Bands!
Barbara Blue — Friday Evening!!
Pittsburgh, PA native Barbara Blue doesn’t remember life without music. Her answer to the question “When did you start singing?” will always be “since the day I was born and my plan is to exit this life the same way”. After playing 6 nights a week in various clubs for 10+ in Pittsburgh, Barbara took a trip to Memphis. She landed a gig at Silky O’Sullivan’s at 183 Beale Street, where she performed 5 nights a week for nearly 25 years and is known as “The Reigning Queen of Beale Street.” Performing on Beale Street lead to many performance opportunities – including performing with James Cotton, Bobby Rush, Sam Myers, Anson Funderburgh, Sean Costello, Ronnie Baker, Wayne Baker & Lonnie Brooks, Preston Shannon, Tas Cru, Henry Butler, Roy Carrier, Carla Thomas, The Cate Brothers, Candye Kane, Leo Welch, Ronnie Earl, and Bernard “Pretty” Purdie to name a few.
In 2015 Barbara Blue was honored with a Brass note on The Beale Street Walk of Fame. She received the 2011 Emissary of Memphis Music Award. Both the Hard Rock Cafe Memphis, TN (2014) and Pittsburgh, PA (2010) honored her with a Memorabilia Case. She received a 2007 BMA Nomination for Best Contemporary Female Blues Artist. She was nominated for 2019 Independent Blues Music Award “Traditional Female Artist of the Year” and best Traditional CD (2018’s Fish In Dirty H2O), and was a 2019 BMA Nominee for “Female Soul Blues Artist Of The Year”.
During COVID, Barbara moved home to be with family, and has been gracing her hometown ever since.
Soulful Femme – Saturday Night!!
Stevee Wellons and Cheryl Rinovato, the two principals in the dynamic duo known as Soulful Femme, are more than simply a dynamic singing duo. They are seasoned performers in their own right, each possessing vast experience in the music business who happened to join forces and find an ideal chemistry.
Wellons has been performing since the late 1970’s in a variety of bands, among them any number of accomplished outfits, including the Rhythm Machine, Jumpstreet, Shaker, the Cruisers, the Elmonics, The Real Deal Band, and The Stevee Wellons Band. Over the course of her career, she shared stages with the Dazz Band, Cameo, Peaches and Herb, and Howard Hewett, among many others. She’s released two solo albums — Stevee Wellons -All Natural Ingredients and one simply titled Stevee. In addition, she recently co-wrote and performed background vocals for the artist known as Sun King Rising, A.K.A John Blangero. She previously taught at the Afro-American Music Institute and is currently an adjunct professor at the Community College of Allegheny County.
Cheryl brings an equally impressive resume to the table. She’s been a student of guitar since the age of nine and later became a graduate of the prestigious Berklee School of Music. A three-time recipient of the prestigious Jim Weber Award accorded to the blues guitarist of the year, she claims extensive studio experience while citing such early influences as Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, Tower of Power, and Burt Bacharach. In addition, she’s a Delaney Guitars-endorsed artist who has two signature models that were designed with her in mind. .
The two met at a Blues Society event in 2014 and clicked immediately. A year later, they competed at the International Blues Competition in Memphis. Their first album, It Is Well With My Soul, was released in 2021. They then found themselves touring consistently, sharing stages with Tommy Castro and opening for such acts as Robert Cray, Mavis Staples, Ana Popovic, Samantha Fish, Shemekia Copeland, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Bernard Allison, Mike Zito, Albert Castiglia, and Jeremiah Johnson.
The two women are indeed passionate about performing and that comes across every time they take the stage. “All of this synergy is reflected in our live performances,” Stevee insists. “We are both powerful performers in our own right, but together, it becomes more than powerful. It becomes magical. We hear that comment at almost every performance.”
Lori Russo and The Uppercuts – Sunday Night!!
Fusing Blues, Roots, Rock, Jazz, R & B and Ethnic music into their unique style, Lori Russo and The Uppercuts are veterans of Pittsburgh’s music scene. Their eclectic sound is a flavorful gumbo reflective of each member’s distinct background; all coming together to produce a fresh, dynamic, and exciting musical voice heard at venues and festivals through the region.
Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lori Russo front the band on bass guitar, with John DeCola on organ, piano, and accordion, Evan Balzer on guitar, Brendan Kenneity on drumset and Kelly e Parker on Djembe and percussion.
DJs!
Om Choudhary
Om Choudhary is a blues DJ from Pittsburgh who has been spinning tunes since 2012.
He has a deep passion from blue music and its history, and loves to share the essence and emotions of the genre in his tunes. As a DJ, he draws his inspiration from local blues artists, live musicians, and the dancers on the floor.
Om has Dj’ed various events and workshops specifically geared towards Slow Drag, slow Jazz, Delta blues, Chicago style blues and more.
In addition to Blues, Om’s musical passion encompasses the rich and diverse folk music of Rajasthan, the desert state he calls homes.
Cortnie Cook
Cortnie hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan and throughly loves getting dancers out on the floor with a library full of tunes that’ll inspire the comfiest close embrace, get your feet movin’, and fill your soul.
The only other thing loved as much as playing those sweet tunes for you is getting to dance with y’all, so please ask!
Jennifer Delk
At age 3, Jen started her DJ career in the basement, on a Fisher Price record player, before an audience of dolls. She spent countless hours listening to funk, disco, soul, jazz, R&B, and pop music throughout her childhood and went on to study music from elementary through high school. After moving to Austin, the “ live music capital”, she fell hard for dancing in dive bars to gritty blues, jazz, and swing music. She started DJing for a live audience in college when she ran a small swing dance club on campus and started teaching classes. Jen lives in Denver now, and has returned to DJing for a live audience, spinning many of the tunes she discovered in the basement. She’s also teaching blues at the local level, drawing on her vast musical knowledge to help dancers find grounding, a voice, and a better connection with the music.