Fri 7/18 @ 5PM
Kent, Ohio is about to get a bad case of the blues.
No, depression isn’t sweeping the town — music is.
The Kent Blues Fest opens Friday with a feast of the area’s best blues and blues-related artists from acoustic solo performers like Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat (pictured) to the full-tilt hard-to-describe rock/blues/jazz blast of Kent’s own Numbers Band, now 44 years old.
While there are plenty of straight blues acts like scene veterans the Armstrong Bearcat Band and the Wallace Coleman Band, featuring former Robert Lockwood Jr. harmonica player Coleman, Wanda Hunt will bring some R&B, Rachel Brown & the Beatnik Playboys add classic country to the mix, and Blue Lunch will be jumpin’ and swingin’. And the Denzon Blues All-Stars will feature two northeast Ohio classic rock celebrities: Freddie Salem of the Outlaws and Joe Vitale who played with Crosby Still & Nash and Joe Walsh.
There’ll be music at nearly two dozen venues around downtown Kent, some featuring a single band, some featuring two or three. Most venues start around 7 or 8, although some are kicking off as early as 5. Find a full schedule here
All the music is free.