The rain started early Saturday morning, just after the Umphrey‘s McGee set closed up shop. That dope encore was legit. The intermittent downpours left over 5 inches of rain in their wake on the fields of Oakridge. Personally, my tent was soaked. The air mattress was now officially a floatation device in the wonderfully glassy sea that previously was the tent floor.

“You’re damn right I got the blues,” Buddy Guy sang out as he opened his headlining set at the annual Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival in fiery northern California on Sept. 13. While the so-called 73,000-acre Valley Fire, which burned more than 500 homes, raged as close as 30 miles away, the two-day festival site at Johnson’s Beach on the Russian River in the small, Bohemian town of Guerneville, California, was smoke-free.

Eagle’s Bonfire Brewing and the musicians of SunSquabi, a Boulder based band on the rise, announced a partnership to promote music and craft beer across Colorado. Recognizing a unique opportunity to unite Colorado’s emerging electro-funk scene with the exploding American craft beer industry, the new partners hope to promote one another in exciting, innovative ways. The partnership takes effect immediately, with co-branded merchandise available now, and Bonfire beer featured at upcoming SunSquabi concerts in Colorado.

Following recent tours with lauded singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov and bluegrass favorites Railroad Earth, Shook Twins return to select Northeast, West Coast, and Mountain markets to perform songs from their latest full-length album, What We Do. Shook Twins appear in NYC and Cambridge with Tall Heights, as well as with backing ensemble the Maine Youth Rock Orchestra (Cambridge & Maine).

Toronto natives The New Deal are set to start a brief fall tour.  Starting with a two-day run in Colorado and ending in Chicago, this concise touring schedule suggests a cohesion and maturity to the band. Coming back after an apparent end in 2011, The New Deal’s return in 2014 was surprising and elating. Now in 2015 fans eagerly await more of The New Deal’s captivating and unique Jamtronica sounds.

Acclaimed blues rock band Savoy Brown, led by its seminal guitarist Kim Simmonds, will kick off its 50th anniversary year celebration with a show tomorrow night (15) at B. B. King’s Blues Club in New York City, followed on Friday with the release of a new album of original material called THE DEVIL TO PAY from Ruf Records.  The New York show will be the beginning of a worldwide concert tour to support the new album, with shows in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Canvas Sounds are proud to introduce Irish singer-songwriter 'First Pope' via two new videos in their 'On a Whim' series. The Dublin-based 'First Pope' AKA Fabian Molloy unveils an original track, 'In the Dark' and a cover of Miike Snow's 'Animal' filmed at The Famous Crown in Didsbury, Manchester. Malloy has been writing music for only four years, describing his sound as 'alt-folk'.