Santa Rosa Blues Fest #1

Harp master, Grammy-nominated, Blues Music Award-winning author Mark Hummel is joined by these great artists from Chicago and Rochester, NY. Hummel has organized the Blues Harmonica Blowouts for 32 yrs and has played with a host of blues icons.
Tickets $30 adv, $35 at door

Mark will be joined by vocalist Oscar Wilson, who hails from Chicago's South Side, where he learned blues from his father's friends, Big Smokey Smothers and Honeyboy Edwards, as a kid. Wilson is a star attraction with The Cash Box Kings, one of the hottest new acts on Alligator Records, and is quickly gaining a following world-wide!

They are joined by guitarist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist Billy Flynn, who has recorded with countless other top flight artists, most recently Alligator Records' Cash Box Kings. Flynn played on Beyonce's Grammy winning version of "At Last" and the entire soundtrack of the film Cadillac Records.

The evening features 83-year-old blues singer/guitarist Joe Beard, who hails from Ashland, MS. Beard settled down in Memphis in his teens and started playing guitar but didn't play out till 1965, favoring John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters songs. A player in countless bands, in the 1990s Beard sang for James Cotton Trio. Beard and Billy Flynn most recently appear as guests on Hummel's 2020 CD Wayback Machine.

Also appearing are legendary Austin drummer Wes Starr (Marsha, The Wheel, Delbert, Anson, Tiny Tim, Willie and the bunch) and bassist extraordinaire Randy Bermudes (Musselwhite. Fab T-birds, Little Charlie and Nightcats, Rusty Zinn and many more)