The Launceston Blues Club is celebrating 20 years with an anniversary concert at the Royal Oak.
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The event will be "an afternoon of great music, catching up with old and new friends - you never know who may show up - and a chance to win some raffle prizes and hear about the history of the LBC," club president Karen Baker said.
The event will be headlined by Launceston band Black and Blues and the LBC Jammers Band, as well as Tasmanian musician Pete Cornelius.
Cornelius has been with the club since the beginning, performing in their very first year two decades ago.
Club member Ian Beecroft, who will also be selling his harmonica instruction book and accompanying CD, said he's been playing the blues since 1965.
He's travelling from Hobart to the anniversary concert to play harmonica, flute and saxophone with Black and Blue for a room full of other music lovers.
"I'm a Launceston boy from way back and I spend a lot of time going up to play with the blokes from Black and Blue," he said.
"I've been playing with them off and on for two decades - they told me the other night I'm regarded as an honorary member."
Blues originated among black slaves in the American South around the early 1800s, with strains of African music, work songs and gospel in the distinctive, raw sounds.
The beginning of blues is generally associated with the Mississippi delta and New Orleans before it spread into other parts of the country.
Chicago, Memphis, St Louis, and Louisiana have their own flavours of classic blues.
The style reached mainstream America via white artists like Elvis Presley and was one of the key influences of rock n roll and the music of artists like the Rolling Stones.
This complicated history is what gives the genre its depth of feeling, Mr Beecroft said.
"It's got great emotion and feeling - because it was born out of deep suffering," he said.
"It's not the most complicated form of music - in fact, the blues chord progression is a fairly standard progression - but it's the feeling that you put into it."
The Launceston Blues Club holds a monthly blues jam at the Royal Oak from 2pm to 5pm on the last Sunday of every month, except in December.
The not-for-profit club aims to "promote and foster all forms and styles of blues and roots music within the 0363 telephone area; and to promote blues and roots music," according to its constitution.
Fast Facts
- WHAT: Launceston Blues Club 20th Anniversary Concert.
- WHERE: The Royal Oak.
- WHEN: Sunday, October 13, from 2pm to 7pm.
- HOW MUCH: Free for current members or $12, which includes an annual membership to the club.