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the Kentucky, Nashville, Smoky
But they realized as small children
ing and songwriting stays true to
136 H SOLO/DUO The Blues Foundation • blues.org
that God had blessed them his blues roots while being both
with great musical gifts, perfect vital and relevant to today’s music.
pitch, and superhuman memories.
Formed in 2009 and playing
around 100 gigs a year, InnerVision
Jay Pollmann
fell in love with the blues Grand River Blues Society
in 2013, especially old-school Jay Pollmann a Canadian musician/songwriter
born and raised
blues with classic vocals, innovative
chords, and great stories! just outside the small town of Cayuga,
Ontario. In 2013 he set out
to launch a solo career, finding
Janelle Frost and
an outlet for his ideas through
Greg Tolbert his acoustic guitar with help from
Magic City Blues Society his brass slide and the odd tambourine
stomp. He sings songs
After experiencing personal tragedy,
this duo has risen up like a about the things he knows, from
phoenix from the flames. Sometimes
you choose the blues, and ing down the local watering hole.
Picture yourself camping in the
steering with your knees to clos-
sometimes it chooses you. Featuring
Janelle Frost on lead voates
a sound that he calls ”foot-
Channeling many styles, he crecals
and guitar, and Greg Tolbert stompin’, rootsy blues.” Never
on lead guitar and slide, the duo one to mimic or model himself
combines blues, rock, gospel, after other artists, Pollmann has
and R&B for a Southern blues a sound that is organic, original,
sound that is eclectic and electrified.
The duo cite influences ing to the studio to record his
raw, and full of energy. He is head-
of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Sister Rosetta
Tharpe, Duane Allman, B.B. his brand of foot-stompin’ blues!
debut EP and continue to push
King, and Buddy Guy. Frost’s original
songs of love, loss, and luck
Jeremy Short
will have you tapping your foot
while wiping a tear, and her vocals
Huntington Blues Society
shine brighter than a full Jeremy Short developed an in-
moon over the Mississippi.
terest for music and an ear for
harmonies as a child, singing traditional
Methodist hymns around
Jason King Roxas a piano with his family. At 14 his
Reno Blues Society grandfather bought him his first
Jason King Roxas is an accomplished
singer, songwriter, and himself to making the instrument
guitar, and he has since devoted
guitarist. His love for blues music his own unique vehicle of self-expression.
He is a student of many
began after hearing B.B. King on
the radio. The music moved him different styles of American music,
so much that he asked his mother and his influences range widely,
for a guitar and began seeking out with heavy emphasis on jazz and
other blues artists to listen to and blues, with some country and bluegrass
thrown in for good measure.
learn from. His exposure to bluesmen
such as Muddy Waters, B.B.
King, Freddy King, Albert King,
Jesse Black
John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins,
Hubert Sumlin, and Jimmy Kentucky Blues Society
Rogers, as well as more contemporary
Jesse Black (17) comes from Jas-
artists such as Eric Clapton, per, Tennessee, west of Chatta-
Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Keb’ Mo’, nooga. He was first introduced to
helped shape his musical style. the blues when he performed at a
His soulful approach to perform-
jam with the Kentucky Blues Society
in October of 2011. Since then,
he has performed at events with
Mountain, Kansas City, and Dayton
blues societies, winning fans
and friends among those who love
the blues. Black attended the Pinetop
Perkins Masterclass guitar
workshop in 2014 and 2015,
learning from the masters, and
has taken traditional blues and his
own blues compositions to more
than 450 events and 175 venues
across 17 states. His strong
commitment to the blues is evident
in every heartfelt note.
Jesse Roper
White Rock Blues Society
rain somewhere cold. Now picture
somebody handing you a hot
bowl of the chunkiest, tastiest
chili, with just the right amount
of spice, and a glass of wine to
chase it down with. That’s what
Jesse Roper’s music sounds like:
chunky, tasty, spicy, with just a
hint of class. Roper has shared the
stage with many great artists and
has won awards, but his musical
existence is more than that; it is
purely about performing, touring,
and loving it until the day he joins
that great jam session in the sky.
Jiggy and the Source
Prairie Crossroads
Blues Society
What is Source? It is the vibratory
resonance that flows to and
through all things; the essence
that is the energy of creation.
What are you? You are a fractal of
Source. We are all conduits and
manifestations of Source. What is
Jiggy and the Source? Jiggy and
the Source is but a single entity,
which is simultaneously a collective
of entities, constantly shifting,
in every version of now. The
real show occurs when all present
are engaged and sharing
energy without resistance. Remember
to breathe, remember to
wake up. You are perfect as you
are, always. You are never lost,
always found. All is Self. There
is no separation. You are loved,
unconditionally. Remember to
breathe. Wholeness and balance.
Jimmy Wayne
Garrett
Ozark Blues Society of
Northwest Arkansas
Jimmy Wayne Garrett is an Arkansas-born
singer, songwriter, and
blues guitar player with a driving
passion for blues music that reflects
styles from the American
art form’s beginning to its current
status. Over the past year, he has
been bringing his raw energy to
local blues festivals and venues
both as a solo performer and with
his group, the Liberty Bell Rhythm
Band. Garrett believes in remaining
true to one’s genuine self and
living through artistic expressions
to make the world a better place.
From somewhere between the
Delta and the Ozarks, his style
is fresh and reminiscent of the
space where the blues was born.
John Latini
Detroit Blues Society
John Latini is a three-time Detroit
Blues Challenge solo winner, but
he’s also the recipient of songwriting,
performance, and film-credit
awards. His voice, his gravitas, and
his subject matter are reminiscent
of the blues, but his chord structures,
disarmingly affectionate wit,
and eclecticism sometimes transcend
that musical format. In addition
to being a serious crafter
of clever, literate songs, Latini
is the purveyor of a slick, bluessoaked,
economically hard-driving
guitar style—but more than anything
he’s an intense, incandescent
performer with an emotional,
testosterone-charged voice that
the Ann Arbor Observer called
“alternately celebratory, remorseful,
seductive and dangerous.”
32nd International Blues Challenge
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