(WINTER PARK,
CO) - This year's 14th Annual Blues From The Top Festival features its finest music lineup yet,
with a reunion by renowned Blues-Americana group, Trampled Under Foot!
The festival - presentede by the Grand County Blues Society-
takes place Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26, at Hideaway Park, 78820
US Highway 40, in Winter Park. A portion of the festival's proceeds
benefit Blue Star Connection,
now in it's tenth year of providing access and ownership of musical
instruments for children and young adults with cancer and other serious
challenges, as well as providing music therapy departments with
instruments. Tickets (now through Sunday, May 15): $20. (1-day Pass)
or $35. (2-day Pass), available at the bluesfromthetop.org
website, Radio Shack in Fraser; and the Winter Park Visitor's Center.
Ticket prices after May 15: General Admission 1-Day Pass (Saturday or
Sunday), $28., General Admission 2-Day Pass $49. Kids 13 and
under, free. Buy tickets/additional info: http://ezregister.com/events/16739/.
Grand County Blues Society Mission Statement
is "To support the Blues by bringing National and International
Blues Artists to Grand County on a regular basis, and to bring Blues
Education into the schools of Grand County."
Trampled Under Foot reunites for the 14th Annual Blues From
The Top Festival.
They perform on Saturday, June 25 in the headlining slot.
Each day of Blues From The Top features a star-studded lineup.
Saturday it's a Trampled Under Foot Reunion Show, the Albert Castiglia
Band (with Josh Smith and Kate Moss), Monkey Junk, Kara Grainger, Josh
Hoyer & Soul Collective, and the Austin Young Blues all-Stars
featuring Michaela Rae, Michael Hornbuckle and others. Sunday's lineup is
headlined by guitarist Eric Gales, Samantha Fish Band, Jimmy Hall with My
Blue Sky, Willie K and the Warehouse Blues Band, John Nemeth with Deana
Bogart and Jimmy Carpenter, and the High Mountain Gospel Choir with Renee
Austin, Tempa Singer, Southern Review, Bart Szop, and more.
Both days also feature a "Keeping The Blues Alive"
stage with many of today's best young national and regional blues talent.
Colorful blues guitarist Eric Gales (pictured)
headlines the Sunday, June 26 star-studded 14th Annual Blues From
The Top Festival lineup.
About The 14th Annual Blues From The Top Festival Headliners
Trampled Under
Foot: The soul blues trio Trampled Under Foot
consists of siblings Danielle Schnebelen
(lead vocals and bass), Nick Schnebelen
(guitars and vocals) and Kris Schnebelen,
(drums). They grew up with the blues in Kansas City. Their father, Bill,
was a blues guitarist in the band Little Eva and would
regularly take his three children to jam sessions. Growing up, the
siblings played separately in numerous bands over the years. Danielle was in
Fresh Brew (1999-2004), Kris was a staple at
blues clubs, and Nick was in Killing
Floor (or K-Floor), and
briefly, Buddahead. Missing the family camaraderie, the siblings formed Trampled Under Foot
in 2000. The band released four studio sessions: Trampled Under Foot
(2006), May I Be Excused in
(2008), and Wrong Side of the Blues
in (2011). They also issued Live at the Notodden Blues
Festival in 2010. The combination of those releases and
non-stop touring caught the attention of the jazz and blues label Telarc,
who signed the band in 2013. They issued their fifth studio album, Badlands, that same
year. In 2016 the famed trip reunites to perform at the 14th Blues From
The Top Festival.
Eric Gales: Blues guitar phenom Eric Gales was born
and raised in Memphis, learning to play at age four from older brothers Eugene and Manuel in imitation
of their upside-down, left-handed style (a tradition actually passed down
from their grandfather, Dempsey Garrett Sr., who was known to jam with
the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf).
Winning his first blues contest at 11, four years later Eric signed to
Elektra to issue his 1991 debut LP, recorded with Eugene on bass; Picture of a Thousand Faces
followed in 1993. Manuel (who
previously performed under the alias Little Jimmy King)
reunited with his siblings for 1995's Left Hand Band,
credited to the Gales Brothers.
A newly matured Gales returned in
spring 2001 to release his debut for MCA, That's What I Am.
Often billed as the second coming of Jimi Hendrix, Gales, an adequate
singer at best but a dynamite guitarist, suffered for the comparison.
With Gales always
influenced by Hendrix and the
power trio format, his next albums, 2006's Crystal Vision and
2007's Psychedelic Underground,
both released by Blues Bureau Records, seemed like facsimile Hendrix albums,
right down to the album art. His next two releases from Blues Bureau,
2008's The Story of My Life
and 2009's Layin' Down the Blues,
found the Hendrix influence
muted somewhat, but Gales, a
breathtaking guitarist at times, still seemed to be looking for a way out
of the Hendrix shadow and
into his own voice. Gales returned in
2010 with Relentless, a
collection of 13 originals, and followed it with the passionate Transformation a
year later in 2011. The all-instrumental Ghost Notes arrived
in the fall of 2013.
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