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The Kentuckiana Blues Society (KBS) is a U.S. non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and perpetuation of blues music, founded in 1988 and based in Louisville, Kentucky. The KBS is an affiliate member of the Blues Foundation, an international network of blues organizations headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.
The KBS conducts research to document the blues tradition in Louisville, Kentucky, preserving a collection of rare photos and interviews, and identifying the locations of early blues related sites. The society maintains an archive to house these materials, which are available to members. They have arranged for headstones to be placed as memorials at the graves of blues personalities buried in the area, including Sylvester Weaver and Bill Gaither, whose graves were located by the society, and KBS founding member Foree Wells and his wife Lorene, who are buried in Calvary Cemetery. The KBS also provided financial support for the posthumous release of Wells' album It's A New Day Brother! in 2007, on Stackhouse Records.
The KBS is actively involved in the local blues scene, sponsoring or supporting concerts in the Louisville area by local and regional artists, such as Albert Collins, Pinetop Perkins, and Henry Townsend.
The KBS was involved in the Garvin Gate Blues Festival from 1988 until it finished in 1999. From 1997 the festival was moved from the Garvin Gate Neighborhood of "Old Louisville" to Theatre Square, co-organized by The Louisville Palace, the Public Radio Partnership, and the KBS. In 2007 the festival was revived at its original location of Garvin Place and Oak Street. The KBS is involved with several other local blues festivals, including the Louisville Blues-n-Barbecue Festival held in mid-July at the Water Tower on Louisville's riverfront, and the Jeffersontown-Crusade Blues Festival held the third weekend in May at Veteran's Memorial Park.
The KBS organizes an "Unsigned Blues Talent" competition for new bands, with the winner eligible to compete in the finals of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. [1] The contest is usually held in late summer or early fall at Stevie Ray's Blues Bar.
Each year the KBS presents the Sylvester Weaver Award to an individual in recognition of their efforts in representing the mission of the KBS. The society also promotes the blues through formal and informal presentations to various groups, and through sponsorship and presence at festivals and concerts.
Louisville is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 29th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, jew's harp, and comb and tissue paper. The term jug band is loosely used in referring to ensembles that also incorporate homemade instruments but that are more accurately called skiffle bands, spasm bands, or juke bands because they do not include a jug player.
The Kentucky Oaks is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred fillies staged annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The race currently covers 1 1⁄8 miles (1,800 m) at Churchill Downs; the horses carry 121 pounds (55 kg). The Kentucky Oaks is held on the Friday before the Kentucky Derby each year. The winner gets $750,000 of the $1,250,000 purse and a large garland of lilies, affectionately called the "Lillies for the Fillies." A silver Kentucky Oaks Trophy is presented to the winner.
Scouting in Kentucky has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live. Kentucky has a very early Scouting heritage, as the home state of Daniel Carter Beard.
The Bluegrass Balloon Festival, formerly called the Adam Matthews Balloon Festival, was the fifth largest hot air balloon festival in the United States, and the largest in the state of Kentucky. From 1999 to 2009, it was held annually in late September at Bowman Field in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Kentucky Derby Festival is an annual festival held in Louisville, Kentucky during the two weeks preceding the first Saturday in May, the day of the Kentucky Derby. The festival, Kentucky's largest single annual event, first ran from 1935 to 1937, and restarted in 1956 and includes:
Tommy Johnson was an American Delta blues musician who recorded in the late 1920s and was known for his eerie falsetto voice and intricate guitar playing. He was unrelated to the blues musician Robert Johnson.
Belle of Louisville is a steamboat owned and operated by the city of Louisville, Kentucky, and moored at its downtown wharf next to the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere during its annual operational period. Originally named Idlewild, she was built by James Rees & Sons Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the West Memphis Packet Company in 1914 and was first put into service on the Allegheny River. Constructed with an all-steel superstructure and asphalt main deck, the steamboat is said to hold the all-time record in her class for miles traveled, years in operation, and places visited. Belle of Louisville's offices are aboard Mayor Andrew Broaddus, also a National Historic Landmark.
The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a twenty-five person Board of Directors governs the foundation whose stated mission is to preserve blues heritage, celebrate blues recording and performance, expand worldwide awareness of the blues, and ensure the future of the uniquely American art form.
Sylvester Weaver was an American blues guitar player and a pioneer of country blues. He was the son of Walter and Mattie Weaver. Walter Weaver's 1952 Kentucky death certificate indicates that he was born in Port Gibson, MS, the county seat of Claiborne County. That area's economy was heavily agricultural, relying on African American labor to produce a profitable cotton crop. After Walter Weaver migrated to Louisville, KY, Port Gibson would play a role in the preservation and dissemination of a blues tradition indigenous to the Mississippi Delta. This tradition, in the form in which Walter Weaver experienced it, likely was a foundation upon which Sylvester Weaver built his unique performance style.
William Shade Jr., known as Will Shade, was a Memphis blues musician, best known for his leadership of the Memphis Jug Band. He was commonly called Son Brimmer, a nickname from his grandmother Annie Brimmer. The name apparently stuck when other members of the band noticed that the sun bothered him and he used the brim of a hat to shade his eyes.
As with most American cities, transportation in Louisville, Kentucky is based primarily on automobiles. However, the city traces its foundation to the era where the river was the primary means of transportation, and railroads have been an important part of local industry for over a century. In more recent times Louisville has become a national hub for air cargo, creating over 20,000 local jobs. The city has also launched several initiatives to promote both utilitarian and recreational bicycling. In 2016 Walk Score ranked Louisville 43rd "most walkable" of 141 U.S. cities with a population greater than 200,000. In 2015, 11.7 percent of Louisville households were without a car, which decreased to 10.9 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Louisville averaged 1.61 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8 per household.
The Confederate Monument in Cynthiana is located on the outer edge of Cynthiana, Kentucky in Battle Grove Cemetery. It was the first monument to the Confederate States of America dedicated in the State of Kentucky, and long believed to be the first Confederate memorial anywhere. Due to the 32nd Indiana Monument having been moved from its original location, the Cynthiana monument is the oldest monument still standing at its original location, where the second Battle of Cynthiana started, in the then-new town cemetery.
Abbey Road on the River (AROTR) is a five-day, multi-staged music festival which was initially created to honor the music and spirit of the Beatles. The festival took place in Louisville, Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend but moved across the Ohio River to Jeffersonville, Indiana starting in 2017. Tribute bands, as well as internationally recognized bands, perform over the course of the festival, playing the music of the Beatles, as well as the music of other artists. Abbey Road on the River is a four-time winner of the Kentucky Travel Industry Association's Top 10 Spring Festivals.
Cincy Blues Fest is an annual blues music festival, held on the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is believed to be the largest all-volunteer blues festival in the U.S. Over the years it has showcased such acts as Lonnie Mack, Otis Rush, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials, Bobby Rush, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, Watermelon Slim & the Workers, Slick Ballinger, the Chicago Allstars, Bob Seeley, Big Joe Duskin, Ricky Nye, and Sonny Moorman.
The University of Louisville Cardinal Marching Band is the official marching band of the University of Louisville (UofL) in Louisville, Kentucky. It is considered a Music Ambassador for UofL. The CMB performs at all home football games at Cardinal Stadium (PJCS), all postseason bowl games, and select away football games. It also plays at the annual Spring Scrimmage Game which pits the Cardinal Offense against the Cardinal Defense.
Louisville Chorus, established 1939 in Louisville, Kentucky, is the longest-thriving most frequently performing choral arts agency in Kentuckiana and neighboring states—also exceeding the longevity of opera, ballet, and theatre in the area.
Harvey Fuqua was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive.
Kentucky Public Radio, doing business as Louisville Public Media, is a non-profit organization that operates the three National Public Radio member stations in Louisville, Kentucky—news and talk WFPL, classical WUOL-FM, and adult album alternative WFPK.