// May 6th, 2013

TOUR TO THE EAST! We are really pleased to have an opportunity to make another tour to the east coast. It is a tremendous privilege to be included in the Don Odell Legends music series, taping in Palmer, Massachusetts. Check out the videos from this series at http://www.youtube.com/user/dodell590. Our Rhode Island friends take good care of us and have arranged a weekend of shows at Cady's Tavern in Chepachet. It is great to be going back to Bleecker Street in Manhattan to the Red Lion, and always wonderful to play for the Bucks County Blues Society lead by Tom Cullen. We are swinging down to Hampton Virginia to play for Dylan Jones and hopefully see the amazing Jackie Scott, and then over the mountains to Bracken's Blues Bar in Maryville, Tennessee. Seven shows in ten days and we are looking forward to it!

BUT WE COME HOME TO A PACKED MAY AND EARLY JUNE SCHEDULE. We are coming home to six shows in nine days in three states-- yeah, yeah, we are real geographers. We are playing old favorites The Player's Pub in Bloomington, Indiana, the stand up Blues City Deli in St. Louis, a new place in Bement, Illinois called Rumor Has It, and return to Kilborn Alley central-- The Iron Post in Urbana, Illinois. We've got a different event for our Decatur, Illinois friends on June 1st- it is the Nightriders Motorcycle Club Bash at the Decatur Convention Center on Saturday June 1st. We go on at 5, and it is a $10 entrance, but the public is very welcome. Somewhere in these dates expect some UK musician pals to get up and play with us.

WILLOW RIDGE BLUES FEST will be on Sunday May 26th this year at the Willow Ridge Vineyard & Winery, about six miles northwest of Shelbyville, Illinois, just outside the tiny town of Westervelt. We are proud of our long association with the winery and their annual festival. This year the event will open with Josie Lowder, includes the amazing Matthew Curry and The Fury, and us. These are always great days of music and wine.

AND IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF WEEKS IN JUNE include a Neighborhood Night for the Urbana, Illinois Park District, our part in the first annual Mt. Zion Chill on the Hill, a long awaited return to the extraordinary Shady Nook in Saybrook, our first ever show in Morris, Illinois-- a town more important in Kilborn Alley lore than we can explain, a return to Dublin O'Neil's (bangers and mash!), and playing right in front of all three Brookses at the Gahanna Creekside Blues & Jazz Festival just outside of Columbus, Ohio.

BUT AS MUCH AS IS ON THIS SCHEDULE, we think there might be a couple more shows added in here, so follow us day-by-day on facebook and twitter, and generally, pay attention. It might be on the test.

WHICH BRINGS US TO APRIL, PAST. Twist our arm, we'll tell. That final show in March at Knuckleheads in Kansas City was one of those that keeps a musician playing, no matter what else they might be thinking about money, travel, things makes no sense, body parts hurt. It was our 1700th show, as Junebug kindly announced. Great shows at Memphis on Main, Bonkers, Friendly Bar & Package. JOHNNY "YARD DOG" JONES showing up and playing at the Cafe Brio. 1700th show. Yard Dog! And then our 13th Anniversary Show at the Iron Post. An explosion of musical love. We thank Abraham Johnson, Dave Fauble, Joe Asselin, Gerry Hundt, Willie Buck, and Martin Lang for adding to this unforgettable night, and the many of you who packed the place so tight people could hardly move.

HAVE YOU SEEN we have new show posters? And we just hired a designer to come up with another new ones. We've loved Breen dropping the bowling ball, but as George Harrison said, all things must pass. Gotta like the fierce dog poster from the photography from FOUR.

YOU WANNA SEE ED singing and playing harp? Check out this video from our December show at Memphis on Main in Champaign, Illinois: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbEkHa_xGjU

SPECIAL THANKS. Years ago in an interview we were asked about our clean traditional guitar sound and never having any effects pedals on stage, and our pithy Josh replied, "We don't play amplifiers, we play guitars." Dude. Well, the fine folks at Big Joe Stomp Box sent Andrew and Josh their "stomp box," and we are really having fun with them. Andrew especially likes to use his to punch up his guitar solos. More cracklin' tube fun for everyone.

SEE OUR NOVEMBER 2ND SHOW AT ROSA'S LOUNGE on Gigity.tv. Yeah, this is a thing, and you can put our name in the Gigity search box, and you can see from their archive our show at Rosa's. Any time you want to. Pour yourself a nice beverage, and order up our show, day or night.

HAVING TROUBLE GETTING THE ALBUMS? New FOURS have arrived, and the other Blue Bella albums should be coming, though maybe by slow boat.

THE BLUES REVUE article is out! The new Blues Revue, #136 with the great Shemekia Copeland on the cover and a story about us, is on magazine stands and in mail boxes-- now. The profile on Kilborn Alley was written by long-time BR contributor and leader of the Bucks County Blues Society, Tom Cullen. A tale of poor workin' boys from Champaign, Illinois who . . . You can check out the electronic edition of the mag on-line at http://bluesrevue.com/digital-edition-for-issue-136/

2012 BLUES BLAST AWARDS have been announced and congratulations go to Janiva Magness for winning three awards and our old pal Mud Morganfield for winning two. The great Kansas City area band Trampled Under Foot won in the “Best Band” category. Congratulations to them! Don’t you forget to read your BLUES BLAST each week, free on-line.

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.

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)