The Gourmet Blues Concert Series Returns in November

The Gourmet Blues Concert Series has set the table for its second season at Humphreys Backstage Live on the San Diego Bay. This veritable “buffet of blues” features some of the most recognizable voices and award-winning headliners on the national music scene today. Imagine your favorite blues artist and their entire touring band performing in a studio-quality environment that holds only 130 music lovers. It’s like a concert in your living room.

AimLoan.com and Wicked Harem Booking and Productions in association with Humphreys Backstage Live proudly announce the second year. The blues community was so supportive of our first series of shows, says show producer RosaLea Schiavone, and we couldn’t be happier about this year’s lineup.

Kenny Neal

And what a lineup it is! The series opens on November 23 with the charismatic Kenny Neal. The son of Raful Neal, Kenny was born into the blues and came of age around family friends like Buddy Guy, Slim Harpo, and Lazy Lester. As a multi-instrumentalist, Kenny’s blues echoes with that swampy, funky Louisiana juke-joint style guitar, highlighted by soaring solos and harp phrasing that digs roots deep. Grammy nominations and Blues Music Awards aside, Neal is a true contemporary bluesman who continues to produce some of the most soulful and inspirational music in the genre today.

Opening for Kenny Neal is San Diego’s Master of the Resonator guitar, Ben Powell. Powell says he plays roots music drawing from blues styles of the ’20s and ’30s. I like the swing stuff and straight-ahead country blues. Powell adds, Today, I’m just trying to play more of my own music, but it’s definitely influenced by that.

Nick Moss and Dennis Gruenling.

The second show in the Series comes straight out of Chicago. On December 14, Alligator Records recording artists the Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Gruenling rolls into Humphrey’s. Voted Band of the Year at this year’s BMAs, this powerhouse blues band has won a total of five Blues Music Awards and received an incredible 25 nominations in the years since their Best New Artist Debut back in 2003. Moss has played with everyone from Jimmy Dawkins to Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and you feel the energy and intensity in every note he plays. Add to that the electrified harp of Dennis Gruenling so that concert goers can experience exactly what blues clubs and bars were like back in the ’40s, ’50s, and early ’60s Chicago…blues in its purest form.

Opening for Nick Moss is a local treat: Chickenbone Slim and the Biscuits. One of the best blues and roots rock bands in San Diego, the Biscuits feature the 2023 Blues Music Award winner for Best Blues Guitarist Laura Chavez. Lock in those holiday celebration plans early this year.

Shamekia Copeland

Start your 2025 on the right note January 11 with the dynamic Shemekia Copeland. Another generational blues child, Living Blues magazine calls Copeland simply “powerful and ferocious!” With four Grammy nominations and eight Blues Music Awards including the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year in 2021, Shemekia has been performing on stages around the world since she was eight years old. She’s performed with everyone from Bonnie Raitt and Mick Jagger to Buddy Guy and Carlos Santana. One of the most endearing aspects of her meteoric rise is that Shemekia took time out of her tour schedule in 2008 to travel and entertain our men and women in uniform serving in Iraq and Kuwait. In 2012, she took the stage again, this time in the White House to perform for President and Mrs. Obama. Shemekia Copeland is a blues woman of character and according to Mavis Staples—her voice is strong and soulful, and her message comes from the heart. Mavis would know.

And speaking of strong, talented women, San Diego’s own award-winning Mercedes Moore opens the evening’s festivities in the brand New Year. Moore is a vibrant and gifted vocalist, well-versed in both blues and jazz realms, and she digs deep into the contemporary and swing-era songbooks. An evening with Mercedes can be both soulful and electrifying but no one ever leaves her shows without wanting Moore. This night is destined to be the perfect beginning and a memorable start to your 2025.

Marquise Knox

Then, on Saturday, February 8, if you’re not familiar with the name Marquise Knox, your music collection is about to expand. Young Marquise was introduced to music and the guitar from his grandmother and an uncle. His mentoring in the blues began as a teenager in St. Louis at the hands of National Endowment of the Arts recipient and Grammy Award-winning bluesman Henry Townsend. His youth aside, Knox has opened for everyone from B.B. King to ZZ Top and that’s a testament to the social consciousness in his music as well as a “beyond his years” blues maturity. Marquise Knox was born a bluesman!

Opening for Marquise Knox is a longtime San Diego institution, the Lafayette Blues Band. Fronted by Texas guitarist Lafayette Falkquay this band is just as capable of laying down rich, R&B-laced soul music as they are at tearing your heart out with change-the-lock-on-the door, gut-bucket blues. You’ve been warned.

Danielle Nicole

The sophomore season of the Gourmet Blues Series culminates with the Danielle Nicole Band. Danielle is a contemporary singer-songwriting, bass player out of Kansas City who grew up in a family of musicians. Along with brothers Kris and Nick Schnebelen, Danielle became sibling number three in the formation of the band Trampled Under Foot. Their album, Badlands, debuted at number one on the Billboard Blues Charts and won the 2014 Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year. Danielle was individually honored with her first BMA for Bass Instrumentalist. Nicole now fronts her own band and has now added multiple Independent Blues Awards, a Grammy nomination, and six more BMAs to her collection, including this year’s Female Contemporary Blues Artist of the Year. If you consider the blues to be an art form, Danielle Nicole would get my vote for poster child.

Opening for Danielle Nicole on this last show of the series, is the multi-talented vocalist and performer Sandi King. The two-time San Diego Music Award nominee and songstress performs regularly in Southern California with her own band the King-Taylor Project and has recorded regularly with fellow award winners, Johnny Tarr, Jeff Berkley, and Wayne Riker. As a first call session musician, King’s range and vocal diversity has drawn national attention while performing with R&B artists like the Manhattans and Heatwave.

As you can see, the Gourmet Blues Concert Series has a little something for every appetite—acoustic, electric, roots rock and soul, or swingin’ rhythm and roll—everyone gets a taste. Tickets are $65, but with only 130 seats available, it’s recommended you get them early. We’ll see you at the show.