Denny Snyder & Ole Harv Present “Blues at the Crossroads”
The fun begins on Saturday, November 14, at 7:00 p.m. when blues rocker and acoustic blues solo artist Denny Snyder, performing as Southside Denny, takes the stage at Wild Rose Moon Performing Arts Center for a live taping of the Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour (tickets $25 at wildrosemoon.com). Along with special guest Ole Harv of WVPE’s “Blues Review”, bassist Nathan Waddill, and pianist Brian Reedstrom, the energetic blues virtuoso will hold court as he and Ole Harv present songs that help tell the story of the blues as one of the central idioms grounding so much of American popular music. A native of South Bend who now lives in Montreal, Canada, Southside Denny cut his teeth at Buddy Guy’s in Chicago. He has opened for blues legends Luther Allison, Sugar Blue, and Pinetop Perkins and shared the stage with Ray Charles, John Fogerty, BTO, Edgar Winter, and Styx. Known for his rapid- fire melodicism, soulful playing, and open-tuning slide guitar, Denny will be joined by Ole Harv of WVPE’s long-running radio show of 43 years, “The Blues Review”. A member of the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame and the Indiana Broadcasting Stations’ Hall of Fame, Harv will not only sing the Blues, but he’ll also take the audience on a journey through the history of this important genre in a special segment that explores how blues influenced the course of popular music, from rock, gospel, folk, and jazz. The show’s producer, Nathan Waddill, will play bass guitar. Waddill has played with the Celtic rock band Roger Drawdy & the Firestarters, the traditional Irish band Kennedy Kitchen, the Irish Americana band Soltre, and the blues band Treated-n-Released. In 2023 he became the house bass player for the Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour alongside music director John Bahler. Brian Reedstrom, a well-known area sideman, will play keyboards. As a special treat, Mississippi Delta blues musician Tom Fry will help kick off the show with one of his original blues songs in the tradition of old Southern masters like Son House, Robert Johnson, and Mississippi John Hurt. The house band, John Bahler and the Moon Rockers, featuring fiddle player Sean Hoffman and cellist Ellen Coplin, will lead the audience through the show’s rousing theme song as well as play a traditional blues number with the band. The program will subsequently be heard on WVPE Public Radio and seen on WNIT Public Television. Audience members will be taped and will function as an integral part of thisfun and educational show.
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WVPE sustaining members will have the chance to win a pair of tickets to this event! If you are on the fence about joining WVPE as a sustaining member now is the time! Click Here to Join WVPE as a sustaining member!