Catalina Island Blues Festival Sept. 25-27

The return of the Catalina Island Blues Festival is right around the corner as the coastal destination celebrates the end of summer with a full weekend of live musical entertainment. The annual event is set for Friday-Sunday, Sept. 25-27 in Avalon.

Headlining this year's complete musical line up are two time Grammy award-winning Taj Mahal, the Len Rainey Band, The Bayou Blues Band, the Midnight Players, and The Missy Anderson Blues Band. Five time Grammy award-winning Robert Cray who will perform special "best of the blues" concerts in the world- famous Casino Ballroom.

The island comes alive Friday, Sept. 25 with the ever-popular Blues Walk, throughout Avalon. Local hot spots and night clubs, including the Lobster Trap and JL's Locker Room, will feature various artists performing the blues late into the night. Visitors can stroll through town from location to location, enjoying the lights of harbor, the clean ocean breeze, and the hot sounds of music in the air.

The festival continues Saturday afternoon in the center of town at Crescent Street and Metropole Avenue with a free outdoor concert from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. featuring more blues in the heart of downtown Avalon. Local restaurants and Catalina's quaint shopping district will also welcome guests in friendly island style.

The headline entertainment begins in the Casino ballroom at 7 p.m. with the dual bill of Taj Mahal & The Phantom Band and Robert Cray. Taking the historic stage of this unique art deco setting, these giants of the blues scene will entertain the crowd for four fantastic hours of the best blues music in the world, in an intimate venue that seats just over 1,000 people!

Taj Mahal is a two-time Grammy Award-winning blues artist who has been playing his own brand of blues for over 40 years. A self-taught musician, Taj plays more than 20 instruments and compliments the sound with his distinctive voice, traveling the entire spectrum from smooth & sultry to rough, blues gravel. His music feels as if it erupts from raw emotion. The influences of funk, Caribbean, folk, rock, Latin, jazz gospel, zydeco, soul, and so on, meld with solid blues in a manner that defies classification into a single genre.

Says Taj Mahal about his music, "In the end, ultimately the music plays you, you don't play the music."

Robert Cray has been described as being at the center of the contemporary blues revival, winning him a total of five Grammy Awards and eleven nominations for his work. Robert's precise and passionate guitar licks and soulful vocals combine with his 1960's Seattle roots to produce an unique sound bringing with it images of O.V. Wright, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy. Robert's prominent cross-over success and his powerful song writing have helped to ensure his longevity and undeniable appeal.

"Every time somebody asks me about where my music comes from, I give them five or six different directions," he says, "I always attribute it to the music we grew up listening to, and the radio back in the 60's. It's pretty wide open. Its hard to put a tag on it."

The Catalina Island Blues Festival comes to a close Sunday, Sept. 27, with a free concert at the Descanso Beach Club. Blues bands (to be announced) will grace the lawn stage for Blues on the Beach from 12:30 pm until 4 pm in front of a gorgeous seaside backdrop of ocean waves and shimmering sand.

Three Blues-tastic days of top-name entertainment at the island get-away of Avalon feature lodging and entertainment packages, and special late-night transportation back to Long Beach Saturday night aboard Catalina Express at 11:45 pm. It is a sure-fire fun-filled weekend of musical riffs, ocean air, sandy beaches, and world class blues in a world class setting. Ticket prices for the Saturday night Taj Mahal and Robert Cray concert range from $30, $50, $85 and $110; all other performances are free to the public. Additional information, tickets and packages are available at www.VisitCatalinaIsland.com, or call (800) 595-4849.

For information on Catalina's premier visitor accommodations and services, contact Hotel Villa Portofino, 888-510-0555, www.HotelVillaPortofino.com; Santa Catalina Island Company, 800-626-4804, www.visitcatalinaisland.com ; Catalina Express, 800-429-4601, www.CatalinaExpress.com; and Two Harbors Enterprises (310) 510-0303, www.VisitTwoHarbors.com