Asheville Southern Fried Blues 6/25/09

The Orange Peel Presents Southern Fried Blues Society Showcase & Fundraiser. Also benefitting Reach for the Skye Foundation for Skye Barkschat

Host: SFBS and The Orange Peel

Thu Jun 25 from 7:00 pm to 11:30 pm at Venue: The Orange Peel on Biltmore Avenue

Contact Info: 866-468-7630 or www.theorangepeel.net

It's with great joy and enthusiasm that I announce our First Annual Orange Peel Southern Fried Blues Society Showcase/Fundraiser on Thursday, June 25th. Doors open at 7p and the fantastic performers, 5 of our very own Blues member bands including Peggy Ratusz & Daddy LongLegs, will perform beginning at 8p.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Proceeds will enable us to move forward with our plans for many exciting programs and events in the coming weeks and months. A portion of the proceeds will also go to a foundation called Reach for the Skye benefiting Skye Barkschat who suffered a brain injury from a bicycle accident 2 years ago. Her on-going rehabilitation is costly, therefore the foundation was set up to help offset these medical bills. Skye will be in attendance, and you'll have the chance to meet this charming, wonderful 28 years young woman whose courageous fight has been long, tedious but incredibly rewarding and inspiring. And its due in part, because of people like our Blues Society members who've helped her along the way. Some of the programs and events we're developing that this fundraiser will help launch:

Blues Education - Blues in Schools, in after school programs as well as Summer programs in Asheville and Greenville/Spartanburg.

Youth Blues Musician Workshop - a mentoring program which will allow us to rent space to hold weekend long workshops for musicians, aspiring and otherwise, ages 10-18. Our member bands, along with several well-known established Blues Artists in the region will teach group classes in guitar, bass, drums, voice/performance and piano.

2nd Annual Blues Challenge - Our first annual Blues Challenge sent two bands to the 25th annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis at the beginning of this year, to compete against more then 100 Blues society and youth Blues bands in the world. Winners and runners up both regionally and internationally win spots at various Blues festivals and venues across the country. Member bands compete on a regional level, in front of judges pulled from local industry leaders. A winner is determined and then that band and/or solo duo act advances to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in Feb 2010. For more information visit our affiliate The Blues Foundation at www.blues.org

First annual Southern Pride Blues Festival - We're hoping that with on-going support by your renewed memberships and new memberships, we'll be able to sponsor the area's first Blues Festival in 2010.

So bring a friend and encourage them to sign up for a membership. Visit us on the web for more information www.southernfriedblues.org. www.theorangepeel.net

If any of you have raffle items you'd care to donate to this fundraiser, please email me at this address and I'll make arrangements for pick ups. To our member bands, if you have a CD you can donate to the raffle, please email me here as well.

Playin' it forward, Southern Fried Blues Society, Skip Helms - President, Michael Martin - Vice President, David Harris - Secretary, Lee DeVico - Treasurer & Membership Chair, Billy Hutchings - Marketing Chair, Liz Cyriac - Newsletter Chair, Peggy Ratusz - Events Chair, Sandy Jones - Events Co-Chair, Debra Jones, Web Chair