Big Blues Bender Official Program 2017 1 Welcome to the Bender! It’s our honor and privilege to welcome you all to the 4th installment of the Big Blues Bender! To our veterans, we hope you can see the attention we have given to the feedback from our community to make this event even better, year after year. To the virgins, welcome to the family - you’re one of us now! You’ll be hard pressed to find a more fun-loving, friendly, and all around excellent group of people than are surrounding you this week. Make new friends of your fellow guests, and be sure to come say hi to all of us. We are here to make your experience the best it can be, and we’re excited to prove it! Finally, we would like to acknowledge the hard work and support of the Plaza Hotel staff and CEO Jonathan Jossel. We could not ask for a better team to make the Bender feel at home. -Much Love, Team Bender BENDER SUPPORT PRE & POST HOURS : Wed, 9/6: 12:00p-11:00p • Mon, 9/11: 10:00a-12:00p PANELS & PARTIES Appear in yellow on the schedule Bender Party With H.A.R.T • Wed, Sept. 6 • 8:00p • Showroom $30 GA - The Official Bender Pre-party is proud to support H.A.R.T. 100% of proceeds benefit the Handy Artists Relief Trust. Veterans Welcome the Virgins Party! • Thu, Sept. 7 • 4:00p • Pool Join Bender veteran and host, Marice Maples, in welcoming this year’s crop of Bender Virgins! The F.A.C.E Of Women In Blues Panel • Fri, Sept. 8 • 11:00a - 12:00p • Showroom The Bender is the first blues event anywhere in which women outnumber men in the attending audience. To celebrate this milestone, the Blues Bender hereby invites ALL Bender guests to explore The F.A.C.E. of Women in Blues 2017 panel led by Dr. Marie Trout. This panel will feature four remarkable artists: the winner of International Blues Challenge, Dawn Tyler Watson; singer, songwriter, and violinist Anne Harris; singer extraordinaire Teresa James; and blues-rock “force of nature” Sari Schorr. Sidemen: Long Road To Glory • Fri, Sept 8 • 8:00p-10:00p & Sun, Sept. 10 • 12:00p-2:00p • Juke Joint The Big Blues Bender invites you on a special trip into the heart of the Blues, a unique experience that will stay with you for a very long time. Director Scott Rosenbaum will be presenting a private screening and a Q & A for us of his acclaimed documentary, Sidemen - Long Road To Glory Yoga To The Blues • Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 11:00-11:45am • Theater Wake up and Stretch with Laurie! Gentle Yoga set to the music of Bender 2017 Artists. SEATING POLICIES • No saving seats for people that aren’t there. Did someone run to the bathroom or go for a drink? Great, hold their spot. But if your friends are bouncing around and will join you “eventually,” please don’t hold a spot for them. • Do not move seating and furniture. Our seating is where it needs to be, and in accordance with fire codes. Do not block aisles and exits. • BALLERS: Cabanas are for ALL Ballers. If your crew is in one, and more Ballers stop in, great! You’ve got a chance to make new friends! Don’t leave your stuff in the Cabanas. If you get up to go watch the show, don’t try to “hold” your Cabana. • ADA POLICY In order to better serve our guests with ADA needs, we now require an ADA wristband for entry into ADA seating areas, and for use of seating marked ADA. Wristbands will be available at bender support during the hours noted in the schedule. Note: The wristband does not guarantee a spot in these areas. Our limited capacity ADA seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The wristband is non-transferable. 2 Big Blues Bender Official Program 2017 Big Blues Bender Official Program 2017 3 12Artist Profiles Dr. John changes in America, brought to light and Blues renderings transcend the self-empowerment anthems for the room and take you to another time and This American music legend was born downtrodden, and brought lovers place altogether. Tab’s renowned vocals and raised in New Orleans, where he together with soulful love tunes. This are set with a powerful, soulful tone has long been a woven piece of the Grammy Award Winner and honorary that compliments his emotional and fabric of the city and Delta region. As a Doctorate of Music recipient has stated muscular guitar crafting. Tab conjures teenager, he met the celebrated pianist, there is no stopping her and that she up Blues music that will encircle you like Professor Longhair, which set Dr. John knows her place in this world is on stage. the tangy, sweet smell of burning sugar down an extraordinary musical path Without question, the powerful Mavis cane and satisfies your Blues craving like that seamlessly combined Blues, R&B, a hearty, homemade pot of backwater Staples has consistently created some of zydeco, New Orleans funk, psychedelia, gumbo. Tab Benoit, without question, the best and most inspirational music of and jazz. The gritty, growly Rock and is one the finest and most in demand the past half-century. Mavis Staples will Roll Hall of Famer boasts a lengthy Blues performers in the world today. career that includes 6 Grammy Awards doubtlessly go down in history as one of and an honorary doctorate from Tulane the greatest singers of all time. University. His soul and inspiration Walter Trout were born in the pageantry of the Tab Benoit Make no mistake, Walter Trout is not magic of old school medicine shows, one to have labels pasted on his style It’s a stone cold fact... Tab Benoit is the Mardi Gras and mysterious voodoo of Blues. He has been the epitome of an genuine article. His intoxicating music, spiritual traditions from in and around artist stretching the bounds of the Blues melodic style, and sultry delivery are his Crescent City home. The Big Blues genre. Through decades of playing the a satisfying and immediate cure for Bender is thrilled to be able to present craft, he has demonstrated that the genre the moving, spiritual, mojo magic of the whatever that is ailing you. It’s easy can not be locked away in a museum one and only Dr. John. to get lost in the moment when Tab and deserves room to be boundless in occupies the stage in every concert its evolution. Radical thought to some, hall he performs. His live sets rumble but this all shade, full circle Blues man is Mavis Staples through the bounds of deep emotion a blazing wrecking ball to conventional This breathtaking voice has powered to foot stomping exhilaration. Ever- thoughts of a traditional 12-bar Blues one of America’s great family bands present in Tab’s music is a cultural mix world. This multiple Blues Award winner of all time, The Staple Singers. In her of his Louisiana musical roots from the is recognized around the globe as a glorious career, she has stood at the black water bayou to the stinging salt show-stopping performer. Making forefront of the most dramatic social water of the Gulf Coast. His melodies stops at the most prestigious venues 4 Big Blues Bender Official Program 2017 all on stage. What Anders Osborne brings to the stage at every venue is a strong musical chemistry that is a very welcome force. on the planet, in 2017, Walter Trout has is just as eclectic as the artists he has chosen to launch a stunning virtuoso performed and recorded with over his performance with the patrons of the illustrious career. Though well versed in Big Blues Bender. It’s guaranteed to be a many genres, for this boundless multi- potent, spontaneous, edge-of-your-seat instrumentalist it all started with the good time. Blues. After an extensive hiatus from Shemekia Copeland public performances, some work with Born Blues royalty, the daughter of new instruments, and reflection on Blues icon Johnny Copeland, Shemekia life, Bromberg has made a triumphant Copeland has framed her distinctive return to music and his first musical Award-winning Blues career pulling from love, the Blues. In his recent recording, her father’s Texas roots, her mother’s his love of the genre is more than Carolina Tarheel raising, and her very evident, and an opportunity to witness own heartbeat-quick New York City this particular master embracing this upbringing. Known as “The Leading Lady distinctly American music with passion of the Blues”, Shemekia is renowned and grace is nothing short of a privilege. for her simmering, soulful delivery of the human condition in song, with a cutting edge and healing mojo that few artists possess. Shemekia forever brings her audiences to attention with a perfect balance of authority and easy Anders Osborne understatement. Never one for labels, she can be best described as simply a Great His offerings have been described American Songstress. Her worldwide as being from scorched earth, Blues fans relish in the fact that Shemekia rock to warm, sweet and tender Blues Copeland is a force to be reckoned with, ballads. It’s a definition that fits well, and and she conveys her Blues message with it’s all woven together with stainless a genuine expertise that only someone steel Blues thread. Leaving his Swedish born Blues royalty can. home at 16, Anders hitchhiked his way across Europe, North Africa, the Middle David Bromberg East, Asia and finally the United States, Doyle Bramhall II honing his considerable skills along During the prominent career of The the way.