B.B. King
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NEW LIVE! CD and DVD from Blues great B.B. King
It has been estimated that blues great B.B. King has played more than 10,000 shows in a career spanning nearly 60 years. Whenever the King of the Blues has carried his venerable guitar Lucille onto any stage at any time, the performance has become an unforgettable classic--and on occasion has been immortalized on some of the greatest live albums ever issued. Yet in 2006, he marked a first when he recorded a live album at two of his own clubs, B.B. King's Blues Club in Nashville, Tennessee on October 26/27 and in Memphis on October 29/30. The best of these memorable concerts are now presented in both the DVD and CD formats as LIVE! (Geffen/UMe), released February 19, 2008.
For the two-hour-plus DVD, the concerts were taped in high definition video and mixed in 5.1 Surround. Bonus material includes a behind-the-scenes “making of” feature and a special message from King to his fans. To fit on a single CD, the audio disc features 12 of the DVD’s 18 songs.
On LIVE!, backed by his remarkable touring band, B.B. lays down quintessential performances from his signature tune “The Thrill Is Gone” to “When Love Comes To Town,” the song that introduced him to a new generation in the late 1980s, to Big Bill Broonzy’s “Key To The Highway,” for which he teamed with disciple Eric Clapton in 2000. He also performs a pair of songs he has never before recorded--the standards “You Are My Sunshine” and “When The Saints Go Marching In.”
B.B.’s band opens the show on the DVD sans King with “Manhattan Blues” and “Two I Shoot.” During the concert, the musical icon revives his ‘50s and ‘60s R&B hits “Rock Me Baby,” “Don’t Answer The Door” and “Why I Sing The Blues” plus other B.B. gems from that era such as “A Whole Lot Of Lovin’,” “Ain’t That Just Like A Woman,” “Bad Case Of Love,” “I Need You So,” “Darling, You Know I Love You” and “All Over Again.” Along with the early ‘70s hit “Guess Who” is “Blues Man” from the late ‘90s.
King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, becoming one of the first artists so honored. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked him #3 among the “100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time.” In 2006, he was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest honor awarded to a civilian; his 1964 album Live At The Regal was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame; and he won his 14th Grammy Award, for Best Traditional Blues Album for B.B. King & Friends: 80, which celebrated his 80th birthday the previous year. He has won eight previous Grammys in that category and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. “The Thrill Is Gone” is also in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Whether live at the Regal, San Quentin, the Apollo, or a B.B. King’s Blues Club, B.B. King rules over the blues.
SPECIAL COMBO DEAL AVAILABLE ONLY AT THE B.B. KING BLUES STORE!
ORDER your new CD and DVD today from the B.B. King Blues Store.
| B.B. King Talks With Greta Van Susteren
Greta Van Susteren from FOX news interviewed B.B. King. Below is a transcript of the interview.
You can see the video at this link
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Who doesn't know this man, the king of blues, B.B. King? But now you will really get to know him.
He is 82 years old and has been performing for more than 50 years, with 15 Grammys under his belt. And tonight you will get an inside look at him.
B.B. King is releasing a new CD entitled "Live," and you get to join him in my home town and Appleton, Wisconsin behind the scenes of his concert, and even inside his tour bus.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: How many concerts a year do you do?
B.B. KING, MUSICIAN: Now we have cut down quite a bit. I'm 82 years old now, so I've stopped doing — we used to average, until last year, I believe, about 250 concerts per year. This year I'll probably do about 100.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is it work for you, or is it fun?
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Show Info
Airs Weekdays at 10 p.m. ET
E-mail the Show: ontherecord@foxnews.com Greta Van Susteren's Bio Read the GretaWire Interview Archive Greta's Pod Cast KING: Both. It's both.
VAN SUSTEREN: Who gave you your first guitar?
KING: No one.
VAN SUSTEREN: Where did you get it?
KING: Bought it from a guy that lived not too far from Mike Boston, the man I worked for. And he had this little red Stella guitar, and he said he would sell it because I went nuts when I saw it. I was making $15 a month then.
VAN SUSTEREN: Doing what?
KING: Being what they call a house boy — everything; anything that needed to be done around the house. Chores was picking up chips to make fire and milking cows. I milked 20 cows a day. As I said, I was making $15 a month then, I asked my boss would he buy it for me and take out half of it the first month and half the next. So he did, and that is how I got my first guitar.
VAN SUSTEREN: So you picked it up, and were you just a natural?
KING: I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. People would come by on the street — you live in time square, you know how they do it — they would bunch up. And they would always compliment me on gospel tunes, but they would tip me when I played blues.
Now you know why I'm a blues singer.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, everyone knows who Lucille, your guitar. Why is your guitar named "Lucille"?
KING: I used to play — when I first started trying to be professional, I disk jockey from 1949 to 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee, and I was quite popular there as a disk jockey.
And I could go over at a place called Twist, Arkansas — it's still there — and a guy had a nightclub over there. I would do, as they say in Las Vegas today, forward. In other words, you go play and he doesn't guarantee you anything, but if you're lucky and you have quite a few people come in, you get most of the money that comes in through the doors. So you may make yourself 50 dollars, 60 dollars, 100 dollars, maybe.
And it would get quite cold there in Twist, Arkansas, so they would take a something like a big garbage pail — picture a big pail — set it in the middle of the dance floor and half fill it with kerosene. They would light that kerosene, and that's what we used for heat.
Today, if somebody did that, I would start running out of here. But when you're young, like you guys, you are daring and do anything.
So this particular night, two guys start to fight. One knocked the other one over on this container. And when they did it spilled on the floor. It was already burning so it looked like a river of fire. Everyone started to run for the front door to get out, including B.B. King.
But when I got out, I realized that I left my guitar. It wasn't the same little red guitar; this was another one. And I went back for it.
And when I went back to get my guitar — the building was a wooden building burning rapidly, so it started to fall in around me and I almost lost my life trying to save it.
The next morning we found that these two guys that were fighting were fighting about a lady that worked in the little nightclub. I never did meet her, but I learned that her name was Lucille. I named the guitar Lucille to remind me not to do a thing like that again. That's how it came about.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is there an original Lucille and there have been subsequent Lucilles?
KING: The original Lucille, I would pay $100,000 to get it back.
VAN SUSTEREN: Where is the original Lucille?
KING: If I knew I would get it.
VAN SUSTEREN: When was the last time you saw the original Lucille?
KING: In Brooklyn. I went up to visit a friend one night and left it in the trunk of my car. That year most of General Motors' cars, the trunk key would fit, but I didn't know it until that night.
Somebody went down and went in my trunk — I had an Oldsmobile, and they went into the Oldsmobile trunk of the car — took my guitar, the amplifier, and the battery out. That's the last time I have seen her.
And I would give $100000 for that original if I could get it back. I put out—I offered rewards: $5000, $10000 and so on.
I guess whoever got it never knew what they was getting because my name wasn't on that one. Nobody has ever came up with it.
VAN SUSTEREN: How many CDs or albums have you done?
KING: I have to be honest with you, I really don't know. But the last time I tried to count, I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 CDs and LPs combined; but singles, it's over 500.
VAN SUSTEREN: You have a new one that just came out.
KING: Yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: That's what I want people to know about. And that's a live concert?
KING: It is live. I was trying my best to show the people that don't know me or know how I perform what I do on stage, I was trying to give them a little bit of a lesson of what I do and how I do it when I'm playing concerts.
And I think I did pretty good. Maybe I talk too much on it, but I think it's pretty good.
VAN SUSTEREN: Which song do you think the audience wants to hear every night?
KING: "The Thrill is Gone."
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you enjoy playing that as much as everyone wants to hear it?
KING: I will tell you a little secret and you better not tell it.
VAN SUSTEREN: We won't tell anybody, don't worry. It's just between us.
KING: OK, it's just between us: I play it every night as I feel it every night, not as I recorded it when I first recorded it. I play it every night as I feel it then, so it's fresh, it's always fresh.
So no, I never get tired of playing it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
| 
Live At The BBC CD
B.B. King is universally recognized as the leading exponent of modern blues. A fourteen-time Grammy winner, he has received virtually every music award, including the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 1987. He is one of the greatest, most influential blues guitar stylists, composers and singers of the 20th century and is without a doubt the single most important electric guitarist of the last half century, ranked 3rd in Rolling Stones Magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
This wonderful collection compiles the best of B.B. King’s recordings onto one CD for the very first time and includes some of his biggest hits such as Paying the Cost to Be the Boss and The Thrill Is Gone as well as When Love Comes To Town, the duet with U2 that took him to the top of the UK charts and gave him his first MTV exposure.
Featuring highlights from his 3 finest UK performances alongside a session recording made in the BBC’s studios, this CD offers an incredible snapshot of an artist at the peak of his career performing some of his greatest material.
Track List:
1. Caldonia 14/10/78
2. I Like The Life 14/10/78
3. When The Evening Sun Goes Down 14/10/78
4. When It All Comes Down 14/10/78
5. The Thrill Is Gone 14/10/78
6. I’m Gonna Move Out of My Neighbourhood 4/7/91
7. When Love Comes To Town 4/7/91
8. Let The Good Times Roll 4/7/91
9. Stormy Monday Blues 4/7/91
10. Ain’t Nobody Home 4/7/91
11. Mistreated 4/7/91
12. How Blue Can You Get 4/7/91
13. Paying The Cost To Be The Boss 30/3/89
14. The Thrill Is Gone 30/3/89
Official UK Release date is Feb 25 2008. Preorder your copy today!
| 
B.B. King to play at Bonnaroo 2008
Superfly Productions and A.C. Entertainment are proud to announce the initial lineup for the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The seventh annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 12-15 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A full list of confirmed acts follows, and more will be announced in the coming weeks. The final Bonnaroo 2008 lineup will total over 100 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.
Tickets go on sale exclusively through www.bonnaroo.com on Saturday, February 16 at 12:00 PM EDT.
2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Confirmed Artists:
Pearl Jam
Metallica
Jack Johnson
Kanye West
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Featuring T Bone Burnett
Phil Lesh & Friends
My Morning Jacket
The Allman Brothers Band
The Raconteurs
Willie Nelson
Death Cab for Cutie
B.B. King
Sigur Ros
Levon Helm and the Ramble on the Road
Ben Folds
O.A.R.
The Bluegrass Allstars Feat. Luke Bulla, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Bryan Sutton
M.I.A.
Umphrey's McGee
Iron & Wine
Yonder Mountain String Band
The Swell Season
Talib Kweli
Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi’s Soul Stew Revival
Gogol Bordello
Broken Social Scene
Robert Randolph’s Revival
Rilo Kiley
Mastodon
Lupe Fiasco
Against Me!
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Pat Green
Ozomatli
Tegan & Sara
Solomon Burke
Drive-By Truckers
!!!
The Avett Brothers
Israel Vibration
Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck
Phil Lesh / Larry Campbell / Jackie Greene
Aimee Mann
Ladytron
The Fiery Furnaces
Orchestra Baobab
Ghostland Observatory
Jose Gonzalez
Dark Star Orchestra
Minus the Bear
Donavon Frankenreiter
Lez Zeppelin
State Radio
Battles
Jakob Dylan
Two Gallants
The Sword
Vampire Weekend
Little Feat
Nicole Atkins
The Felice Brothers
Mason Jennings
MGMT
The Lee Boys
Black Kids
Serena Ryder
Steel Train
Grupo Fantasma
Back Door Slam
Bonnaroo Comedy:
Bonnaroo Late Night Chat About with David Cross
Janeane Garofalo
Zach Galifianakis
Jim Norton
Brian Posehn
Mike Birbiglia
John Mulaney
Michelle Buteau
More artists to be announced!
| 
B.B. King to be honored by NARM
BB King to be Honored by NARM
01/08/2008
Blues icon B.B. King, an American treasure who has recorded 150 albums and accepted 14 GRAMMY Awards, will receive the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) Chairman’s Award For Sustained Creative Achievement during the organization’s 50th Annual Convention, which will be held May 4 through May 7 at the San Francisco Marriott. King will accept his Award during the 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner, which will be Wednesday, May 7.
“NARM’s membership — on whose behalf we bestow this prestigious Award — applauds King’s amazing career and the way he has inspired and influenced so many musicians over the years,” said NARM President Jim Donio. “Today King is more popular, more cherished and more relevant than ever. At the age of 82, he is still out on the road, playing for the people, making TV appearances, and cutting tracks for his next album. We are honored to have B.B. King join us as part of NARM’s 50th Anniversary celebration.”
King will become a member of an exclusive and exceptionally talented club of artists who have received the NARM Chairman’s Award. Past recipients include Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Stevie Wonder, The Bee Gees, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Leonard Bernstein, Nat King Cole, Rod Stewart, Garth Brooks, Lena Horne, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Rogers, Liza Minnelli, Carlos Santana, Quincy Jones, Kool & The Gang, and Chicago.
Over his 60-plus year career, King has developed one of the world’s most identifiable guitar styles. King’s sound is his signature, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string blends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of Rock guitar vocabulary.
He is still light on his feet, singing and playing the Blues with relentless passion. And, he has no plans for slowing down. Bowing February 19, 2008, is a new “B.B King Live In Tennessee” CD/DVD (Geffen/UMe) a live concert event recorded at his namesake clubs in both Nashville and Memphis.
He also just finished recording his 150th album that’s expected to debut in September 2008. Also set to open in September is a museum in King’s honor that is being built in his home state of Mississippi. A decade in the making, the museum is partially located within an existing abandoned cotton gin, Mississippi’s last one, where as a youngster, King once worked.
| 
Holiday Wishes
To all my friends and fans---Season’s Greetings to all of you and thanks for making 2007 such a great year for me and my musical family—2008 promises to be even more eventful, so—as they say in radio—stay tuned! To all of you, I extend my warmest, personal wishes for a Happy New Year—may God bless us all with good health and happiness in the coming year!
| 
Crossroads Guitar Festival DVD
The second staging of guitar hero and rock legend Eric Clapton's CROSSROADS GUITAR FESTIVAL found a sweet home in the Second City on July 28, 2007 when many of the world's greatest guitarists convened for a concert benefiting Clapton's Crossroads Centre rehabilitation facility in Antigua. Filmed live at Chicago's Toyota Park, the 2-DVD set CROSSROADS GUITAR FESTIVAL 2007 FROM CHICAGO presents four hours of world-class guitar masters, spanning multiple genre boundaries, performing incendiary solo sets and jamming in unison.
The 2007 festival, which Rolling Stone called “a marathon of solos and joy,” no doubt was the stuff of dreams for the fans in attendance as well as for Clapton and friends. The Festival featured a multi-generational array of talent spanning John Mayer to Jeff Beck to B.B. King that Modern Guitars Magazine dubbed an “incredible nexus of old-school electric guitar titans and younger upstarts.”
Shot in HD, the double-DVD set features 38 tracks, and also gives viewers an all-access pass with extraordinary behind-the-scenes footage captured backstage at this all-star, six-string summit. The audio is presented in 5.1 Surround Sound.
Buy the DVD Now
| 
New Years Eve Concert
Spend New Years Eve with the King of the Blues!
B.B. King will be playing a New Years Eve concert on Dec 31, 2007 at Star of the Desert Arena in Primm, NV (only 40 mins from Las Vegas!)
Fan Club Presale tickets for this exciting evening are on sale NOW and will end on 10.25.07 at 4pm EDT. Get your tickets now and plan on a great night of music!
Make it a complete night by booking a room at the Primm Valley Casino Resort by calling the reservation desk at 1-800-386-7867.
| 
B.B. King receives honorary degree
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Monday, May 28, 2007
PROVIDENCE - Blues legend B.B. King received an honorary doctor of music degree at Brown University’s commencement ceremony today and then took the microphone to serenade the graduating class.
“I didn’t bring Lucille; she’s asleep today,” said King, referring to the name he’s given his guitars that made him famous.
“I would like to do something I’ve never done before,” he said. “I’ve played in 90 different countries around the world, but I’ve never tried to do what I’m going to try to do for you, because I think you are the future, you are the ingredients that I think will make the world better.”
He then launched into an a cappella version of “Guess Who,” dedicating the song to the more than 2,000 graduating students, who responded by giving King a standing ovation.
Brown also awarded honorary doctor of law degrees to three New Orleans university presidents: Scott Cowen of Tulane, Norman Francis of Xavier and Marvalene Hughes of Dillard.
“These three beautiful people are helping, in incredible ways, the rebuilding of New Orleans. They’re here to say, ‘Do not forget this city,”’ said Brown University President Ruth Simmons, prompting another standing ovation from the crowd.
Also receiving honorary degrees were Brown medical school founding dean Stanley Aronson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power, and three Brown alums: sportscaster Chris Berman, actress Kate Burton and Craig Mello, who shared the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.
Mello, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, helped discover a way to silence specific genes, a revolutionary finding that scientists are scrambling to harness for fighting illnesses including cancer and AIDS.
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Win an Autographed BB King Lucille Edition Guitar
Join the Official B.B. King Fan Club and be entered into a contest in which one lucky person will win an autographed BB King Lucille edition guitar. Everyone who joins between Jan 1 - Dec 1 2007 will automatically be entered into the contest. New fan club members are automatically entered when they join. For more information and contest rules visit the Official Fan Club Website
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