Tab Benoit, Larkin Poe and Samantha Fish Among Top Artists Performing
Courtesy photo.
FLAGSTAFF — Flagstaff Blues and Brews, the largest Blues Festival in Arizona, announced their impressive lineup for the upcoming 2019 event. For the first time, the Festival will start on a Friday night and play through Saturday night, June 7th and June 8th. Named as one of the top 10 most beautiful Blues festivals, the Flagstaff Blues & Brews festival has launched the careers of many blues artists, including; Karen Lovely, MonkeyJunk, Harlis Sweetwater and Jeremy Bar-Illan.
For this year’s lineup, the headliner for Saturday night is award winning Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band. Best known for the song “Blue on Black” Shepherd has 5 Grammy nominations, 2 Billboard Music awards, 2 Orville H. Gibson awards, 2 Blues Music awards and seven #1. Tab Benoit, a B.B. King Entertainer of the Year award winner, will be opening on Friday night to kick off the festival. Other notable performers include the wildly popular Larkin Poe and the sultry singer Samantha Fish.
The 7th Annual Flagstaff Blues and Brews will open the gates at 2:30 pm on Friday, and the first of four bands will take the stage at 3 pm, including: Innocent Joe and the Hostile Witnesses, Carvin Jones, Larkin Poe and Tab Benoit will close out the night. On Saturday, the gates will open at 11:00 am and six bands will start performing at 11:30 am, including Arizona Hired Guns, Beverly “Guitar” Watkins and the RD Olson Blues Band, Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble, Jeremiah Johnson Band, Samantha Fish and Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band.
Local and regional microbrews will be for sale as well as national brands. Wine and hard cider will also be available. Food vendors and trucks will be ready with a large selection of tasty snacks, while the arts and craft vendors will have a variety of unique and diverse items for purchase.
This year’s festival will be in honorarium of the founder Debbi Grogan, who lost her battle with cancer in December. Debbi was a music visionary who was inspired to bring a world class Blues Festival to Flagstaff after experiencing the successful Telluride Blues & Brews festival in the 90’s. She and her husband Pat would faithfully attend the event until it was too expensive to go. Debbi was a strong supporter of Blues and wanted to bring that type of rich music experience to the community of Flagstaff so that people of all ages could enjoy. The festival is moving forward in the capable hands of Debbi’s business partner and daughter, Jennifer Grogan.
Visit www.flagstaffblues.com for more information and to purchase tickets. Last year the festival sold out a month prior to the event and 2019 is expected to do the same. We encourage you to purchase your tickets soon!