Every other Monday on Morning Edition we highlight the movers and the shakers that make up the area's non-profit community. For this week's Give Back New Hampshire segment: a look at a statewide organization that started 20 years ago with a small blues festival out of a barn in New Boston:
Sharlene Labore : So the blues is alive and well in New Hampshire, and we want you all to know that. My name is Sharlene Labore, and I am the president of the Granite State Blues Society.
Debbie Madison: Granite State Blues Society's main mission is to spread awareness of blues music and promote the genre. I am Debbie Madison and I'm on the board of the Granite State Blues Society.
There's a lot of planning that goes into the festivals and the fundraisers, and I spend a lot of time at the swag table selling T-shirts and signing up people for memberships to the Blues Society.
Labore: We have two major events every year. We do a blues challenge, which is typically in May, and that is when local musicians can enter the blues challenge in New Hampshire. And then the winners represent New Hampshire in Memphis at the International Blues Challenge, which is really cool.
Frankie Boy & The Blues Express: It's a little fundraiser to help us travel to Memphis in January of 2023 for the International Blues Challenge Finals. We are driving down— this band that you're looking at right here—four piece band in the van. We're going to be eating, sleeping and enjoying the life on the road while we got it.
Madison: So in November on the 13th, we'll be at the Stone Church in Newsmarket, New Hampshire to do a fundraiser for Frankie Boy and the Blues Express and Erin Harpe CBD to help defray their costs to go to Memphis to compete.
And then when we get back from that, we'll start planning our festival, which will be the first Saturday in August at Marty's Driving Range in Mason, New Hampshire.
Labore: What the Blues Society would really love for is to get more involvement from New Hampshire blues aficionados. We want you to join us. We want you to become a member. We want you to come to our shows that we promote.
If you love the blues and you'd like to become part of a great organization, you can stop by our swag table at the fundraiser at the Stone Church on November 13th, Sunday afternoon at 2:00. It's a $10 cover charge and you can support some great music in the state of New Hampshire with the blues.
