The 4th Annual 1999 Connecticut Blues Talent Search is taking place again this summer. There will be twenty bands competing for the title of Best Blues Band in CT. This year's bands and dates are as follows; June 3 - Steady Rollers, Chris Tofield & the Bluesbenders, Blues Alley; June 10 - Smokin' Opey, Grandad's Blues Bag, Milkbone Daddies, Bluzberry Pi; June 17 - Chili Blues Band, Dan Stevens, Better Off Blue, Mike Crandall Band; June 24 - Hannah, Harpman Craig & Co., XY Eli Band, Sweet Butter & Jam, Uncle Groove; July 1 - Joel Blumert, Hot Skillet Paps's, Frank Albert & the Homewreckers, Pete Scheips Band. According to press time, all the shows seem to be at Black-eyed Sally's in Hartford, CT. So check out the shows and cheer on your favorite blues band of '99.

Tone-Cool Records had two big winners at last night's WC Handy Awards held at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee. Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers won top honors taking home the Blues Band of the Year award. Susan Tedeschi was a multiple winner, earning the Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year award and the Best New Artist award. Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers have long been considered one of the best blues bands on the scene but this is their first group WC Handy Award. They are currently touring in support of their new release, Here and Now, and will be playing many of the major festivals this year. Susan Tedeschi has been taking the blues world by storm since the release of her debut release, Just Won't Burn in 1998. The album sits at #185 on

the Billboard Top 200 chart for all album sales this week and is at #2 on the Blues chart. She will be performing some dates this summer with Double Trouble as her rhythm section and will be touring with the Allman Brothers and the Lillith Fair Festival and playing at Farm Aid in the fall.

With a promotion like this, who needs radio? Two major acts, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Def Leppard have albums coming out in June and both releases will debut in their entirety on the Web four days before their official release. Starting June 4th at the Peppers’ Web site http://www.redhotchilipeppers.net, the band will release three tracks a day from the new album, Californication. Also on June 4th over at http://www.defleppard.net, all the tracks from the band’s new album, Euphoria, will be featured within a four-hour broadcast that will run repeatedly. The new tracks will be sandwiched between interviews and older Def Leppard songs. Both albums, which hit record racks on June 8th, will utilize RealNetworks’ http://www.realnetworks.com RealPlayer G2 for the download audio streaming.

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