//January 8th, 2012

FOUR IS #1 on the LIVING BLUES radio charts for December 2011. This has us really pleased and gratified around here. Both TEAR CHICAGO DOWN in 2007 and BETTER OFF NOW in 2010 topped out at #3 on the LIVING BLUES charts, so we see this as tremendous recognition from the blues djs around the U.S. and selected stations abroad that comprise the LB reporting stations. Those blues disc jockeys are absolutely crucial to sustaining the conversation on new blues. We hope you will check into the stations in your area and some of the amazing blues programming on the internet. We really appreciate the radio promotion work Todd Glaser does for us.

SIX STATES BY FEBRUARY 11TH. We are going to play in six states by February 11th this year, with a visit to the Lakeshore Blues Society in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and a benefit for Compassionate Friends near Escanaba, Michigan in January, some shows in Mississippi and Memphis the first week in February, and then our first visit back to Player's Pub in Bloomington, Indiana since the passing of owner Greg Hill, a man who did a world of good for roots music, and music for grownups, in general, in that great Big Ten city.

BUT THAT IS JUST THE BEGINNING of our travels for the year, with festivals and other shows booked for 2012 in Colorado, California, South Carolina, Ohio, and . . . Call us or email us today about getting us on your festival or in your line-up for the new year.

COMING RIGHT UP, NEW PLACES AND OLD FAVORITES too. And mixed in the next month with our farther travels, we have shows coming up at new venues Katz in Decatur, Illinois and Babes in Madison, Wisconsin, and old favorites like The Phoenix in Champaign and the Bourbon Barrel in Decatur. VERY IMPORTANT FOR FRIENDS IN THE CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Illinois area, we will play a benefit for Sebastian Major, a ten year old with neuroblastoma, on Sunday, January 15th at Memphis on Main in Champaign. The event starts at 2 pm and goes until about 8. This is an important cause, and we hope you will come out and make a contribution. Oh, and, there may be another show or event in the Champaign-area in the next month-- keep a lookout for that.

WE LOST A great musical mentor and friend early this month. Roy Marcelin was a family man, a veteran, and the smoothest soul singer we ever ran across. Roy came to the second show we ever played-- Cinco de Mayo, 2000 at Enrique's in Rantoul. Roy brought his conga drum. He was known to do a "Cross Cut Saw" to take your mind off of sawing. Taught Andrew a thing or two about singing. Soul heaven band, welcome Roy Marcelin.

THERE IS SOME MORE EARLY RECOGNITION and a few reviews for FOUR. J.D. Hathaway, who authored the liner notes on the album, whose reviews range over roots and rock, put FOUR in his top fifteen albums of the year on the collective music blog BLINDED BY SOUND on December 30th. Doc's Juke Joint, the weekly blues program from WGMC in Rochester, New York included FOUR in his best albums of 2011 on the wonderful January 1, 2012 year end review show. Early brief reviews appeared at MIDWEST RECORD on November 25th, at American Blues Scene on November 23rd, and at the Music City Blues Society from Nashville, Tennessee in December. We are pretty sure you can find all these things on the www, if you go looking there.

WE FINALLY SAW THE WHOLE JUBILEE EPISODE we are in. Sweet. We'll remind you, that this is the wonderful roots music television program from public broadcasting in Kentucky. This series gets syndicated around the U.S.-- maybe farther. Ask your PBS provider when they are going to show it!

WE REMIND our friends in Champaign County that it is time to renew your membership in the Prairie Crossroads Blues Society, and that our friends in Macon should re-up with the Decatur Blues Society, our friends in McLean should join or rejoin the Blues Blowtorch Society, that our friends in Sangamon County need to be sure they are members of the Illinois Central Blues Club, our friends in Peoria and Tazewell counties need to get up to date with the River City Blues Society, and our pals in Kankakee County need to pester James Walker about how they can make a contribution to his amazing "Friends of the Blues."

WE HEAR a new Kilborn Alley application may soon be available for your smart phone, I Pad, and whatnot. Don't expect us to answer much about it; we tend to think technology stopped with the Fender Stratocaster.

WEFT-FM (and streaming on-line throughout planet Earth) has blues Monday through Friday from 11:30 to 2 Central Time (US). We are especially drawn to the Tuesday show, usually hosted by our pal Dave Wright, and with frequent guest fill-in, Mr. Andrew Duncanson. It is interesting, given basically a whole room of blues albums to pick from, to see what Andrew plays. Listen to WEFT, try to read the tea leaves of Andrew's inscrutable tastes.

THE FIRST WEDNESDAY of the month shows at D.R. Digger's have turned into quite the deal. We call 'em "juke" shows because-- well, have you ever seen Digger's?-- and because there is a lot of sittin' in and always some tasty pitch in eats.

HOPE YOU LOOK AROUND the site, now you are here. The Press page has been spiffed up and now takes you to a bunch of recent reviews, The Media page has downloadable photos, our album covers, song samples, and video links. We are contemplating adding even more. Jessie Gillan, librarian extraordinaire and jill of all honorable trades in Gotham City, makes this possible.

DON'T BE BASHFUL about following us on Twitter, friending us on Facebook, or on Myspace. Myspace is usually the first place we update new shows; it has remained an exceptionally good platform for a band to present itself, even though it has lagged in general use. We can't tell you what this means, but we have over 9,000 Myspace friends, over 102, 000 profile views, and over 58,000 song plays.

CHECK THE SHOWS PAGE, and just check back often to see what we're doing!

DID YOU KNOW, or maybe you knew and forgot, Kilborn Alley Blues Band has a distribution agreement with Burnside Distribution Corporation of Portland, Oregon? What this means is, when you are looking for the four Blue Bella releases, BETTER OFF NOW, TEAR CHICAGO DOWN, and PUT IT IN THE ALLEY have your local records store contact BDC about getting the cds.

. . . it is the music which changes the place from the rear room of a
saloon in back of the yards to a fairy place, a wonderland, a little
corner of the high mansions of the sky.
---Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)