The 29th Annual Piedmont Blues Preservation Society's Band Blues Challenge Sunday at the Blind Tiger

"The 29th Annual Piedmont Blues Preservation Society's Band Blues Challenge will be held Sunday, Oct 26, 2014 at the Blind Tiger, 1819 Spring Garden Street.  This year's challenge will host twelve (12) bands, five of which are from outside North Carolina; with entrants from Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina. The remaining bands are from Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The nonprofit group, Piedmont Blues Preservation Society, as part of it's affiliation with the Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN has been holding Solo/Duo and Band blues challenge talent contests since it's inception in 1985. Winners of the talent contest advance to the International Blues Challenge held every year in Memphis. This past year over 250 International acts filled the venues on Beale Street to vie for top honors.

Two preliminary rounds of six acts will get underway at 1:00pm at the Blind Tiger, with the top three acts moving to the final round. Admission to the event is $5.00 for PBPS members, $7.00 for general public until 5:30 when general public admission rises to $10.00. Additionally, we are selling raffle tickets for a custom built Ambrosia Maple snare drum crafted by David Kindred valued at $1200.00. Raffle Tickets are available at the challenge and online at http://piedmontblues.org. All proceeds from the ticket sales, raffle, and food sales at the blues challenge  will be used to defray the costs of travel for our first-place finalists in Solo/Duo and Band Challenges to Memphis, TN for the International Blues Challenge in January.

Here are the acts and preliminary round timeslots for each.  The top three places in each round will draw for their time slots in the Final Round after the second round has been tallied.

Round 1-

1:00 - Bobby & The Good Times

1:25 - 3 Cylinder Dynamo

1:50 - Amy & The High Lonesome Boys

2:15 - Marvelous Funkshun

2:40 - Flying High

3:05 - Smokestack Lightnin' Blues Band - Virginia

3:30 - Break for Score Tallies and announcement of top 3 advancing to Final Round

Round 2 -

4:00 - The Bell Hornets - Virginia

4:25 - Jake & The Comet Conductors - Tennessee

4:50 - Gene Gene and the Blues Machine

5:15 - Peter May & The Rough Band

5:40 - Raisin' Cain Band - South Carolina

6:05 - The Bush League - Virginia

6:30 - Break for Score Tallies and announcement of top 3 advancing to Final Round

The Piedmont Blues Preservation Society held it's Solo/Duo Challenge last Sunday with 12 solo/duo acts. First place in the solo/duo competition went to Peter May from Winston-Salem, Second place went to Todd Verts & Danie Jones of Greensboro, and Third place went to Morgan Geer, from Asheville.  We congratulate all that competed."

- A Press Release