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Ross Stewart Steps Up Sold Out Show Worth The Wait  Voodoo Daddy's Showroom. Tuesday, 28th January, 2025 Ross Stewart at Voodoo Daddy's  It took him a while, but at last a headline set from Ross Stewart for which the audience had to pay to get in.  I first saw Stewart playing in the Walnut Tree Grapes when the Norfolk Blues Society returned to action after the pandemic.  The Walnut Tree in Old Post Office Court was a godsend to fans of quality live music.  My life in the city was transformed by the place, introducing me to the local music scene, in which Ross was just becoming established because of his truly outstanding ability to rock a guitar, make it weep, make it sing.  Astonishingly, the young Scot's talent with the guitar is matched by a voice that he has managed to nurture and develop in tandem with his playing.  Ross has played at The Champion, The Lamb, The Reindeer, The Brickmakers, (amongst other pubs) as well as being an opening act at Nor...

The Big Gig Santiago & The Soulmovers and Mississippi MacDonald Dereham Memorial Hall, Saturday  25 th  May 2024 Santiago & The Soulmovers, Dereham Memorial Hall. (c)CLP   Absolutely chucking it down.  Branches breaking under the combined weight of foliage and very heavy rain.  Perfect for the drive out through flooding, via a phantom road diversion, to Dereham for an evening of blues.   Arriving slightly frazzled by the evening’s journey, I really needed to hear something to relax me, soothe my worried mind and slow me down.  Thankfully, I found it within the comforting confines of Dereham’s picture-book Memorial Hall.   Mississippi MacDonald strolled on stage in a classic black showman’s suit with shiny seams, with mighty fancy lapels, wide as a Concorde delta wing and just as aerodynamic.  He strapped on his Fender CS ’61 as he greeted the audience with a Londoner’s  “Good evening, ladies’n’gennelmen. ...

The Big Gig: Santiago and The Soulmovers with Mississippi MacDonald At the Dereham Memorial Hall,  Saturday 25 th   May 2024  Doors at 19:00h Show Starts 20:00h Tickets £17 each Presented by Norfolk Blues Society  Every blues and music fan in the country, will be crossing off the weeks until the 10 th   Dereham Blues Festival  that runs 10 th   / 11 th   / 12 th   / 13 th   and 14 th   July, but for me that seems a way off yet.    So, this  weekend, on Saturday 25 th   May , to help keep everyone going and to give a foretaste of what's to come, the Norfolk Blues Society has laid on the Big Gig at the Dereham Memorial Hall . A thriller of a double bill of blues is lined up, with Santiago and The Soulmovers and Mississippi MacDonald .   Santiago and his compadres, The Soulmovers, Juan Gasco (drums) and Thanos Papageorgiou (bass) went down an absolute storm at the 2023 Dereham Blues Festival and are comin...

Danielle Nicole Band, Ross Stewart & The Shunters, Rockavox Dereham Blues Festival 2023, The Memorial Hall, Dereham   Wednesday, 5 th  July 2023   With an itinerary of Camden Town, Dereham, somewhere in Sweden (via Oslo to a destination that was not clear to the guitarist, Brandon Miller), the intrepid Danielle Nicole Band from Kansas City, have had to face up to some logistical challenges in the past few days.  Happily, such challenges were pushed aside by Nicole and her band and the evening ended with roars of appreciation and a standing ovation from the knowledgeable audience who had been totally engrossed in the show from the opening beats. Danielle Nicole Band, Ross Stewart with Doreen and Stewart Aitken of  The Dereham Blues Festival 2023 (Photo: Caroline Stewart) On the night, there were two other issues to address.  Firstly, where to get a drum kit from in Dereham, less than 24 hours before headlining the gig?  Award winning...