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The 6th Tenby Blues Festival explodes around the seaside town over the weekend of 11th to 13th November, bringing blues from Louisiana and London, via Iceland, to Tenby. Featuring some of the leading British and Welsh blues bands with a sprinkling of world wide stars, the festival aims to bring together some of the many strands of Blues, both traditional and modern, Rock’n’Roll and Rhythm and Blues, in venues large and small. Some of the local and national bands appearing will be Last Chance Saloon, Hokie Joint, Whiskey Business and Skip ‘Little Axe’ McDonald. There will be chances to learn some killer licks from experts, watch a new film celebrating Robert Johnson, one of the legendary figures in early blues, and see one of the most loved British bands on their very last tour. The terrific trio ‘The Hamsters’ will play at the De Valence on Saturday 12th. for the very last time in Wales as they conclude 25 years of touring. Friday is a unique date and the festival is teamed with the 11Eleven project (11elevenproject.com) and we will film and record around Tenby all day for inclusion in the feature film of the day to be shown around the world next year.

Two of the musicians who play Louisiana Cajun music will be at Greenhill School to help the students get to grips with this music on Friday morning.

All weekend The Rugby Club, The De Valence and The Fourcroft and Giltar Hotels, will be jumping to the sound of wailing harmonicas and chiming guitars from the likes of The Blues Stealers and The Gutbucket Band. On Saturday and Sunday there will be live music in venues large and small all around the town, on the Tenby Blues Trail, all completely free. The large concert venue, The De Valence will host the big names drawn to play this fine festival and include, Skip ‘Little Axe’ McDonald, a central figure in the birth of hip hop who has returned to his roots to mainline the Delta blues mixed with electronica. Headlining on Friday is Hokie Joint who are a younger band who are setting the blues world on fire at the moment.

Besides hosting one of the very last gigs by veteran rockers The Hamsters, on Saturday the festival is excited to present Isreali born Terri Shaltiel who has been hailed by her peers as a phenomenal blues singer. The same evening don’t miss 24 Pesos, a very modern blues band with raw passion and southern funk. All this plus the entirely free ‘Blues Trail’ gigs all weekend and late night sessions , make this one of the hottest festival tickets of the winter.

The festival president is the Geordie bluesman Pat Grover who will be playing with his band The Hawks at The Bowling Club on Saturday, and a glance at the festival website, www.tenbyblues.co.uk will show that many younger bands are also featured. The festival aims to cover many flavours of the music and is run by a group of local music enthusiasts with volunteers and generous sponsorship from Valero, FBM and The Fourcroft Hotel. Pembrokeshire College business students help to record and collate information and the organisers are grateful for all the help people put into the festival to make it a brilliant experience for all attendees.

Tenby Blues is a winter festival to lift your spirits and warm your dancing feet, some tickets are still available from the website www.tenbyblues.co.uk.