The 6th Annual Peninsula R&B Festival on the grounds of the Port of Peninsula, overlooking beautiful Willapa Bay.  Our campground, available exclusively to festival patrons, is next door at Morehead Park…the festival gate is just a three minute stroll.  Our musical line-up showcases award winning NW talent, as well as several international artists.  We are launching the first “R&B Food Drive” event the week of the festival with participating merchants providing food collection barrels, and there will be barrels at the at the admissions gate.

Schedule:

Friday, August 25, 2023

1:00pm: Gates Open

3:30pm - 4:45pm: McPage and Powell

5:05pm - 6:35pm: Rae Gordon Band

The multi-award-winning Rae Gordon Band serves up a potent stew of gritty blues and heartfelt soul – soaring vocals with searing guitar counterpoint, high-energy horns and a hard-driving rhythm section with the power of a freight train.

Following their 3rd-place finish at the International Blues Challenge in 2017 (finals judge Walter Trout said afterwards, “I gave her a score of 10, the best score you can give. She made an incredible impression.”), the band released its third CD Better Than I Was, which has received airplay in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK and appeared on the Living Blues Radio Chart and the Roots Music Report Soul Blues Album Chart. The CD also won a Muddy Award for Best Northwest Recording from the Cascade Blues Association and the band received the Best Contemporary Blues Act Muddy Award.

Winter 2019 brings the release of the band’s hotly-anticipated fourth CD, Wrong Kind Of Love, produced by Kivett Bednar and engineered and mixed by Jimi Bott at his studio Roseleaf Recording. The CD’s ten original songs cover a wide gamut of styles, from lowdown barroom blues to dance-worthy funk, from heart-tugging soul ballad to slide-drenched rage rocker, from minor-key blues angst to uplifting soul anthem.

The Rae Gordon Band has appeared at the Waterfront Blues Festival, Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival, Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas, Bronze Blues & Brews Festival, Bonita Blues Festival in Florida, the Iron Mountain Music Festival in Mission, B.C. and others.

6:50pm - 8:20pm: Eric’s Maine Connection

Eric’s Maine Connection is a remarkable group of musicians from Seattle Washington.  Rooted in the Blues, Rock, Country and R&B, these celebrated performers from the Pacific NW U.S.A. combine to create their magic in songwriting and classic cover tunes with the soulful grace only legends create.

Eric Rice and his guitar have been traveling the highways of the Northwest U.S.A. spreading the blues gospel entertaining everyone with his stories accompanied by the sweetest guitar tones imaginable. His slide guitar work has earned him multiple awards and his voice is as clear as the waters of his home.

The Maine Connection is Scotty Harris on bass and Andrew Cloutier on the drums. They grew up in Maine playing music together and are Eric’s connection to a freight train groove. When they perform together it is like a group of guys having an intelligent conversation. Scotty and Andrew have earned their place in the Seattle music scene and went home with multiple awards for their skills. The reputation they hold earns the highest respects from musicians worldwide and their work ethic away from the stage gets them many calls from the best bands Seattle has to offer.

Putting all this together, EMC always brings a show to remember with the professional and respectful attitude the vendor and the patrons deserve.

8:35pm - 10:00pm: Ben Rice and the Portland Hustle

Ben Rice’s music is deeply rooted in traditional blues, yet at the same time fiercely original. His guitar playing earns labels like “fearless,” “inventive” and “powerful,” and he routinly brings audiences to their feet with his stunning and emotionally honest vocal delivery. Ben is as much at home fronting his electric band as he is captivating a crowd solo with nothing but his voice and his acoustic resonator guitar.

The Portland Hustle is an expansion of the trio that Rice has been playing with for the last decade. Adding instruments and singers offers up an expansion of the sonic palette Rice works with. He tapped Portland’s legendary arranger Dave Mills to help orchestrate his originals. The collaboration has  yielded a huge sound that is powerful and compelling. The new name, instrumentation, and sound has been a giant leap in excitement and anticipation at shows.

Saturday, August 26, 2023

11:00am - 12:30pm: Marys and Mimosas with Paul Dillon on the Woodshed Stage

12:35pm - 1:35pm: TJ Wong Trio

1:55pm - 3:10pm: Sister Mercy

HIGH ENERGY R&B BLUES BAND featuring APRIL BROWN
SISTER MERCY possesses a high-energy, rhythm and blues driven sound. Lead singer April Brown is mesmerizing with her powerful, beautiful presence, full range vocals, and complete joy in performance. The talented Scott Garcia adds guitar and vocal textures. Rounded out with Roger Espinor on drums, Johnny Webb on bass, and Debby Espinor on keys. SISTER MERCY has a unique place in the blues along with April Brown’s velvet voice the rest of the band supplies strong background vocals and original music. Semifinalist in the International Blues Challenge 2016 and 2018, SISTER MERCY was also nominated for Best New Band and Best Contemporary Blues Band for the Cascade Blues Association Muddy Awards. SISTER MERCY presents music that is a pleasure for the ears and a show that is a feast for the eyes.

3:30pm - 5:00pm: North Coast Blues Band featuring the Wall of Guitars

North Coast Blues has been called ‘The Peninsula’s Premiere Blues Band”. The current lineup consists of Band Leader and Manager Clint Carter, guitar, percussion, drums, vocals, Musical Director Don King, bass, vocals, Fred Jacobs, Drums, Bryan Foster, keys, harmonica, vocals, and Jim Achilles, Lead Guitar, vocals. All are seasoned veterans and each brings something unique to the band. Their thick harmonies and musicianship make them a crowd favorite. While blues is the primary focus, they also venture into some jazz, rock, and funk, sometimes combining elements of these genres together in their original music.  NCB is currently working on their first album at Note One Studio.

5:20pm - 6:35pm: Tony Coleman’s Tribute to the Three Kings

Portland-based Tony Coleman, one of the most revered blues drummers in the world today, during his illustrious career has toured the world with Otis Clay, Bobby Blue Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, Albert Collins, Etta James, Freddie King, James Cotton, Katie Webster, Z.Z. Hill, O.V. Wright, Buddy Guy, and BB King, with whom he performed and recorded for 29 years until BB’s death in 2015.

Coleman has assembled an all-star grouping of Portland musicians to pay tribute to three of his mentors and former bosses, the pioneering blues guitarists BB King, Albert King and Freddie King, whose iconic guitar work has profoundly influenced virtually every rock and blues guitarist of the past six decades. Coleman is one of the very few musicians alive to have toured and/or recorded with all three of these legendary bluesmen.

Joining Coleman on this tribute is an impressive lineup of the region’s blues all-stars. Contributing Three-Kings-inspired guitar work will be Mike Osborn (longtime guitarist with John Lee ******), and Peter Dammann (Paul deLay, Linda Hornbuckle, Solomon Burke). Louis Pain is featured on organ (Paul deLay, Mel Brown, Linda Hornbuckle), and John Mazzocco on bass (John Lee ******, Paul deLay, Curtis Salgado). Leading the tight horn section is British expatriate saxophonist, Chris Mercer, who in addition to his work with John Mayall, Billy Ocean, Bryan Ferry and Dr. John, toured with Freddie King and recorded on some of the Texas guitarist’s seminal hits of the 1970s.

6:55pm - 8:10pm: Norman Sylvester Band

Norman is one of the most engaging showmen around the Northwest. weddings, festivals, corporate parties and club venues all call on his band for spectacular music and entertainment! Influenced from his Southern Baptist early years and the Gospel Quartet his father, Mack Sylvester, toured with (they were as sharp with their fashion as they were in their harmonies), these examples show in Sylvester’s own performance. There is the work for the paycheck and the work for your passion. Norman’s music is most definitely his passion! The Boogie Cat has paid his dues and now he is living his dreams.

The new CD release “Blues Stains on my Hands” is making waves with music lovers in the USA and overseas. We are proud of the CD project and we hope you have a copy in your home.

The Norman Sylvester Band performs for clubs, corporate parties, wedding receptions, private parties and all types of music festivals.

8:30pm - 10:00pm: The Bernard Allison Group

”For 56 years, music has been Bernard Allison’s essence. As the youngest son of the much-missed Chicago bandleader Luther Allison, he was a bluesman from birth. One week after graduating high school, Bernard cut his teeth on the road with Koko Taylor’s Blues Machine lineup–and ended up staying for most of the ’80s. By the close of the decade, however, he assumed a twin identity, leading and writing for his father’s band, while forging a solo career that exploded inEurope off the back of early albums like The Next Generation (1990), No Mercy (1994) and Funkifino (1995).

Now, released in February 2022 on Ruf Records, Highs And Lows sees Bernard acknowledge his lineage through two classic songs by his father–Gave It All and Now You Got It–while offering nine originals. Try the irresistible groove ofHustler: a funk gem written by Bernard with Andrew Thomas, whose horn-and-harp groove evokes the strut of the title character. Or the masterful Last Night, which shifts tempo from an upbeat chop to a weeping slow-blues, capturing the changing moods of a man chasing his runaround woman. As for the title track, Bernard says it speaks for anyone left bemused by life’s rollercoaster: “It’s a part of life, the ups and downs that everyone deals with.

”Right now, with a new album of stellar material to take out on his New Year tour, Bernard Allison is back in the ascendency–and the man can’t wait to return to his natural habitat. “The song So Excited is basically about the excitement of being able to be back on the road again,” he says. “I think everyone can relate to that.”

Date: Friday, August 25, 2023 - Saturday, August 26, 2023

Location: Port of Peninsula - 3311 275th St, Ocean Park, WA 98640

Admission:

Friday General Admission Ticket: $30
Friday VIP Ticket: $60
Saturday General Admission Ticket: $50
Saturday VIP Ticket: $80
Weekend Pass Ticket: $70
Weekend VIP Pass Ticket: $100

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