BLUES
EXPRESS
LINEUP

37 BANDS  10 STAGES

BOFFERDING STAGE  CARREAU DE LA MINE, LASAUVAGE

PROMUSIK STAGE  SALLE DES PENDUS, LASAUVAGE

THUNDER ROAD

HEAVY PETROL

THE BLUES BASTARDS

CLEANHEAD'S FACTORY

COLLÉ STAGE  PLACE DE SAINTIGNON, LASAUVAGE

BLUES SCHOUL 1 & 2

THE HORSEBLINDERS

REMO'S
ORGANIZED JAM

RAMBLIN' SOUTH

 TAGEBLATT STAGE BEIM BUER, LASAUVAGE

GREYHOUNDS59

THE FEROCIOUS FEW

LA PROVENÇALE STAGE HOTEL-RESTAURANT LE PRESBYTÈRE, LASAUVAGE

NOBBIE DIXIE BAND

SAXITUDE

MAGIC FANFARE

LOUISIANA
DIXIE BAND

SALES-LENTZ STAGE  HALL DES TRAINS, FOND-DE-GRAS

SPUERKEESS STAGE HALL PAUL WÜRTH, FOND-DE-GRAS

Q-SOME BIG BAND

SPUERKEESS
BANKERS IN CONCERT

BIG BAND SPECTRUM

LOU TENNANT & THE NIGHTCALLERS

POST STAGE  GARE TERRASSE, FOND-DE-GRAS

RENEGADE DUKES

LITTLE BLUES BAND

JONATHAN PORTLAND & THE MUFFINBOYS

FRITZ AND HIS PUMPING PIANO

 BERTO STAGE  BEI DER GIEDEL, FOND-DE-GRAS

SILK & SONIC

CALL IT SPRING

CHRISTOPHE ASTOLFI
& BAND

DOMAINES VINSMOSELLE STAGE  LAMINOIR, FOND-DE-GRAS

DÉIFFERDENGER
BIG BAND

JAZZ DEPARTMENT
EMDIFFERDANGE

GAASSEROCK
BLUES BAND

TWO AND A HALF
STRINGS

AFTERMOVIE

PHOTOS

PHOTOS BY © JOHANNA HUDYKA

PHOTOS BY © YVAN PIAZZA

BOFFERDING STAGE CARREAU DE LA MINE, LASAUVAGE

ERIC STECKEL

Road-tested and seasoned from 22 years on stage, Eric Steckel is a blues veteran at only 31 years of age. His big break came about at the age of 12 when Blues legend John Mayall invited Eric on tour with his band The Bluesbreakers and hired Eric to play lead guitar on his 2005 album. Since then, Eric has launched a successful solo career releasing 11 albums, developing signature guitars, pickups, & amps and touring in 30 countries. Eric has shared the bill with Steve Vai, Gregg Allman, Johnny Winter, John Mayall, Ray Charles, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford among others and was named one of “10 Future Blues Stars” by Guitar Player Magazine in 2021.

BOFFERDING STAGE CARREAU DE LA MINE, LASAUVAGE

BEN POOLE

If ever a simple Youtube video told you everything you needed to know about a particular up-and coming-artist it is Ben Poole’s unforgettable live rendition of the classic Temptations track “I Know I’m losing You.”

Poole’s version announces its sinister mission with a searing riff that cuts as deep as Dennis Edwards’ icy vocals from the original. This is not a pleasant little love song, not a gentle ode to undying devotion. It is a song that wants to cause pain. And in the masterful hands of Ben Poole, a Gibson Les Paul might as well be a meat cleaver held against your jugular.

About four minutes in, there’s a breakdown, a slower pound of drums, a steady bass figure looming in the background, celestial keyboards brightening adding light to the mood. But don’t be fooled. It’s only a brief respite, a chance to catch your breath before the menace begins anew.

Then Poole launches back into the assault, screaming, screeching, howling with his guitar in a way that reminds any blues fan of the very best of those who have ever played the instrument.

That’s all the introduction to Ben Poole that you need. And that’s the reason that any fan of the blues who sleeps on this young talent is in danger of missing out big.

Poole’s background is surprisingly low-key for a man who wields such a threatening guitar. Born and bred in the UK, this young fretboard wizard got an early start at dazzling the blues world. By the age of twenty-two he had already boasted a resume that listed such names as Gary Moore, Jeff Beck and John Mayall as either admirers or collaborators. Poole seems poised for greatness.

BOFFERDING STAGE CARREAU DE LA MINE, LASAUVAGE

DEVON ALLMAN PROJECT

Devon Allman’s life reads like that of the quintessential American troubadour. Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, the singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and producer spent his early years dividing time between the Lone Star State, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri. Raised by his mother, Devon began playing music as a youth. He was 16 when he first met his father, Gregg.

Gregg invited Devon on the road with The Allman Brothers Band, during the group’s Dreamstour in the summer of 1989, where he first met ABB progeny, Berry Duane Oakley and Duane Betts. On many occasions, Devon would sit-in with the Brothers, often performing “Midnight Rider” alongside his father. Included among the many musical heavyweights Devon would join onstage throughout his career are Les Paul, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Billy Gibbons, Gov’t Mule, Blackberry Smoke, and Lukas Nelson.

He founded Devon Allman’s Honeytribe in 1999, recording two albums and touring the world intermittently over the next decade. In 2011, Devon paired with Cyril Neville to form Royal Southern Brotherhood. The supergroup released a trio of albums, won a Blues music award, and culminated their world tour with an appearance at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Concurrently, Devon was cultivating a prolific solo career, issuing Turquoise in 2013 and Ragged & Dirty(2014), garnering widespread critical acclaim as well as top Billboard positions, including #1 on the Blues chart for 2016’s Ride or Die.

In 2017, Devon assembled the Devon Allman Project, commencing a 2018-19 world tour with Duane Betts as a special guest. Following that successful run, he and Betts announced the formation of the Allman Betts Band, reuniting with Oakley and recording their debut album at the famed Muscle Shoals studio.

BOFFERDING STAGE CARREAU DE LA MINE, LASAUVAGE

FANTASTIC NEGRITO

Fantastic Negrito is the incarnation of a musician who is reborn after going through a lot of awful shit. In fact, the name Fantastic Negrito represents his third rebirth, literally coming back from death this time. The narrative on this man is as important as the sound, because the narrative is the sound. Songs born from a long hard life channeled through black roots music. Slide guitar, drums, piano. Urgent, desperate, edgy. Fantastic Negrito is the story of a man who struggled to “make it”, who “got it”, who lost it all, and somehow managed to find his way back. These are singular songs by a true musician who writes and produces his own work. His songs are his fuel as he continues on the third comeback of his life, at a time when our world is in upheaval.

SALES-LENTZ STAGE HALL DES TRAINS, FOND-DE-GRAS

ROCKIN' GINA &
THE SENTINELS

Rockin’ Gina and The Sentinels is a classic Galician rock and roll band formed in 2011 that draws from the purest sounds of the 50s.

In their repertoire flow songs of the great female voices of the likes of Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin and Brenda Lee, among others, as well as their own catchy songs, very danceable and full of energy, to which their female voice Rockin’Gina gives a special color, with her velvety and heartbreaking voice in equal parts.

In 2011, they released their first album, “Let’s Elope, Baby”, with covers, and in 2014, their second work, “Trust me”, which already hints at the talent of this band with four of their own songs.

In 2016 they released “ONE CRAZY NIGHT!”, which contains 12 original songs in the purest Rockin’Gina style, songs with a lot of energy, heartbreaking ballads and classic countrys that hook from beginning to end.

Surrounded by great musicians such as Klauss on double bass (Rockabilly Duet, Mr. Whiz), Germán on drums (Mr. Whiz, Creepers) and David Lemos on guitar, they are the perfect formula to transport us to the past and enjoy good music made with great taste.

SALES-LENTZ STAGE HALL DES TRAINS, FOND-DE-GRAS

KYLA BROX

Blues and soul become inextricably entwined in award-winning singer-songwriter, Kyla Brox, whose raw talent has seen her described as “the finest female blues singer of her generation”. Winner of the UK Blues Challenge 2018 and the European Blues Challenge 2019, voted Best Female Vocalist in the 2019 European Blues Awards and semi-finalist in the International Blues Challenge 2019 & 2020, Kyla Brox is at the very top of the UK Blues scene.

Daughter of cult blues figure, Victor Brox, the Mancunian vocalist began her career as a teenager in her father’s band and has now honed her own sophisticated sound, as heard on her last two critically acclaimed and award-nominated albums, Throw Away Your Blues and Pain & Glory, which reached No.1 in the IBBA Charts for 2019 and was nominated Best Album in both the European and UKBlues Awards.

Her voice; tender, urgent, gritty, blurring the distinction between pleasure and pain, mixed with the enchantingly fluent guitar work of Paul Farr, inspired bass playing of Danny Blomeley and in-the-pocket drumming of Mark Warburton, combine to make a unique and powerful, often joyous, always emotional experience.

Kyla also plays in duo form with her husband, virtuoso acoustic guitarist, Danny Blomeley, whose playing, by turns delicate and unrestrained, has earned him a following in his own right.

A completely independent artist, Kyla has built her career year on year; starting out at grassroots with local pub gigs and growing to headlining concerts all over the globe, including some of the most prestigious Blues festivals in the world.

With thousands of albums sold and a constantly growing fanbase, Kyla Brox is widely regarded as one of the very best soul-blues singers the British Isles has ever produced.

SALES-LENTZ STAGE HALL DES TRAINS, FOND-DE-GRAS

DEE DEE
BRIDGEWATER

Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award-winning Jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards, as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics.

Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band, and throughout the 70’s she performed with such jazz notables as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie. After a foray into the pop world during the 1980s, she relocated to Paris and began to turn her attention back to Jazz. Bridgewater began self-producing with her 1993 album Keeping Tradition (Polydor/Verve) and created DDB records in 2006 when she signed with the Universal Music Group as a producer (Bridgewater produces all of her own CDs). Releasing a series of critically-acclaimed CD’s, including her wildly successful double Grammy Award-winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Dear Ella and the more recent Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee, which won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

SALES-LENTZ STAGE HALL DES TRAINS, FOND-DE-GRAS

GAËLLE
BUSWEL

Gaëlle Buswel, is a unique artist who leaves no one indifferent. Her exceptional voice will move you as it reaches straight for your soul. Her generosity of spirit, her spontaneity and her dazzling smile are irresistible. A prodigious performer, she has already more than 500 concerts across Europe under her belt as well as 2 North American tours.

In listening to her music, it is not surprising to learn that right from the very start this artist was drawn to folk rock and blues rock sung by husky-voiced singers. When you have the music of Led Zeppelin, Joe Cocker and Queen all playing in the nursery, with Neil Young and Janis Joplin for your childhood lullabies, you are bound to be drawn towards this fantastic mixture of complementary musical influences. As a teenager, she immersed herself completely in blues music, delving into the albums of Bonnie Raitt and Jonny Lang.