Winter Delights' Paint The Town Blues Weekend, featuring "A Tribute With the Queen" will now pay tribute to the 'Queen of the Blues'. Koko Taylor, who was scheduled to appear, is recuperating from surgery and hopes to be performing again in the spring. Her band "The Blues Machine" will perform and pay tribute to her, along with headliners Howard Tate and Bettye LaVette.
Howard Tate, recently nominated for a Grammy ® award for best contemporary blues album of the year, has quite an inspirational story to tell. Tate was one of the most promising young R & B performers of the sixties, but by the mid-seventies after his second album, he was spread too thin with tough tour schedules and devious promoters, leaving Tate feeling disenchanted with the music scene. His life descended from there, living on the streets and abusing drugs and alcohol. Nobody knew his whereabouts, and rumors spread to the exaggeration of his death. Meanwhile, his music was in demand and people searched for him. By 2001, he hesitatingly re-surfaced and was surprised at the success of his music while he was "underground". His "Rediscovered" album is aptly named for his remarkable story of his re-emergence onto the blues scene.
Bettye LaVette cut her first record at age sixteen and it became a big hit. Soon she was touring with blues greats, including the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. She appeared regularly at nightclubs across the country and worked on her next album, until problems arose and the project was put on hold. She got the leading role in a hit Broadway musical "Bubbling Brown Sugar", which toured and kept her busy for six years, putting her musical career on hold. LaVette recorded a disco hit in 1979, leading her to more recording contracts, re-mastering her album that had been put on hold and wider recognition in European countries as well as the U.S. She performed at the 2002 Chicago Blues Festival and charmed the crowd and critics with her soulful sound. Bettye is currently touring and has a new album out titled "A Woman Like Me".
Paint the Town Blues is a part of Chicago Winter Delights — It's A Cool Place, the citywide initiative that begins with Winter Delights Holidays November 17 through December 31, 2003 and continues with nine themed weekends January 1 until February 29, 2004.
