Well, its that time of year again. Every year right about now, when the heat of summer is just giving way to the welcome autumn cool, our hearts and minds turn to one thing, Soul Shine. And this year the anticipation is almost palpable. On September 24th First Step will host the 10th annual Soul Shine Blues Festival. This year we once again welcome Delta Blues legend Jimmy Burns as headliner. Those who were fortunate enough to attend Soul Shine last year will no doubt remember Jimmy’s incredible performance. Needless to say, he is back by popular demand. This year Soul Shine also welcomes Daniel “slick” Ballinger and Phil Berkowitz sharing headlining duties with Jimmy.

Slick Ballinger, a 19 year old white kid from North Carolina, is raising eyebrows all across the blues world for his almost preternatural handle on the old school blues technique. While still a highschooler Slick spent his summer vacations on the Mississippi plantation of legendary fife bluesman Othar Turner. So one could say he cut his chops on the original blues experience. His talent has been showcased at numerous blues festivals, not least of which is the famous King Biscuit in Helena, Arkansas. His antics have helped land him coveted tour partners like BB King. You won’t want to miss this kid.

Also joining us this year is Phil Berkowitz, a San Francisco Bay area blues harpist whose latest record is a tribute to the great Louis Jordan. Phil is going to be assembling a group of musicians you might recognize for his jaunt into the Midwest (one of them is Sean Carney, guitarist for Teeny Tucker). In addition to these great headlining acts Soul Shine also welcomes Simon Carter , a group of young aspiring blues musicians who recently played at the International Blues Competition in Memphis, TN and the Black Swamp Blues Competition in Bowling Green, OH (where they took home top honors). Opening up the day will be Slick Black Cadillac, veterans of the Soul Shine stage. In addition to great music this year First Step will also bring back the silent auction which was a huge success last year. Raffle items will include gift certificates to local stores and restaurants, a Harley-Davidson leather jacket donated by Thiel’s Wheels, and a “bluesmobile” donated by Graff Automall. And as if that were not enough, we also have all the southern style food you can eat; ribs, pork chops, red beans and rice, gumbo, and BBQ chicken. So, we are certainly on pace to make this year’s festival the best in its ten year history.

In the midst of all the commotion surrounding Soul Shine it is easy to overlook the most important thing. And that is that Soul Shine is a way for First Step to go out into the community and present opportunities to get involved in the work of family violence intervention and prevention. That is why it is so encouraging for us to see over 700 people come out for last year’s festival, and to have so many community organizations show their financial support for us and our work. It is our hope that as Soul Shine gets bigger and better, so will our vision of eradicating the problem of family violence with the help of our friends in the community.

Visit our Soul Shine website here for more information.