I have heard in several years,” raved Jackson Browne.

Too Slim and the Taildraggers with special guest Big Monti Amundson will rock the river-level Willamette Deck. On the upper deck, Australian blues guitarist Jimi Hocking, recent winner of the solo acoustic category in the International Blues competition, will perform. Additional artists to be announced.

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* Blue Bayou Cruise: Monday, July 4, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Board at 2 p.m. $15 for adults and $10 for children 12 and younger (plus convenience fee). ($20 for adults and $15 for children after July 1). Photo ID required for adults.

Sample blues from the Lone Star state on the Blue Bayou Cruise with the Doyle Bramhall Band. This legendary vocalist-drummer has been at the heart of the Texas blues scene since the 1960s and wrote several of Stevie Ray Vaughan's signature hits. Also from Austin, though with roots in the Louisiana bayou, Papa Mali & the Instigators serve up Southern Fried Soul, New Orleans Funk and Tribal Hooddoo rhythms.

On the river-level Willamette Deck, Austin ’s hottest up-and-coming blues guitarist, Gary Clark Jr., will serve up a solo set.

Rounding out the lineup will be Snakeboy's Viper Band, a duo of Texas expatriate slide-guitar master, the Original Snakeboy and drummer Corey Burdon. Recently relocated to Portland, Snakeboy took first place at the 2000 National Slide Guitar Festival. Additional artists to be announced.

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All cruises board from the seawall in front of McCall Fountain at S.W. Salmon and Naito Parkway , just north of the A&E Front Porch Stage. The cruises will head south up the Willamette River to Oregon City , and/or north past the Port of Portland docks.

 The 2005 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is presented by First Tech Credit Union with major sponsorship by CO-OP Network, HSBC, KINK fm102, The Oregonian A&E, JetBlue Airways, Good Neighbor Pharmacy and Chipotle.

Supporting Sponsorship is provided by iQ Credit Union, Miller Genuine Draft, Pepsi, Snapple, Beringer Wine, Frito Lay Snacks, Dreyer's Ice Cream, Yoshida Sauce, Brown Cow Yogurt, Portland Oregon Visitors Association, Riverplace Hotel, Marriott Portland Downtown Waterfront, KBOO, KOIN TV6, OregonLive.com, Green Mountain Energy, NW Natural, Music Millennium, Guitar Center, Pearl Pharmacy, Beard’s Framing, Sprint PCS, Ethos, Inc., Cascade Zydeco Association, Cascade Blues Association, Oregon Potters Association, Northwest Film Center, Edge Design, Gary Houston Design and Pacific Northwest College of Art.

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Contacts:

Jean Kempe-Ware, public relations manager
Oregon Food Bank
503-419-4170 (office)
503-572-7588 (cell)
jkempe-ware@oregonfoodbank.org

Peter Dammann, talent coordinator
503-283-3225