8^th ANNUAL ST. LOUIS BLUES FESTIVAL BRINGS RHYTHM AND SOUL TO CHAIFETZ ARENA ON FEBRUARY 23

 

TICKETS GO ON-SALE ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 17 AT 10AM AT METROTIX.COM

(St. Louis – December 13, 2012) St. Louis-native Shirley Brown and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Bobby Womack and Bobby “Blue” Bland headline the 8^th Annual St. Louis Blues Festival at Chaifetz Arena at Saint Louis University on Saturday, February 23 at 7 p.m.  Mel Waiters, Charles Wilson, TK Soul and Denise LaSalle are also scheduled to perform.

Tickets are $47.50 and $57.50 and go on-sale on Monday, December 17 at 10 a.m. at MetroTix.com, charge by phone at 314-534-1111 and the Chaifetz Arena Box Office.

Cutting her teeth in church at the age of ten, Shirley Brown earned a reputation in the gospel circles around St. Louis for delivering powerful solos. Brown parlayed that success to a recording career in 1974 where her debut single “Woman to Woman” peaked at the top spot on the Billboard R&B charts and yielded a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year.

Singer-songwriter and musician Bobby Womack began his career as the lead singer of The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke’s backing guitarist in the early 1960s. With hits such as “Lookin’ For a Love,” “That’s The Way I Feel About Cha” and “Woman’s Gotta Have It,” Womack’s career has spanned more than 50 years and has reached across multiple genres including rock and roll, gospel, R&B, doo-wop and more. Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.

With the title of one of the most renowned patriarchs of modern soul, Bobby “Blue” Bland is known for his unique grainy voice and snorts, which later came to be known as the “chicken-bone sound.” Since 1957, Bland has had over 30 R&B Top 20 singles including the well-known hits “I Pity the Fool” and “Don’t Cry No More.”  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and earned the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1997.

R&B singer Mel Waiters first began his performing career at local teen clubs in San Antonio. After a stint as a radio disc jockey, Waiters was awarded a government contract to entertain at military bases across the country and later released the albums Suki-Suki Man and Women in Need.

Chicago-native Charles Wilson has become a fixture on the Southern Soul circuit after beginning to perform at age seven. After establishing himself as a blues player, he found his niche in Southern Soul and cut his first album “Blues In The Key Of C” in 1991.

TK Soul, the “Undisputed Bad Boy of Southern Soul” produced his first album, “One Woman Man,” in 2002 and has seen an increase in popularity ever since. His newest album, “Ghetto Superstar” was released in October 2012.

Denise LaSalle, a blues and R&B/soul singer, began singing in local churches in her native Mississippi before moving to Chicago. Her R&B songs are also influenced by country and blues music. LaSalle was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011.

Global Spectrum (global-spectrum.com) manages Chaifetz Arena as well as more than 100 other public assembly facilities around the world. Nearly 20-million people attended more than 11,000 events in Global Spectrum venues last year. Based in Philadelphia, PA, Global Spectrum is part of Comcast-Spectacor, one of the world’s largest sports and entertainment companies. Comcast-Spectacor also owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage services provider, New Era Tickets, a full-service ticketing and marketing product for public assembly facilities, Paciolan, the leading provider of venue establishment ticketing, fundraising and marketing technology solutions, Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company, and Flyers Skate Zone, a series of community ice skating rinks.

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