MUMBAI: The Mahindra Group on Wednesday announced the launch of the first season of the Mahindra Blues Festival  The festival will bring international Blues superstars like Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Shemekia Copeland, and Matt Schofield to Mumbai. The festival will also feature home grown talent like Soulmate from Shillong, Saturday Night Blues band from Kolkata and The Luke Kenny Mojo Jukebox. The two-day weekend festival will be held on February 5-6, 2011 at the Mehboob Studio, Mumbai. As a prelude to the festival, promotional gigs will be held at Blue Frog, Mumbai, with prominent Indian Blues bands.

Speaking at the Corporate Headquarters of Mahindra Group,  Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Group, said, The Blues, an American art form, ironically doesn't get as much attention as it deserves in the country of its origin, and, indeed, around the world. We would like the Mahindra Blues Festival to give this genre of music an overseas platform in the way that Montreux has done for Jazz....

The Mahindra Blues Festival will play out at the iconic and retro Mehboob Studio on February 5th and 6th, 2011. The studio will be designed specifically to create a Blues-like atmosphere, with three separate stages for multiple concerts and sessions with the artistes.

The build-up to the festival will see renowned Indian Blues bands like The Beet Root Blues Band featuring Pratish Motwani and Milind Deora  on December 21, 2010, and The Luke Kenny Mojo Jukebox on January 11, 2011 both at Blue Frog.

This festival is organized by Oranjuice Entertainment.

Buddy Guy, a five-time Grammy winner, is the definitive Blues artiste and has been a key influence on popular rock and Blues artistes like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan  Jonny Lang, the Grammy winning, former prodigy instrumentalist, topped the Billboard New Artist chart with his first album at age 15, and stands now as a mature creative force having created five beautiful chart-topping albums  Shemekia Copeland is already a force to be reckoned with in the Blues. She's shared the stage with such luminaries as Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Taj Mahal and John Mayer. Heir to the rich tradition of soul-drenched divas like Ruth Brown, Etta James and Koko Taylor, Copeland's shot at the eventual title of Queen of the Blues is pretty clear. By some standards, she may already be there. Matt Schofield's prowess as a Blues guitarist has taken his band to twelve countries; seen him playing with iconic guitarists like Robben Ford; and brought him high praise in the Penguin Book of Blues Recordings as one of only two living British artists in recording history to gain a maximum four-star rating.