2019 Ann Arbor Blues Festival Line-Up (***subject to change and addition)

Friday, August 16th
The Allman Betts Band
Bernard Allison
Thornetta Davis
The Ann Arbor Music Center All-Stars

Saturday August 17th
Benny Turner
John Primer
Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers
Lindsay Beaver
The Sam Lay Band
Eliza Neals and the Narcotics
Kara Grainger
Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones

Sunday August 18th
Laith al-Saadi
Danielle Nicole
Vanessa Collier
Harper & Midwest Kind
The Altered Five Blues Band
Alex Johnson


In August 1969, just a few weeks before Woodstock, North America’s first electric blues festival was held on a grassy field in the midwestern city of Ann Arbor, Michigan. There, tens of thousands of people gathered to witness performances by some of the greatest names in music history – BB King, Son House, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Roosevelt Sykes, Junior Wells, Luther Allison, Freddie King – over two dozen of the world’s most famous blues musicians performed over the course of three days.

With an equally star-studded line-up in 1970, the festival’s status and reputation grew quickly. Year after year, its lineup included the top stars of the day. Rechristened as the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1972, Count Basie and Miles Davis joined its growing roster of music industry legends who graced its stage, and Atlantic Records captured this event on a double-LP live album. By 1974, the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival was the premier event of its kind.

The impact of the Ann Arbor Blues Festivals can still be felt today. Music historians credit the Ann Arbor Blues Festival as the model for world-famous music festivals such as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Chicago Blues Festival. It gave rise to record labels such as Alligator Records and spawned publications such as Living Blues Magazines, both of which are still in existence today. The Ann Arbor Blues Festival inspired countless individuals to pursue careers in the music industry as musicians, producers, club owners, writers, publishers, record label owners, and more – many of whom have gone on to win multiple industry awards, including dozens of Grammys. It’s no exaggeration to say that the Ann Arbor Blues Festival literally altered the course of music history.

As storied as it is, the history of the Ann Arbor Blues Festival is also spotty. For 16 years, from 1975-1991, no Festival was held. It resumed in 1992 and continued uninterrupted until 2006, when it took a “hiatus” that lasted until 2017. That’s when a small group of local blues enthusiasts recognized that the rapidly approaching 50th anniversary of North America’s first electric blues festival was too significant to pass unobserved and determined to re-create and re-energize the spirit of the original Ann Arbor Blues Festivals.

They began a grass-roots effort to revive the festival with a crowdfunding campaign on the internet platform “GoFundMe,” raising nearly $10,000 in a few short weeks. A few local companies and private benefactors provided additional funding and, thanks to their efforts, the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival in over a decade was held on Saturday August 19, 2017.

Buoyed by that success, the 2018 Ann Arbor Blues Festival grew to 3-day event that drew attendees from across the United States and featured an especially impressive lineup for what was only the second year of its revival.

The success of the 2017 and 2018 Festivals have put the Ann Arbor Blues Festival on sound footing to rebuild its reputation as a world-class destination festival, just in time for its 50th Anniversary celebration in 2019.

For 2019, we are planning an event to rival those legendary festivals for which Ann Arbor was once known, with a lineup whose appeal will span generations. Though few of the headliners who appeared in 1969 are still with us, a cadre of their descendants will be, performing traditional blues classics in their honor, while a new generation of musicians will offer contemporary interpretations of the blues, all inspired by the masters who appeared in Ann Arbor a half-century ago. The 2019 Ann Arbor Blues Festival is a vibrant, multi-generational showcase of musicians celebrating the joy of the genre . . . from yesterday, today . . . and tomorrow.