Blues for Everyone News!
Thank you to the many volunteers who helped make the St Anthony Park 13th Annual Backyard Bluesfest a huge success. The MnBS is lucky to have such great volunteers.
A special thank you to our volunteer coordinator Lina Green for arranging and supporting our wonderful helpers.
The Minnesota Blues Society is proud to announce a grant from the Dual Citizens Brewery in St. Paul. This grant is due to the recommendation from the Backyard Bluesfest that MnBS is a sponsor for.”The Backyard Blues Fund” is a grant of $5000 which will support our mission to “Keep the Blues Alive in Minnesota” by linking experienced Blues musicians with young Blues musiciansThe goal of this program is to encourage our up and coming musicians as they begin the journey from starting a band to establishing themselves as “gigging” musicians.
The program was developed due to an identified shortage of young musicians in Minnesota who are interested in pursuing Blues Music as a career. The MnBS believes that through mentor relationships, young musicians will gain:
- Musical guidance and skill development
- Knowledge of the music industry and band management
- Exposure to live Blues performance and professional musicians
- Opportunities to participate more fully in the Blues community in Minnesota
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The timeline:
Summer 2026:
Convene an oversight committee for the program
Develop an application process and training program for mentors, including a screening program for background checks and a code of conduct
Develop an application process for mentees
Develop an evaluation of program success.
Fall 2026:
Identify and train 5 mentees
Identify and inform the 5 mentors
2027 and beyond:
Begin and then expand he program
Producing a new album?
MnBS is accepting CD’s for the Best Self Produced CD contest. The deadline is October 26. For more info: https://mnbs.org/self-produced-cd-competition/
The MnBS is seeking patrons and sponsors for our activities.
A patron would contribute a donation to an event of their choice. In return you will be listed in our programming and PR materials for the event.
We are also hoping to add some new corporate sponsors to our organization.
We deeply appreciate the many people who help make our organization successful.
For more information:
Click on the images to link with information specific to the type of sponsorship.
The Virgil Caine Band and the duo Peter Meyer/Bill Finke won the Road to Memphis Challeng and will be competing for a chance to represent MnBS at the International Blues Challenge, January 19-23, 2027 in Memphis, TN.
