Bradenton Blues Festival to Heat Up December Once Again in 2014

2014 Headliner Samantha Fish

BRADENTON -- The blues train is rolling into Bradenton for a third year.

Promising to make yet another Saturday in December as hot as August, the 2014 Bradenton Blues Festival is set to feature several wild variations of the blues through seven different performers in downtown Bradenton’s Riverwalk by the Manatee. The one-day festival will take place on 6th of that month from 11 a.m. until 7:35 p.m.

Like 2013’s festival, this year boasts an almost completely new lineup, with decades-long blues veterans such as Billy Branch to perform along with fresh faces like 2014 headliner, the electrifying 21 year-old guitarist and crooner Samantha Fish. The sole returning band from last year, local faves Doug Deming and the Jeweltones, will share the stage this time with harmonica virtuoso Dennis Gruenling as they open the festival with a fusion of traditional blues, rockabilly and country.

Also scheduled to perform are award-winning singer and musician Marcia Ball, renowned for her soulful, upbeat vocals and swaggering New Orleans-style piano rolling.; Little Ed & The Blues Imperials and their awe-inspiring slide guitar tricks and licks; the simmering slow blues-rock of Jimmy Thackery and The Drivers; three-time Grammy nominee, Chicago bluesman and Willie Dixon protege, Billy Branch and his Sons of Blues; long-time “Georgia songbird” EG Kight, known for mixing jazz, gospel and other genres into her music; and traditional finger-style acoustic bluesman Dave Muskett.

More than 60 sponsors will support this year’s event. Organized by Realize Bradenton, the festival “unites area-based and organizations to form common cause with one of the area's most important economic multipliers—the regional arts and cultural industry,” says Johnette Isham, RB’s Executive Director.

On the day before the festival, Samantha Fish will appear at Manatee High School to participate in the outreach program “Blues in the Schools;” that same day, Realize Bradenton, along with Mojoe Productions, will host a free concert at the Riverwalk amphitheatre.

Tickets for the festival will go on sale March 1, with reserved front seats being $75 per. Other prices are $30 for advance tickets, $40 at the gate (cash only), $25 per person for groups of 10 or more, $20 for students, and $10 for children 5-12, with children younger than five to be admitted free. 

For more details on the festival and to buy tickets, visit www.bradentonbluesfestival.org.