Doheny Blues Festival gets its Alligator on

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The Doheny Blues Festival in Dana Point will be featuring two acts from the Alligator Records stable. The label has a long history of bringing up great blues acts from around North America and these two bands, one from Austin, Texas, Lindsay Beaver and the other from Chicago, IL, the Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling are just two of their most recent examples.

Lindsay Beaver is a percussionist who stands behind her kit and sings her songs, which blend in the roots of the blues and country, with the sensibilities of the punk rock era. You’ll hear it in her songs and her voice, that punk edge and soulful love of classic R&B. Like Little Richard, she sees a whole lotta’ fun goin’ on.

Beaver, who is originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, is supporting her newest album, Tough as Love, which is available everywhere you get your music.

The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling is high energy, old school Chicago Blues, the kind we used to see from the likes of Luther Allison and and still experience with Chicago legend Buddy Guy. But Moss and Gruenling aren’t derivative, they have their own sound that was hammered out in the tough blues scene that has been a trademark of the Windy City for decades.

Like Lindsay Beaver, they are out supporting a new album, The High Cost of Low Living. It’s ten songs written by Moss and Gruenling they belt out their songs with stage shaking energy, as we would expect from a Chicago outfit. Moss sings and plays guitar and Gruenling plays the harmonica and sings.

Both of these acts will perform on Sunday, May 19.

If you are a Southern California blues fan then you have probably heard of — and attended — the Doheny Blues Festival in Dana Point. This year’s lineup is a list of legends: Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. Jonny Lang, Allman Betts Band, Roy Gaines, Robert Cray Band, the Taj Mahal Quartet and John Mayall.

The Marcus King Band and the Paladins will also appear, along with many other blues and roots music bands.

It’s May 18 and 19 at the Sea Terrace Park, Pacific Coast Hwy. and Niguel Rd.,Dana Point, CA, 92629.

Ticket prices: $15-$475

For more information check out their website.

Top photos from the artists’s Facebook pages.