Historic Wallace Blues Festival

By all accounts, this was a great success for the town, the performers and the approximately 2000 Blues Fans who attended our first annual Historic Wallace Blues Festival. The most amazing thing is that our little town of 784 individuals pulled this event off in 90 days from concept proposal! We could not have done it, of course, without the guidance, promotion and production services of Craig Heimbigner, dba Too Far North Productions. Please contact him at kraag@msn.com or (509) 534-1187 with your impressions of the first annual Historic Wallace Blues Festival. Click on the poster icon to open the final annotated PDF poster in a separate window.

Personally, I had a blast, dancing my legs to exhaustion while taking 195 photos on Saturday. I have finished the first part of a photographic reprise of the event that includes the ten performances that I was able to photograph. This page also includes an apologetic acknowledgment of the four artists for whom I (currently) do not have representative festival photos. I am now processing the photos that I took of the crowd, the dancers, the beer garden, the vendors and the volunteers. So please, visit the Wallace Blues Festival 2012 Reprise to see what is new. And while there, please consider using the in-page Amazon search widget at the bottom of that and every page at wallace-id.com.

Thank you for your interest in Wallace Idaho and the Silver Valley,
Greg Marsh, Ph.D.
Marsh Scientific Services

$20 TICKETS STILL ON SALE!      $25 at the door
14 Blues Artists and Bands over Two Days
To purchase Blues Festival event tickets online or by phone
using Tickets West, go to http://www.ticketswest.com/ or call 1-800-325-SEAT

Other Outlets
• in Spokane: Replay Music & The Bronco
• in Coeur d'Alene: The Long Ear
• in Wallace: The Wallace Inn, The 1313 Club and Harvest Foods

LAST MINUTE DEVELOPMENTS All parking fees have been waived to insure that this will be one party and town that you will never forget. Cars and RV's will park FOR FREE across from the Visitor Center. All streets in town that are closed for our annual Depot Days Classic Car Show will now be closed to cars and RV's. ALL motorcycles will be parked on Sixth Street, ONE BLOCK FROM THE MAIN STAGE! FOUR shuttles will run all Saturday to connect Silver Mountain Resort in Kellogg, the camping area in Silverton, the Wallace Visitor Center, and the parking lot across from the Elks (two blocks from the main stage). In return for these added amenities, we respectfully request that you be generous with your donations at the parking lot and with the merchants in our little town of 784 individuals. NO COOLERS or GLASS containers will be permitted in the Festival Area. There is no need for you to pack a lunch as the entire town will be accessible and our merchants are eager to serve you. The Blues and Brews Patio will feature Wallace microbrews ($4), commercial beer and wine ($3), soda and water ($1), plus music and brats, of course. All drinks will be served in red cups. Please notice that half of all the musicians at this festival will perform outside of the formal Festival area at local restaurants. While this entertainment is "free," we hope that you will be generous with these business owners and performers. Again, there is no reason to pack a lunch for this extraordinary $20 festival.

• Final two day line-up
• Biographies of the participating musicians
• Recent videos of these artists
• The camping option
• Convenient parking
• Silver Valley accommodations
• vendor rules and instructions
• Festival Producer: Craig Heimbigner

Please join us for two days of blues music in historic Wallace Idaho, known as the Silver Capital of the World, the Center of the Universe, and the most interesting small town in America. For one thing, this first annual Blues Festival is just one of nine events planned for historic Wallace this summer.

There will be various blues artists and bands around town, inside and outside, playing Friday and Saturday afternoon and evening. On Saturday, July 14^th, Cedar Street will be blocked off from 7^th to 6^th Avenues, and a Main Stage will be erected featuring local and regional blues bands all day long starting at 11:30AM. Main Stage Acts to appear include:

Curtis Salgado

Winner of the 2010 Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Artist Of The Year, Salgado effortlessly mixes blues, funk and R&B with a delivery that is raw and heartfelt. Portland Oregon based, but an internationally known artist, Curtis and his band are touring major festivals this year in support of the just released album Soul Shot. He is also nominated again for the 2012 BMA Soul Blues Artist award.

Nick Vigarino

His band Meantown Blues was a 2011 International Blues Challenge Finalist in Memphis, TN, following his 2010 induction into the Washington Blues Society Hall of Fame as a multiple winner of multiple awards, including Best of Blues. His shows are always described as consisting of passion, skill, slashing slide guitar and powerful vocals all in a non-stop show.

Too Slim & The Taildraggers

They have a BMA nomination for 2012 Rock Blues Album for his latest release, Shiver. Tim Langford leads a powerhouse trio that has been a rocking Northwest favorite for many years. Too many awards to mention, in every Northwest Blues Society's Hall of Fame, this is a no brainer for a Northwest Blues Festival headliner and we are proud to have him at our first.

The Pat Coast Band

From the band Café Blue in 1990 and then The Pat Coast Band since 1999, this Idaho native and beloved regular at all the great Northwest festivals for many years has thrilled many a blues audience. Blues Revue Magazine said of this band "Coast combines rockabilly fire with greasy swing licks on his axe... juicy stuff!"

The Fat Tones

The Fat Tones are Hall of Famers with the Inland Empire Blues Society having won multiple awards multiple times. The Fat Tones' Bobby Patterson just won 2011 Best Blues Guitarist as well.

HooDoo Udu

Made up of several amazing long time area musicians, but a newer Northwest blues band that we hope to give the live showcase they deserve. This band creates a modern blues sound with a strong rock edge, showcasing powerful female vocals, an unbelievable guitarist, a solid, aggressive bassist, and an amazing, rock-steady drummer.

There will be other acoustic blues music outside on the streets featuring:

Ray Roberson

Ray has been either nominated or won everything from Best Blues Performer, Best Blues Duo, Best Acoustic Blues, etc., etc. For this festival, he will bring along Neil Beese on bass for a real treat on our streets.

Brother Music

Jesse "Brother Music" Warburton has been a mainstay and a force for the Blues in North Idaho for many, many years. We are proud to have him as a part of the Wallace Blues Festival.

Doghouse Boyz

Inland Empire Blues Society multiple award winners, the Doghouse Boyz continue to present original blues, old favorites and "back in the day" blues, and are always a welcome and dynamic sound for fans throughout Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

And these three bands will also appear in other locations around Wallace on Friday, July 13^th:

Laffin' Bones

This band was voted Best Blues Band 2011 by the Inland Empire Blues Society for good reason. They always bring the party with foot stompin' rockin' blues and incredible slide guitar from frontman Mr. Neil Elwell.

Kenny James Miller Band

Hailing from Kalispell, Montana, this very rocking trio has torn it up around the Northwest lately, having just been given the Best New Blues Band Award from the Inland Empire Blues Society. They are loved for their great live performances and original music. Last Spring they were also a Washington State Blues finalist for the International Blues Challenge in Memphis winning the Spokane Semi-Final Competition. This band rocks the blues.

Sammy Eubanks

Award winning vocalist and favorite frontman Sammy Eubanks and his band will be hosting a jam somewhere in town. His last album Riding Alone just won Best Blues Album from the Inland Empire Blues Society and he was also awarded Best Male Vocalist by The Washington State Blues Society. Also, be prepared to dance.

For eighteen years, the Blues Festival at Ritzville, Washington, was wildly popular in the Inland Northwest. We felt bad that the Ritzville Blues Festival era has ended. It was a great event that many of us enjoyed over the years. However, here in Wallace, we saw this as an opportunity to create an Historic Wallace Blues Festival on the abandoned second weekend in July. For blues fans in Spokane, it will be a matter of driving east on I-90 rather than west to Ritzville. It will only be about twenty miles further on the Interstate and best of all, you end up surrounded by mountains in the most fascinating small town in America. And for blues fans in Missoula, Montana, we're only 119 miles of scenic highway away.