People came for the music and because Sunday’s musical feast at Folsom’s Powerhouse Pub was a charity event. At $15 per ticket, with six bands lined up to cover a spectrum of blues music, and all ticket proceeds benefiting the 147 year old Sacramento Children's Home, there was no better place to be. The Randy Carey Band opened the show at 1:50 p.m. and their rocking country blues sound had people dancing early on. They opened with “Born Under a Bad Sign,” sung by Carey, who also penned several of the songs, including “Blue Boy Blues,” their next to last song. The band’s rendition of “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues” had feet tapping and bodies swaying in seats and on the dance floor tha

If you equate blues music with Robert Johnson, you’re in for a surprise and a treat Sunday afternoon when Sacramento Blues Revue teams with Folsom’s Powerhouse Pub to host the second annual Blue Christmas for Kids, benefiting the Sacramento Children’s Home. The event kicks off at 1:50 p.m. with the Randy Carey Band, a country blues group, and will finish with Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, a blues/jump band, playing from 6 to 7 p.m. In between, attendees will hear blues/zydeco from GumboStew, blues from Pinkie Rideau & Blind Resistance, rockin’ blues from the Jimmy Pailer Band, and blues/R&B from Sacramento Blues Revue, led by Rick von Geldern. Von Geldern said he began working on this eve

The Northern California Blues Festival played Saturday afternoon at the Auburn Regional Park in Auburn, California. Headlined by the Elvin Bishop Band, the festival featured seven Blues bands that performed on a stage in front of a grassy slope for an enthusiastic crowd. Audience members avoided the heat by filling the shaded areas of the park until early evening when it was cool enough to move closer to the stage. By the time Elvin Bishop’s band took the stage, the area in front of the stage was crowded with cheering and dancing fans. The festival’s lineup included performances by Volker Strifler, Dennis Jones, Kaye Bohler, Chris Cain, Sacramento Blues Revue, Zac Harmon and Elvin Bishop.