The Quad Cities Semi-Final Round of the 2012 Iowa Blues Challenge will be held Sunday, April 22 at The Muddy Waters, 1708 State Street in Bettendorf, IA.  Five bands will play thirty-minute sets starting at 5:00 p.m. Admission is $7 for ANY blues society member or $10 for non-members. This year's competitors are The Mississippi Misfits, Slack Man & the Smokin' Red Hots, Judge #3, Serious Business, and Phineas J.'s.

For 19 years, Central Iowa Blues Society (Des Moines) has presented a state-renowned blues band competition, appropriately named the Iowa Blues Challenge (IBC). The 2012 IBC is co-presented by four other Iowa-based organizations, the Mississippi Valley Blues Society (Quad Cities), South Skunk Blues Society (Newton), Southeast Iowa Blues Society (Fairfield), and Lizard Creek Blues Society (Fort Dodge).

The IBC is open to any Iowa blues band that has not been nominated for the Blues Music Awards (Handy Award). The successful winner of the competition will represent the state of Iowa at the world's largest gathering of Blues acts, the International Blues Challenge, held in Memphis, Tennessee in February 2013.

The Mississippi Valley Blues Society is proud to sponsor the first Quad-City appearance of Too Slim and The Taildraggers at The Muddy Waters, 1708 State Street Bettendorf, Iowa for a show on Wednesday, April 18th,beginning at 7:00 pm. Admission to the general public is $10. For MVBS members the admission will be $8.

The band's current release, entitled Shiver, has charted as high as #5 on the Billboard blues music charts and has been nominated for a Blues Music Award (the highest in the nation) for best Blues/Rock album of the year, competing with the likes of Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers), Mike Zito, Joe Bonamassa and George Thorogood.  Their 2009 release, Free Your Mind, also charted on Billboard at #5 and their 2007 release, Fortune Teller charted on Billboard as high as #9.

Experiencing a Too Slim and the Taildraggers concert is like taking a journey through the history of American music. Too Slim's music style ranges from down home blues to funky blues rock, Americana, and southern swamp rock. The band, led by singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Tim "Too Slim" Langford, is backed by the rhythm section of Polly O'Keary on bass and vocals and Tommy Cook on drums and vocals.

The band has been featured on two MTV series, Road Rules and Real World. They describe themselves as sounding like a combination of John Fogerty, ZZ Top, Johnny Winter and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Come see (and hear) for yourself on Wednesday, April 18th at Muddy's.

The Mississippi Valley Blues Society presents The Chris Duarte Group, led by blues master and guitar virtuoso Chris Duarte, in concert at Rascal's, 1414 15th St., Moline, IL on Thursday, March 29 at 7 p.m. Ticket prices are $12 to the general public, $10 for blues society members.

Duarte has earned top honors from Guitar Player magazine, earning "Best New Talent" as a kid in 1995 and finishing as 4th best blues guitarist behind Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and B.B. King. His guitar wizardry brings to mind the styling's of legendary artists as diverse as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Johnson.

Duarte has his own sound that draws on elements of jazz, blues, and rock & roll. Although he is humbled by the comparisons with the late Vaughan, the San Antonio-raised musician began playing out in clubs there when he was 15 years old. After Duarte moved to Austin when he was 16, he began taking his guitar playing much more seriously, and at that time, Vaughan was still around playing in Austin-area clubs. After a short stint in an Austin jazz band, Duarte joined Bobby Mack & Night Train and began getting heavily into blues, traveling all over Texas with that band before a big break came his way in 1994, when New York-based Silvertone Records released his critically praised debut album, Texas Sugar/Strat Magik. Tailspin Headwhack followed in 1997 and Love Is Greater Than Me appeared three years later. Romp came out in 2003 and was followed by the 2007 album Blue Velocity, 2008's Vantage Point, 2009's 396 and 2010's Infinite Energy.

Duarte is currently touring in support of his 2011 release, Blues in the Afterburner. Chris Duarte delivers classic blues wrapped in the roots of rock and jazz. Playing the blues can be learned, but truly playing the blues ultimately comes from the heart. Duarte's blues is imminent and passionate on Blues in the Afterburner.

He does not enjoy super stardom or posh amenities while on the road but he still counts himself lucky and extremely grateful for his position in the Spartan world of true road musicians. "I've been able to do what I've loved to do for the past 19 years playing my music and doing what I want to play," he says. But Duarte is not one to rest on his laurels. "Every night it's got to be like your last. Here am I given another opportunity to further my craft and to try out and hone new melodic ideas. People come up to me and thank me for putting so much into my shows and for such modest crowds. I sometimes play for tables and chairs and I tell them if it was just a couple of people out in the audience, just one person, then it's going to be the same show."

When asked what he wants the audience to get out of his shows, Duarte replied, "An indelible emotional imprint upon them. That way my music will reach deeper into their core."

The Mississippi Valley Blues Society presents the Damon Fowler Group on Sunday November 13 at the Muddy Waters (1708 State Street, Bettendorf IA). The show starts at 5:00 p.m.

With his hybrid of roots rock, blues, and sacred steel, Florida native Damon Fowler started wowing audiences with his musical exploits as a teenager, building a reputation as one of the hottest young players on the scene. Adding songwriting and vocal skills to his repertoire over the years has brought him many accolades, with critics extolling his originality and maturity as well as his technical guitar expertise. In last year's "Best of Tampa" poll, Creative Loafing magazine named him "Best Guitarist... And Slide Guitarist... and Lap Steel Player... And Dobro Player."

Fowler's guitar work has been compared to Johnny Winter and Jeff Beck, while his slide guitar has a hint of the late Duane Allman. He can play fiery guitar runs with the best of them, but it's his lyrical work on lap steel and Dobro that makes him stand out among the legions of guitar heroes. Guitar Player magazine notes: "In the Blues world—or any other genre, for that matter—the complete package is hard to come by... to combine facile fervor on a Tele, a lap-steel, and a flattop with a truly compelling vocal style and soulful songwriting—that's something rare in an artist of any age. It's even more impressive when such maturity and authenticity come from a 25-year-old like Damon Fowler."

Reviewing a recent performance in Illinois, Juke Joint Soul said, "Fowler's heavy helping of swamp rock and slide guitar blues conjured up a huge lightning storm. Having full command of his voice as an equal instrument to his guitar, Fowler can easily croon you to sleep as he could belt out a jump blues or a Credence-like swamper. This kid has got the tools to take on the big stage."