Blues to the Point Festival
Popular
blues festival features
national, regional and local groups
Fourteen
bands scheduled
to play on two stages this year
By
Helen E. McKinney
Contributing Writer
CARROLLTON, Ky. (September 2008) – The Amazing
Rhythm Aces Band is a crowd pleaser wherever they play. Billed as this
year’s headlining act for the Blues to the Point festival in Carrollton,
Ky., they will bring their own style of American music to the stage.
A year after the band formed they recorded their first album, “Stacked
Deck,” in Memphis in 1975. They enjoyed two decades of hits, such
as “Third Rate Romance,” “Amazing Grace (Used To Be Her
Favorite Song),” “The End Is Not In Sight (The Cowboy Tune).”
The latter won a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Group.
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Blues
to the Point
Sept. 5-6 at Point Park in Carrollton, Ky. Friday
Schedule Saturday
Schedule |
Throughout their long and varied musical career, they
have toured with a variety of performers, including Willie Nelson, Jimmy
Buffet, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. Audiences have always been attracted
to their pop, country, blue-eyed soul sound.
The group disbanded in 1971 but teamed up again in 1995 for a newly
recorded rendition of their best-known titles on “Ride Again.”
Receiving a positive reaction, they began playing a few club dates here
and there and recorded both live and studio albums.
As the headlining act for the Blues to the Point festival, The Amazing
Rhythm Aces Band will perform at 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. The festival
will be held Sept. 5-6 at Point Park on the Ohio River. Festival times
are 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, and noon until midnight Saturday.
The Aces are headed by baritone Russell Smith, a Nashville, Tenn.-born
songwriter, said festival organizer Mark Davis. “We’ve tried
to bring a mix of national and regional acts together,” he said.
The Aces are just one of 14 bands scheduled to play the festival. He
and co-producer Clayton Dermon try to provide different types of blues
music plus music that is more blues based other than just blues traditionals,
he said. “We want it to be more of a family oriented event.”
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Photo
provided The
Amazing Rhythm Aces will |
The festival has been in existence for 15 years. It has
been produced by several individuals over the years, said Davis. Three
years ago, the promoter couldn’t put the show on, so a year went
by without it. Davis decided it was too good of a local attraction not
to have again.
He teamed with Dermon and approached Carroll County tourism office about
working out an arrangement to keep the festival running. He and Dermon
agreed to produce the festival with backing from the Carrollton-Carroll
County Tourism and Convention Commission office.
“This is the third time we’ve produced it ourselves,”
said Davis. He always strives to have a mix of festival favorites, while
trying to book new acts to perform. He tries to present returning favorites
in a different light so that festival goers do not get too comfortable
with their sounds and still find the acts interesting enough to return
and see them.
When Davis gets comments about the festival, one of the first things
he hears is what a beautiful location Point Park is for the festival,
he said. People seem to enjoy the area and the music.