Speaker 1: But see we have Charlene Leboor and Debbie Madison from
Speaker 1: Granted State Blue Society.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Hi, thank you.
Speaker 1: And we were actually kind of bonding off air over
Speaker 1: we have some well a mutual friend of ours, Nick David,
Speaker 1: and we're going to play actually at the end of
Speaker 1: our segment, we're going to play something from his band.
Speaker 1: But I've known Nick for a very long time. But
Speaker 1: the way that I originally met Nick, it was not
Speaker 1: through the music scene. I used to do Gcundeau and
Speaker 1: I met him at a Gkundeau class that we were
Speaker 1: both participating in, so you know, we would spa and
Speaker 1: wrestle and all that. So that's how I originally knew Nick.
Speaker 1: And then it turned out, you know, I learned he
Speaker 1: was a musician. But I haven't seen Nick in a
Speaker 1: very long time. But you both were saying that he's
Speaker 1: a good friend to the Grandit State Blue Society, and
Speaker 1: that does a lot.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, he's a great guy. He's very supportive and
Speaker 2: friendly with the Granite State Blue Society.
Speaker 1: Excellent. So what is that? What is the Granted State
Speaker 1: Blue Society.
Speaker 2: We are a registered nonprofit here in New Hampshire five
Speaker 2: oh one c three and we work to promote the
Speaker 2: blues and keeping the blues alive up here in the
Speaker 2: great Granite State outstanding.
Speaker 1: What do you what do you both do? I mean,
Speaker 1: do you do you each have specific duties or are
Speaker 1: your partners in this.
Speaker 2: Or yes, we have partners. We have a board and
Speaker 2: we all work together cohesively as one unit to promote
Speaker 2: shows in the local area. Ten shows. We do visibilities
Speaker 2: for the Granite State Blue Society to help keep give
Speaker 2: some visibility to make sure the Granite State Blue Society
Speaker 2: is people know that we exist.
Speaker 1: Yeah is what? Well, let me ask this, so when
Speaker 1: did this start? How long has the Grandite State Blue
Speaker 1: Society existed?
Speaker 2: We were incorporated I believe back in two thousand and
Speaker 2: two when they joined the Blue Foundation, which is the
Speaker 2: parent the umbrella organization for all the Blue Societies all
Speaker 2: over the world.
Speaker 1: Okay, wow, so there's a global organization that's interesting.
Speaker 2: It's headquartered down in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay. And then for the Granite Blue Society, where
Speaker 1: both of you involved right from the beginning.
Speaker 2: No, okay, No, I've been involved with them for maybe
Speaker 2: like seven years. Uh uh. And then I've risen up
Speaker 2: to the leadership position, and Debbie.
Speaker 3: I think it's been five years for me five years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what what brought you each into this? I mean,
Speaker 1: do you have did you have prior backgrounds?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 1: In the music industry? Are are you? Are you musicians
Speaker 1: or what? I'm curious to know what brought each of
Speaker 1: you into, uh into wanting to do this and and
Speaker 1: uh uh doing these events where there's an event coming
Speaker 1: up too that we're going to talk about in a
Speaker 1: moment that's next weekend. But I'm curious to kind of
Speaker 1: know what, uh what brought each of you into getting
Speaker 1: involved in this. Well.
Speaker 2: I ran into John Mann and Rock sand Man at
Speaker 2: the Auburn and started talking to them. We were out
Speaker 2: there for a blues jam and I found out about
Speaker 2: the Granite State Blue Society through them. They told me
Speaker 2: about the International Blues Challenge down in Memphis. So my
Speaker 2: husband and I decided we were going to Memphis that
Speaker 2: year because I love the blues, we both do yea
Speaker 2: And from there, I sat down in a club in
Speaker 2: Memphis and I sat down next to Audrey Fraser, who
Speaker 2: was the current president of the Blue Society, and I said, Wow,
Speaker 2: I didn't know this existed and I would really love
Speaker 2: to be involved. And that's how I became a board
Speaker 2: member of the Blue Society.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, and what about you, Debbie?
Speaker 5: And for me, I've had a lifelong love of the
Speaker 5: Blues and approximately five years ago I met Charlene and
Speaker 5: the former president Audrey okay, and they sort of reeled
Speaker 5: me in.
Speaker 1: Okay, how did they like? How did they reel you in?
Speaker 1: And like what did it? Like? What was it did
Speaker 1: they have to talk to you into getting involved or
Speaker 1: was it something that you kind of jumped at.
Speaker 3: Like I was willing from the start?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a lot of it comes from our
Speaker 2: love of the Blues, the people that are involved with
Speaker 2: the Blue Society, including our wonderful sponsors that we have.
Speaker 2: It's just that there is a very solid core group
Speaker 2: of people in New Hampshire and in the New England
Speaker 2: area that just love the Blues and it's just a wonderful,
Speaker 2: big blues family. We are very supportive of each other
Speaker 2: and that's kind of how it runs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Blues is so foundational to everything, like,
Speaker 1: you know, all the you know, absolutely, I always kind
Speaker 1: of think of it as as people are blues fans
Speaker 1: who don't necessarily realize that they are. Because if you're
Speaker 1: a fan of rock music, yes, you know, any any
Speaker 1: kind of any genre or subgenre of rock music. I
Speaker 1: mean they're all started, you know. And same with country
Speaker 1: and same with hip hop and everything. It all goes
Speaker 1: back to the same thing. It all goes back to
Speaker 1: the blues.
Speaker 2: Yes, you're absolutely correct.
Speaker 1: You know. Without the blues, I mean we might I'll
Speaker 1: be listening to I don't I don't know what we'd
Speaker 1: be listening to, Pat Boone. Maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 2: We're listening to classical music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess, yeah, And not that there's anything wrong
Speaker 1: with that, but but without the blues, you don't have
Speaker 1: everything else. Tell us about the event that's coming up August.
Speaker 2: Third, that's our annual Blues festival and it is a
Speaker 2: fundraiser for New Hampshire's children's charities. Since the inception of
Speaker 2: this it has always benefited the New Hampshire Children's charities,
Speaker 2: typically the Webster House here right here in Manchester, New Hampshire. Okay,
Speaker 2: this is a one day festival, rain or shine. The
Speaker 2: weather forecast for next week looks absolutely beautiful and it's
Speaker 2: out in Mason New Hampshire at the Range. Nicole Riggio
Speaker 2: has been hosting us for four years. This is our
Speaker 2: fourth festival and it's We've got our two Blues Challenge
Speaker 2: winners from last year. Nick Spencer, who who is a
Speaker 2: young man who plays guitar, sings and plays harmonica. He's sixteen.
Speaker 2: I think, well, excuse me, he just turned seventeen and
Speaker 2: he's heading off to Berkeley College of Music in the fall.
Speaker 1: Good for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a very talented young man and I'm very excited.
Speaker 2: We are all very excited to see where this takes him.
Speaker 2: And the One Time Band who you listen to on
Speaker 2: the intro with John Brockler and Paul Galucci, they will
Speaker 2: be playing our festival as well. We have the Diego
Speaker 2: Mango Band. They're from Western Massachusetts and he was at
Speaker 2: the International Blues Challenge this year as well. We have
Speaker 2: Cheryl Arena featuring the wonderful lovely Queen of the Blues,
Speaker 2: Tony Lynn Washington. And we have the Knickerbocker All Stars
Speaker 2: are coming up and we have Nick David Wicked lowdown Outstanding.
Speaker 1: So we're going to do something we were talking about
Speaker 1: this off air. We're going to do something special for
Speaker 1: our listeners. So if they want to go, they have
Speaker 1: to so they can contact you. How should we through
Speaker 1: social media? Would that be the best way?
Speaker 2: I think social media if you would message us on
Speaker 2: our Facebook app and that would work.
Speaker 1: So if you're the first one, you got to be
Speaker 1: the first ones? Is it to? What are we doing?
Speaker 1: Two tickets?
Speaker 2: Two tickets will give a pair of tickets.
Speaker 1: To get a pair of tickets, you have to message
Speaker 1: the Grandit State Blue Society through Facebook and say that
Speaker 1: you heard this conversation here on this You got to
Speaker 1: say the name of the radio show that you're at
Speaker 1: it on and the name of the station WMNH ninety
Speaker 1: five point three FM. But if you offer that information,
Speaker 1: the first one to do that to message on Facebook
Speaker 1: the Granite State Blue Society will get two tickets. Complement
Speaker 1: theory to this amazing event. And by the way, where
Speaker 1: is Mason Exactly? What is it near?
Speaker 2: So I guess depending on where you would be driving from,
Speaker 2: it's down near the Massachusetts border. It's south of Amherst. Like,
Speaker 2: oh I go one on one, yeah, yeah, Route thirty one.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I buy Mananak water. You just follow that
Speaker 2: down maybe ten miles and it's on Turnpike Road. It's
Speaker 2: pretty easy to find.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, so be the first ones to message
Speaker 1: Granda State Blue Society on Facebook mentioned this conversation on
Speaker 1: this radio show on this station. And you can get in,
Speaker 1: you can you get your two tickets. And now you said,
Speaker 1: this is the fourth one.
Speaker 2: The fourth one that we've held in Mason at the Range.
Speaker 2: Prior to this, it was in New Boston at the
Speaker 2: four Each Fairgrounds.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, okay, many many, many years. So talk to
Speaker 4: me about putting this together. I assume this is probably
Speaker 4: something that you're and I just know from my own
Speaker 4: experience in doing answer promotion and being involved in annual events,
Speaker 4: I assume this is something that you're doing some planning
Speaker 4: for the entire year, right, because something that people outside
Speaker 4: of the business don't know or who've never done any
Speaker 4: kind of production of an event like this, an annual event,
Speaker 4: and this is a big event. You know, you've got
Speaker 4: a lot of artists plan on. This is how much
Speaker 4: work actually goes into it. And it's not you know,
Speaker 4: it's not a matter of you know, you contact a
Speaker 4: bunch of bands and they're all just going to show
Speaker 4: up and you know, and it's a quick easy this
Speaker 4: is this is complicated stuff, right, This is a lot
Speaker 4: of work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we it does and we plan, like we're
Speaker 2: already talking bands for next year's festival. We've already got
Speaker 2: some in the in the queue for next year. We
Speaker 2: do start talking about this and it's kind of we
Speaker 2: are going to be in a little hiatus, I think,
Speaker 2: you know, September, October, November, but we have to do
Speaker 2: a fundraiser for our Blues Challenge winners this year, and
Speaker 2: then we just start planning again for next year's festival.
Speaker 2: And it is a lot of work. And we do
Speaker 2: have a board number Rachel Bernard, and she has been
Speaker 2: a fantastic asset for our board in terms of her
Speaker 2: knowledge about how, like you said, how all of these
Speaker 2: things come together. Yeah, and you know, many hands make
Speaker 2: light work.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, how many people are on the board we
Speaker 1: have six? Six okay? And how do you how do
Speaker 1: you in terms of deciding who's going to play at
Speaker 1: the festival, because I assume you probably have a lot
Speaker 1: of submissions, right or people who contact you who say, hey,
Speaker 1: I've got a blues project we'd love to play.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it kind of it works that way as well.
Speaker 2: We do have people that reach out to us, but
Speaker 2: we always give a slot to our Granite State Blues
Speaker 2: Society Challenge winners. They will always be on our stage
Speaker 2: the following year, and then we kind of look around
Speaker 2: at new acts and people that we've seen. Some people
Speaker 2: we see in Memphis at the International Blues Challenge, Oh
Speaker 2: that we would not be able to catch their act
Speaker 2: if they we didn't go to Memphis. So I would
Speaker 2: recommend if you want to go to Memphis and you
Speaker 2: want to get entrenched in a weekend of blues, go
Speaker 2: to go to the International Blues Challenge right right?
Speaker 1: Would you say, is Memphis, Tennessee? Is that kind of
Speaker 1: the mecca for blues right now in the United States?
Speaker 1: Or are there are there other cities that maybe people
Speaker 1: wouldn't think of necessarily where there's a really hot blue
Speaker 1: scene happening.
Speaker 5: Well, I think Beale Street, Memphis is really the home
Speaker 5: of the blues, is it, Yeah?
Speaker 3: But there are many many other places.
Speaker 2: There's like Chicago blues. I mean we have even locally
Speaker 2: we have a lot of fantastic clubs. But you know,
Speaker 2: I think Milford and Manchester we have a pretty vibrant
Speaker 2: blues community, and I'm apologized if I've left anybody out,
Speaker 2: But you know, it's like trying to think of everything
Speaker 2: on the fly. Yeah, but I do. Yes, It's kind
Speaker 2: of like the mecca. Everybody goes there that wants to
Speaker 2: get deeply entrenched in the blues.
Speaker 1: Tell us about the challenge again, the Blues Challenge. I'm
Speaker 1: curious to learn more about that.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, we hold a challenge every year. There are
Speaker 5: two categories, solo, duo and band group. We also have
Speaker 5: a youth category as well. Okay, and the winners will
Speaker 5: go to Memphis to represent New Hampshire in the International
Speaker 5: Blues Challenge.
Speaker 1: Oh okay. How many people enter the challenge here?
Speaker 3: I think we had six bands this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really varies here to year. We just had
Speaker 2: it May nineteenth up at the Bank of New Hampshire stage.
Speaker 2: They were very generous to host us this year. I
Speaker 2: would also recommend that people check out their website because
Speaker 2: they do have some blue shows coming up. But we
Speaker 2: do start making announcements probably in like March of April
Speaker 2: for next year's challenge will be held. It's typically held
Speaker 2: in May. Okay. We just ft the bands and make
Speaker 2: sure they're blues they do have to have some original
Speaker 2: music as well. It's favored, it's looked upon very favorably
Speaker 2: by the judges in Memphis, and then we just have
Speaker 2: a fun day listening to blues.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, uh. Do you know how many artists are
Speaker 1: involved in the Is it is in Memphis? Is that
Speaker 1: the international challenge? Correct? Okay, so there must.
Speaker 3: Be a lot yeah, held every January?
Speaker 1: Okay, do you know how many? I mean, is it?
Speaker 1: Is it in the like? How many artists are in
Speaker 1: that challenge?
Speaker 3: Is it in the hundred?
Speaker 1: It is the hundreds?
Speaker 2: Yeah. The first year I started going, uh, it was
Speaker 2: It's amazing and you really have to run from club
Speaker 2: to club and back and forth across the street to
Speaker 2: catch all the music. And then you start hearing in
Speaker 2: the buzz on the street like, oh my god, you
Speaker 2: got to catch these guys, and it's very exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, does anybody? Does anybody ever approach the Granite
Speaker 1: State Blues Society? Who you have to? I don't know
Speaker 1: if turn away would be the right way of putting it,
Speaker 1: but something that I've always found kind of interesting and
Speaker 1: speaking as a musician myself, is blues is one of
Speaker 1: those genres and like I said, it's also the foundation
Speaker 1: of everything. But not everyone necessarily agrees on what qualifies
Speaker 1: as blues. You know. Like, you've got a lot of
Speaker 1: rock bands that are kind of the blues based, and
Speaker 1: which is an odd term in and of itself because
Speaker 1: it's all blues based, right, But you've got some rock
Speaker 1: bands who have kind of a bluesy sound who some
Speaker 1: might consider to be blues but aren't necessarily blues. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of an example of somebody. It
Speaker 1: seems like there's it seems like there's even been bands
Speaker 1: that will put the word blues in their name, and
Speaker 1: there's any there's an example of that specifically that I
Speaker 1: it's in the back of my mind. I can't quite
Speaker 1: it's the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite
Speaker 1: think of who it is. But not everyone necessarily agrees
Speaker 1: on what is blues and what is more just blues
Speaker 1: based rock, you know what I mean? Yeah, do you
Speaker 1: ever find that where someone approaches you and says, hey,
Speaker 1: I've got a blues project, and then you listen to
Speaker 1: their music and you go, ah, this isn't really blues,
Speaker 1: you know? Does that ever happen?
Speaker 2: Well, when we do have the Blues Challenge. We we
Speaker 2: bring in three judges that are have a very strong
Speaker 2: blues background. None of them are board members. It's very
Speaker 2: and you're right, sometimes it is subjective. And yes, we've
Speaker 2: had a couple of people that applied this year that
Speaker 2: when we vetted the bands, because you don't want country
Speaker 2: rock up there, and you know, when it's a Blues
Speaker 2: Challenge and people are coming in anticipating blues. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 2: it does happen, and we very kindly and gently thank
Speaker 2: them for their interest, but we you know, we want
Speaker 2: them to make sure they're playing in the blues genre
Speaker 2: because there would be no point in them, you know,
Speaker 2: a hip hop singer coming in to compete in the
Speaker 2: Blues Challenge.
Speaker 1: Right, right, Matt Kirshner is in the Facebook live chat
Speaker 1: and says blues traveler. Lol. Yes, that's who I was
Speaker 1: trying to think of it a perfect example. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: blues traveler. And again, you know you hear you can
Speaker 1: understand why they would call themselves blues traveler, but it's
Speaker 1: not blues. I mean, he's got a harmonica, sure, but
Speaker 1: that's but that's not all it takes. Right, And you've
Speaker 1: probably had conversations similar with with people about that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, right, Like, this isn't really what we're looking
Speaker 1: for here, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's typically only with the challenge because we
Speaker 2: want to make sure that listen, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: be critical critical of anybody, right right. I don't play
Speaker 2: an instrument, I don't sing, and so I just kind
Speaker 2: of try to enjoy all of it as much as
Speaker 2: I can. But we do. We keep our festival in
Speaker 2: the blues genre. We keep our challenge in the blues genre,
Speaker 2: and we will promote shows on our Facebook page about
Speaker 2: blue shows that are coming up, blue sjams. If you
Speaker 2: know have a blue sjam, send it our way. We'll
Speaker 2: put it up on our Facebook page and our website.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now does a Grand State Blue Society. You've got
Speaker 1: the annual event? Do you do other events? I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you promote other events that people are haven't as
Speaker 1: you just said, but do you also do other smaller
Speaker 1: events throughout the year or do you just focus on
Speaker 1: the one annual event.
Speaker 2: It's a big lift to pull the festival off the ground,
Speaker 2: no doubt. Then we move towards our Blues Challenge. We
Speaker 2: would like to do other events. We've talked about it, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, having another something else, but we haven't pulled
Speaker 2: it off yet, and that's definitely on the back burner
Speaker 2: for us.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of work and.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of opportunity. There's so many good blues
Speaker 2: musicians in this area that we are very for Tonette.
Speaker 2: You can always find a show.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 5: We also do a couple of fundraisers for our Blues
Speaker 5: Challenge winners. Oh, help defray their cost to Memphis.
Speaker 2: Oh, excellent, forgot about that.
Speaker 1: Thanks, Yeah, that's that's great. Yeah, and tell us again
Speaker 1: about you mentioned Webster House earlier. Can you tell us
Speaker 1: more about that, because you know, certainly living in Manchester,
Speaker 1: I'm aware of the Webster House. I've heard of it.
Speaker 1: I don't really know much about it though, and many
Speaker 1: of our listeners probably don't know either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Webster House. I can't tell you how long
Speaker 2: they've been established, but it is a home away from
Speaker 2: home for children who need to be out of the
Speaker 2: home through no fault of their own. I don't know
Speaker 2: why they chose that charity way back in the past,
Speaker 2: but last year we were able to donate over five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars to them and they were able to purchase
Speaker 2: a nice, big, brand new, professional, high quality gas stove
Speaker 2: for their kitchen because they're feeding lots of kids and
Speaker 2: they do cooking. They teach the kids how to cook
Speaker 2: and do things like that. Yeah, it's been a it's
Speaker 2: a really well established children's home here in New Hampshire.
Speaker 2: I believe this year we are going to bring in
Speaker 2: the Nashua Children's Home as well as one of our
Speaker 2: beneficiaries of the festival.
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent. Are there other charities involved too or no,
Speaker 1: we just know we Webster Houses.
Speaker 2: Webster House has been Yeah, they've been the focus over
Speaker 2: the years and we've, like I said, decided that the
Speaker 2: National Children's Home we're bringing them in as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent. And the number of artists how many
Speaker 1: did you say? Seven? How many artists are performing at
Speaker 1: the festival?
Speaker 2: Oh, I forgot Praccash Slim is going to be there.
Speaker 2: He was elite the latest edition. Do you have him counted?
Speaker 1: One?
Speaker 2: Two?
Speaker 1: It's a lot.
Speaker 2: It's a full ding, like six or seven?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent. Has it always been uh? Has
Speaker 1: it always been that many from the beginning or is
Speaker 1: this something that's kind of grown over the years.
Speaker 2: Well, we do try to keep it. It's a one
Speaker 2: day festival. We try to get the gates open at twelve.
Speaker 2: The last act will be getting off stage about seven thirty.
Speaker 2: You brobab in the Mosquitos and the bug start. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's kind We definitely don't want to be there
Speaker 2: into eight, nine, ten o'clock at night because it's a
Speaker 2: big lift. Yeah, it's a long day. Yeah, we have
Speaker 2: a lot of fun doing it. It's very enjoyable and.
Speaker 1: When it's over, too, it must be kind of a relief,
Speaker 1: right tremendously but very very satisfying. Yeah, it's cool that
Speaker 1: you know, you're raising money for Webster Houts with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's amazing. Yeah, do you have so there might
Speaker 1: be people listening who either don't know a lot about
Speaker 1: blues music or maybe kind of used to be very
Speaker 1: you know, either listening to it a lot or playing it.
Speaker 1: Maybe musicians who maybe kind of fell out of it,
Speaker 1: fell out of the scene a bit. Do you ever,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you have conversations with people sometimes where you
Speaker 1: have to kind of direct them at maybe resources to
Speaker 1: learn about blues artists and and and about the genre.
Speaker 2: Well, we do have a blues education portion of our
Speaker 2: Blue Society intro.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's what I was wondering about. Yeah, tell us
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: So that has Rachel Bernard actually took that over when
Speaker 2: we lost our one of our board members who was
Speaker 2: headlining that. She's brought some Jimmy Carpenter into the schools
Speaker 2: I believe, was it Sohegan or Milford. Jimmy Carpenter's a
Speaker 2: you can you know more about him than I do.
Speaker 5: He is a singer and saxophone player. Who I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, she's just telling you to make sure you
Speaker 1: talk directly into the mic.
Speaker 3: Hell about what I was saying.
Speaker 2: So Jimmy Carpenter is he plays horn and he went
Speaker 2: into the school. I wasn't there, but she did get
Speaker 2: bring him into the school. We've done stuff with Easter Seals,
Speaker 2: doing a bluesead program with them. I haven't been involved
Speaker 2: in that. So yeah, you know, it's it's not something
Speaker 2: I can speak eloquently about. Yeah, there's definitely that portion
Speaker 2: of what we try to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent, are you already? Well? Actually, let
Speaker 1: me ask it this this way. So what's the best
Speaker 1: way say to somebody listening who would like to submit
Speaker 1: something for either for the Blues Challenge in the future
Speaker 1: or next year's because as you mentioned, you're already you know,
Speaker 1: And that's how it works, right when you're doing an
Speaker 1: annual festival, you've you've got to be thinking ahead, way ahead.
Speaker 1: You're already thinking about next year, right, Yes, So for
Speaker 1: people who want to submit something, maybe they want to
Speaker 1: get in, or maybe they just want to get involved,
Speaker 1: maybe they want to volunteer for the Granted State Blue Society.
Speaker 1: What's the best way for people to reach out to you?
Speaker 5: They can check out our website Granted statelu dot org.
Speaker 5: We also have a Facebook page, So reach out yea much?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent, and are there because obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: we have people who listen online from other places. I
Speaker 1: assume there's other variations people. I mean, you probably don't
Speaker 1: know offhand, but I assume there's other organizations, probably in
Speaker 1: every state across the country that has some some does
Speaker 1: something similar to what you do in terms of promoting
Speaker 1: blues music and educating people on it and festivals and
Speaker 1: events and whatnot.
Speaker 2: And if they go to if they go to the
Speaker 2: Blues Foundation website, they can you know if anybody is
Speaker 2: listening in from say Illinois, you can find your blues chapter. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I've been out in Pennsylvania and went to a blues
Speaker 2: jam and directed a young man to their I said,
Speaker 2: you've got to find your local blues chapter. You have
Speaker 2: to go find them and introduce yourself. Most of the
Speaker 2: states have them, I believe.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's uh. That organization you were talking about too,
Speaker 1: is international, right, it's.
Speaker 2: The it's the parent one, the Blues Foundation. They have
Speaker 2: a website. They are the ones that host the International
Speaker 2: Blues Challenge.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so there's no shortage of resources for people, No, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and where and yeah, wherever you are in the country
Speaker 1: or in the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, does that ever.
Speaker 1: Surprise you when you're you know, in terms of thinking about, Wow,
Speaker 1: there's actually other countries where they have where this organization
Speaker 1: is operating, and there's actually blues like it's funny to
Speaker 1: think about in a way, right, you know, like maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know France. Is there a blues scene there?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably, yeah, right.
Speaker 2: There is, there's some. And I remember being surprised the
Speaker 2: first time I did go to Memphis there were blues
Speaker 2: players there from Japan. And it doesn't surprise me, honestly,
Speaker 2: I just never thought about it before, right that you
Speaker 2: know there and they're from everywhere and they come to
Speaker 2: Memphis and they just have a blast.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This year in Memphis it was really cold and icy,
Speaker 2: it had snowed. Everything was just a mess down there
Speaker 2: because they can't they're not in New England or.
Speaker 1: They're not prepared for for anything wintry.
Speaker 2: And we had We came across a young man, a
Speaker 2: young couple, they were building a snowman and I did
Speaker 2: he say they were from France. He said, we don't
Speaker 2: get snow over there, so it was kind of fun.
Speaker 1: That's cool. That's cool though.
Speaker 2: And you said Japan to Japan, Germany, Australia, Korea, Italy, Yes,
Speaker 2: there's they're they're from everywhere. England, Oh my god. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's just amazing, like just sitting here like all the
Speaker 2: like the Cinelli brothers they were over from I want
Speaker 2: to say England. They were fantastic. I love them outstanding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, because we think of blues
Speaker 1: as being you know, well an American, yes, and you
Speaker 1: know that this is where it started, but.
Speaker 2: The bluesos are from yep.
Speaker 1: But music is so you know, a music scene in
Speaker 1: any genre can happen anywhere, and I think the Internet
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with that too, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean certainly, you know, thirty years ago, we wouldn't
Speaker 1: necessarily be talking about you know, yeah, there's this blues
Speaker 1: band in Japan right now, you know. But with the Internet,
Speaker 1: it has made everything, you know, it has made music
Speaker 1: truly global in every genre, which I think is a
Speaker 1: beautiful thing. It's a wonderful thing. We're gonna we got
Speaker 1: to start to wrap up this segment and we are
Speaker 1: going to play something from Nick David's band. But remind us, oh,
Speaker 1: actually two things. One we got to remind everybody if
Speaker 1: they want a pair of tickets, you can get a
Speaker 1: pair of tickets to the event August third. But what
Speaker 1: you got to do is contact on Facebook granted State
Speaker 1: Blues Society, and the first one to do that, you
Speaker 1: got to mention this conversation on this radio show, on
Speaker 1: this radio station, and you can get a pair of
Speaker 1: tickets to the event. What's the official name.
Speaker 2: Of the event again, Blues on the Range.
Speaker 1: Blues on the Range, Yes, where.
Speaker 5: Some people might remember barn Full of the blues. Uh
Speaker 5: the festival we had before? Oh we moved to the Range.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, where did you used to do it?
Speaker 3: New Boston, New Hampshire, four eah Field.
Speaker 1: Oh oh okay? Why why the move is? Is the
Speaker 1: uh is the place in Mason just bigger, easier to.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, the dreaded COVID hit and changed a
Speaker 2: lot of things. And then when we went back into
Speaker 2: uh try to go back to New Boston, we were
Speaker 2: unable to secure that venue for the festival. So we
Speaker 2: started looking around and came across the Range with in
Speaker 2: the Cold Geerio and she was She's been absolutely fantastic
Speaker 2: to us. It's a beautiful little venue out in Mason.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow afternoon, uh, Frankie Boy in the Blues Express will
Speaker 2: be playing. She does a Sunday afternoon blues uh thing
Speaker 2: with the Barbecue Blues. It's bring it, bring a lawn chair,
Speaker 2: bring you money, sit down, enjoy yourself. Very crazy Sunday
Speaker 2: until she closes in the fall.
Speaker 1: Oh outstanding. Okay, good to know, good to know, but yeah,
Speaker 1: so Blues on the Range. If you want a pair
Speaker 1: of tickets to that again, contact Granted State Blue Society
Speaker 1: on Facebook. Mentioned this conversation on this show on this station.
Speaker 1: Be the first ones to do it though, so don't
Speaker 1: do not procrastinate, and you can come to this amazing event.
Speaker 1: And again, where should people go online? What's the website?
Speaker 1: The main website for Granted State Blues www.
Speaker 2: Dot Granite State Blues dot org and you can find
Speaker 2: us on Facebook.
Speaker 1: Outstanding.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll be.
Speaker 5: Selling tickets to the festival advanced sales until Friday, okay,
Speaker 5: and that those are available at Granted State Blues dot org.
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent. Well, listen Charlene and Debbie, thank you both
Speaker 1: so much for coming in today. This has been wonderful.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for giving us the time and
Speaker 2: hosting us