Come On Children Lets Sing
I had the best time last night at Steppenwolf Theatre. As part of their Traffic series they had a program called Blues/Hip-Hop Intersection. As you would imagine, the two hour show featured Blues and Hip-Hop artists performing separately and together. It was off the MoFo chain ya'll.

The headliner was Billy Branch with his incredible band Sons of Blues (S.O.B.s). They rocked the house with classic blues numbers and Mr. Branch's infectious personality, voice, and harp (that's a harmonica for you not familiar with blues terminology). He and co-host Sylvia Ewing paid tribute to the Blues greats including John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, and Johnny Cotton. Sidenote:I met Johnny Cotton when I was a child. He was Larry Allen's (my uncle by marriage) brother-in-law. Larry took my cousins and I to Johnny's house and I got to meet Matt "Guitar" Murphy. New school harp man Russ Green came along to show off his Blues chops too.

The Hip-Hop artists were no slouches. They included some old friends Kevin Coval and Ugochi; my new friend Avery R. Young; and some awesome artists that I don't personally know but want to know more about their music for sure. Acts like DJ Itch 13, DJ Butter, the BeatMonstas, Mae Koen, Idris Goodwin (brilliant). And I can't forget the great teen acts including FM Supreme and Sense.

The whole evening was a foot stompin', head bobbin', shoulders shimmyin' good time.