{"id":5770,"date":"2014-03-05T15:20:41","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T20:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5770"},"modified":"2014-03-12T15:27:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T19:27:00","slug":"shake-off-the-winter-blahs-with-winter-blues-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/shake-off-the-winter-blahs-with-winter-blues-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Shake off the winter blahs with Winter Blues this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

This has been the coldest, snowiest, and generally most unpleasant winter many Aurorans can remember \u2013 but if you\u2019re looking for a way to shake off the winter blues, this is your week.<\/p>\n

Blues will be on the lips \u2013 and in the ears \u2013 of people across town this week as the third annual Aurora Winter Blues Festival kicks into high gear.
\nOrganizers were on hand last week at the Aurora GO Station, saxophones in hand, and fedoras on head, to spread the good word that for Aurorans \u2013 and music lovers everywhere \u2013 the best way to shake the Blues off is to let the Blues in. <\/p>\n

The sax reeds barely had time to dry before they were put back in action on Friday. Just a few days earlier, organizers got an otherwise staid Council meeting clapping and the blood pumping as Aurora Winter Blues Festival co-founder Jamie Macdonald, made his jazzy pitch. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s budget time right now, but are the winter blues getting\u2019 you down?\u201d he asked. \u201cAre you starting to get that hurtin\u2019 feeling? I think we\u2019ve got something that will soothe your soul. There\u2019s nothing better than that good ole\u2019 Devil\u2019s Music to drive away that winter blues and bring warmth into the soul right down to your dancin\u2019 toes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Festivities get underway with a special Blues Bash this Thursday, March 6 at the Aurora Cultural Centre beginning at 6.30 p.m. Featuring live performances from \u201cBig\u201d Bob Hammond and the Dundas Blues Band, featuring The BlusBros, the kick-off is a proper salute to the two charities which will benefit from proceeds raised through the Aurora Winter Blues Fest \u2013 Blue Door Shelters and CHATS (Community and Home Assistance to Seniors). <\/p>\n

The Blues Bash will also feature a performance from participants in the Festival\u2019s \u201cYouth in Music\u201d program, live painting of music legends \u201cto the beat\u201d by artist Adubi Akinola, the \u201cCouncil Critters\u201d featuring Mayor Geoffrey Dawe and Councillor John Abel, live and silent auctions, door prizes, and good food. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about the music, but it is about the cause as well,\u201d said Mr. Macdonald. \u201cWe really want everyone to have fun, but recognize the causes as well. It will really be intermingled with live music and we want to get people up on the dance floor as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cPart of our mandate for youth music is to provide more venues to showcase youth bands and youth talent as well. Working with The Arts [Music Store] youth will partake in the evening, and we\u2019re recognising local music as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music and fun continues in earnest on Friday and Saturday with the official Aurora Winter Blues Festival at Theatre Aurora. Running on Friday from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., Henderson Avenue will be rocking to the \u201cold school, raw electric blues\u201d of Daddy Long Legs, Bill Durst, and J-W Jones. The party continues on Saturday night, also from 7 \u2013 11 p.m. with \u201cHarmonica Knights\u201d along with Jerome Godboo, Paul Reddick, and Mark \u201cBird\u201d Stafford, who will come together for \u201cHarp Blowoff.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Theatre Aurora isn\u2019t your thing, you will also be able to find the Aurora Winter Blues Festival elsewhere through the end of the week with young blues musicians taking over Jonathan\u2019s Restaurant and King Richard\u2019s English Pub on Friday and Saturday, and workshops held at the Aurora Cultural Centre on Saturday, including a free ukulele and voice workshop, and a harmonica workshop with Stafford and Darren Pool. <\/p>\n

Tickets for Thursday\u2019s Blues Bash are $40, and Friday and Saturday\u2019s Festival Nights are $42 a ticket each night. Tickets and further information can be found at www.awbf.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has been the coldest, snowiest, and generally most unpleasant winter many Aurorans can remember \u2013 but if you\u2019re looking for a way to shake off the winter blues, this is your week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/2014-03-06-09.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1v4","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 16:38:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}