Now in its ninth year, the Santa Cruz Blues Festival has just released its lineup for 2001. The annual event, held in Aptos Village Park on Memorial Day Weekend, May 26-27, is a blues lover's fantasy come true.
Creatively on fire, with the unlimited energy and enthusiasm of youth coupled with the humility born of a natural talent, Jonny Lang smokes the stage as the headliner on Saturday. the guitar-wiz kid's 1997 debut, Lie To Me, hit # 1 on Billboard's New Artist chart when he was just 16. Critics have lauded him as a "once-in-a-generation" blues talent, and Newsweek listed him in its Century Club of the 100 Americans expected to be influential in the next millennium. Lang's superb singing and guitar playing also landed him on Guitar magazine's Best New Guitarist list, and in the last several years, he's toured with Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and B.B.King, who frequently invited him onstage to jam.
Lang describes his style as "simple, kind of full and dirty, without a lot of effects; a foundation of blues that sweeps into R&B, soul and rock". The late Luther Allison said, "Jonny Lang has the power to move the music into the next millennium by reaching the ears of a new generation. The great musicians have the power to break all the 'isms' - race, age, sex, etc. Jonny Lang is one of those musicians."

Headlining on Sunday, May 27 is Keb' Mo', whose laid-back, mellow country blues will provide the perfect ending to the long Memorial day weekend. An expert storyteller, Mo' adds touches of soul and gospel to his banjo and guitar work, playing acoustic, electric and slide equaly well.
Other featured artists throughout the weekend include Tinsley Ellis, the Lloyd Jones Struggle, Hamilton Loomis, Sista Monica, Jimmy Thackery, Tab Benoit, the Delgado Brothers, Chris Cain, Melvin Taylor, Studebaker John & the Hawks.
Beginning Friday, March 9, tickets go on sale online at <www.santacruzbluesfestival.com>, elsewhere, ticket sales begin March 16. For more information, call the Blues Festival Hotline at 479-9814.