The Charlotte Music Awards in cooperation with Rowan Blues and Jazz Society presents the Blues Showcase in the black box theater at Looking Glass Artist Collective Friday at 8 p.m.
One of the bands performing this Friday will be selected to perform for this year’s Charlotte Music Awards being held Nov. 19 in Booth Playhouse at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte.
The Charlotte Music Awards showcases all aspects of music in Charlotte and the Carolinas. Their goal is to enhance the profile of the music community in the region and support local music and local artists.
The showcase series culminates in the annual ceremony where awards are presented for all types of musical accomplishments across a broad range of genres, and Lifetime Achievement awards are given to deserving individuals who have shown a sustained commitment to music as part of or beginning in the Carolinas music scene.
Gospel quartet and country showcases were held recently. The Urban Showcase will be Sept. 23 at The Breakfast Club in Charlotte.
CMA was co-founded by Jeffrey Cheen and Michael D. Evans.
Cheen has spent more than 40 years in the music business. He was at the helm of Mercury Records’ Hollywood office before managing Capitol Records’ Rock A&R Department. Subsequently, he guided the careers of War, Ronnie Laws, Funkadelic and Rick James.
Cheen recently served as vice president of business development for B.B. King’s Blues Clubs, overseeing worldwide corporate licensing and heading the company’s record label. He serves on the board of the LA Music Awards and the Hollywood Fame Awards.
Evans has more than 30 years experience in communications from his early 1980s management and booking venture, Broken English Productions, to his current promotional agency, High Timberline Media. He had a founding role in two of Charlotte’s early alternative publications, The First Amendment and Mandrake and has been a film critic, columnist and editor of books and journals.
Four bands will be performing Friday in the Black Box:
– Donna Duncan has been called the first lady of blues and soul in Charlotte. Her smokey sound has been compared to Bonnie Raitt and a young Tina Turner. She has just completed a solo album, produced by Jamie Hoover.
Performing with her will be band members Jim Brock, Rick Blackwell, Joe Lindsay, Mark Stallings, and Richard Putnam.
The band can be heard at www.myspace.com/donnaduncanmusic.
– The Jill Dineen Band is based in Charlotte. According to the band’s site”From California to Chicago to the Carolinas, Jill Dineen’s powerful, soulful, hip-shaking, down-in-your-gut, hard-driving blues vocals have ignited audiences and crowded houses across the country.”
She is backed by Harold Woodside or “Woodstock” on bass., Mike Peters on keys, Jim Snyder on guitar and Jimmy Honeycutt on drums.
More information is at www.myspace.com/jilldineen
– Local band Blueshabit describes themselves as “rhythm and blues meets the Cajun swamps.” Johnny Rice has been a musician for over 40 years, playing guitar, saxophone and flute. He is also a sound engineer and producer. Vocalist Sandi Rice is a newer member of the Blues community.
Drummer Jimbo Martin, a has garnered impressive credentials. As drummer for the band Museum, he shared the stage with Gov’t Mule, Widespread Panic, and 10,000 Maniacs. He also was drummer for Delta Drift, Mercury Dime, The Tripp Edwards Band and other popular groups.
Warren “Oz” Osborne began playing bass in 1967 and for a while was full time on the road with Jackson Street, backing up Vegas singer Joy Simmons, among other bands.
Guitarist and lap steel player known only as “JC” is a graduate of California’s Guitar Institute of Technology.
– The youngest band on the bill Friday will be the Salisbury band Urban Detoxx.Chobey Badgio, who plays guitar and provides vocals, is a sophomore at Salisbury High School. He started playing guitar at age 12 and was in a band by age 13.
Drummer and vocalist Daniel Staib is a 2009 graduate of Salisbury High School. who has been playing drums since age 3. He is currently attending Central Piedmont Community College.
Nick Badgio, bass and vocals, is a 2007 graduate of Salisbury High School, currently attending University of Tennessee.
Each of the four bands performing Friday will play a 40-minute set, beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 at the door. Seating is limited, so early arrival is recommended.
For more information, call 704-636-2811.