John Lee Hooker, Jr. was born in Detroit Motor City with Delta blues-filled blood running through his Motown veins. With a style, he calls “2 parts R&B, 1 part jazz” and “down home blues,” Hooker Jr. is carrying on a century-old family musical heritage that he learned from his father John, Sr. who in turn learned from his stepfather, Will Moore, a blues singer/guitarist who most influenced his guitar style.
Eddie Bo is one of New Orleans true musical geniuses, from 1955 to present day he has recorded and worked for over 40 different labels, some majors, some of them so small that very little is known about them and a lot of them were his own. He worked with the top singers and musicians of the region throughout the fifties, sixties and most of the seventies, and when he wasn't in the studio he was holding residencies in several of New Orleans legendary bars.
Watermelon Slim (aka Bill Homans) has been performing since the 1970s and linked to several notable blues musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Champion Jack Dupree, Bonnie Raitt, "Country" Joe McDonald, and Henry Vestine of Canned Heat. His music is rooted in the Mississippi Delta style, playing his dobro guitar lap-style with a slide. While typically an acoustic performer, he has been known to occasionally play electric. Although a veteran of the Vietnam War, he came back home a fervent anti-war activist and has been a long-time member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
The 19th Efes Pilsen Blues Festival kicks off in the Mediterranean city of Mersin on October 24 and visits Adana, Gaziantep, Diyarbakır, Malatya, Kayseri, Denizli, Antalya, Konya, Trabzon, Ankara, Eskişehir, Bursa, Istanbul, Balıkesir, Çanakkale, Izmir, Kocaeli and Edirne on December 3. The two Moscow concerts take place on November 2 and 3, just before the Cyprus event.