Charlotte Blues Festival

Scheduled performers:

Calvin Richardson
Born and raised in Monroe, N.C. Calvin Richardson is a gospel-minded urban contemporary/neo-soul vocalist and songwriter whose influences have ranged from Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack, Donny Hathaway, and Marvin Gaye to Jodeci, K-Ci & JoJo, and R. Kelly. Like other neo-soulsters who have emerged in the '90s and 2000s, Richardson looks to different R&B eras for inspiration. The classic soul of the '60s and '70s has had an impact on his singing and writing, but so have the urban contemporary and hip-hop of the '80s, '90s and 2000s.

Shirley Brown
Shirley Brown was born January 6, 1947 in West Memphis, Arkansas but was raised in East St Louis. Early experience singing gospel gave her a powerful but expressive voice likened to Aretha Franklin. She worked with blues veteran Albert King and band leader Oliver Sain, before signing with Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Her 1974 hit, "Woman to Woman" spent two weeks at #1 in the Billboard R&B chart and climbed to #22 in the pop chart.

Bobby Bland
Bobby "Blue" Bland was born in the small town of Rosemark, Tennessee, USA. Later moving to Memphis with his mother, Bland started singing with local gospel groups there, including amongst others the Miniatures. Eager to expand his interests, he began frequenting the city's famous Beale Street where he became associated with an ad hoc circle of aspiring musicians named, not unnaturally, the Beale Streeters.
 

Marvin Sease
Marvin Sease straddles the line between blues and gospel-drenched soul, but his often racy lyrics and concert performances, coupled with the advantages of major-label distribution, have ensured Sease a strong following, particularly among female fans enamored of his signature song and breakthrough jukebox hit, the provocative, innuendo-laced "Candy Licker." Born in Blackville, S.C., Sease got his start by joining a gospel group in nearby Charleston called the Five Gospel Singers, and moved to New York at age 20, where he joined another gospel group called the Gospel Crowns.
 

Theodis Ealey
Blues guitarist and bandleader Theodis Ealey is a Mississippi native who first learned to play the instrument when he was four years old, thanks to instruction from big brother Y.Z. Ealey, who is about a decade older. Almost ten years later, the brothers were playing together in a band called Y.Z. Ealey the Merrymakers, with the younger Ealey on bass. The group also included a third brother, Melwin Ealey, and appeared for the first time on stage at a Natchez, MS, nightspot dubbed ~the Horseshoe Circus.

Roy C
He began singing tenor with The Genies, a vocal group in Long Beach, Long Island, who were offered a recording contract by the record producer, Bob Shad. Their first single, "Who's That Knockin'", reached #72 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958, with Claude Johnson (later of the duo Don and Juan) on lead vocal. The group then moved to Atlantic Records, with Hammond taking over as lead singer, but their recordings were not released, and he was drafted into the Air Force. When he returned to New York in 1965, Hammond organized a studio session to record his own song, "Shotgun Wedding", and released it under the name of Roy Hammond on his own Hammond label, before leasing it to the larger Black Hawk Records under the name Roy C. The record, with its novelty ricochet opening and relatively risqué subject matter for the time, reached #14 on the national R&B chart. It had even greater success when issued in the UK, reaching #6 on the UK Singles Chart in 1966 and #8 when reissued in 1972. His first album was That Shotgun Wedding Man (1966) on Ember Records
 

Artists are subject to change.