FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2026
Tom Lavin & The Legendary Powder Blues
Welcoming back to Thunder Bay is Tom Lavin & The Legendary Powder Blues who performed at the very
first Thunder Bay Blues Festival in 2002.
For over four decades Powder Blues has been Canada's leading blues band. The mix of swing, blues,
jazz, rock & roll and r & b has an appeal so wide that people from seven to seventy swing side by side at
a Powder Blues concert. Over the years the band has toured non-stop through Canada, the US and
overseas, sharing their feel-good music.
Leader, Tom Lavin wrote many of the band's best-known songs including ‘Doin' It Right' (‘On the Wrong
Side of Town') and ‘Boppin With the Blues'. Born in Chicago, where he played with local bands and blues
legends, Tom moved to Vancouver where he worked as studio musician, song writer, band leader, record
producer and film composer.
Tom has won BCMIA awards for ‘Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter and Producer of the Year', a Juno award
for ‘Best New Band' and the American W.C. Handy award. He has over a dozen gold, and platinum
records for Powder Blues, Prism, April Wine, Long John Baldry, Amos Garrett, and many others.
Erja Lyytinen
Hailing from Finland and returning to Thunder Bay is Erja Lyytinen, who is one of the leading blues-rock
guitarists on the international touring circuit. During a recording career spanning more than 20 years, the
High-Flying Finn has released thirteen studio albums as well as several live albums. Lyytinen's musical
pallet is vast, encompassing the very best of contemporary blues-rock whilst inspired and influenced by
the blues greats of yore. Lyytinen is known for her stellar and energetic live performances.
Erja made history by becoming the first Finnish artist to be nominated for the "BB King International
Artist of the Year"-award at the Maple Blues Awards in Canada in 2022. She has played alongside worldfamous
guitarists like Carlos Santana, Sonny Landreth and Jennifer Batten.
Solomon Hicks
Solomon Hicks is a thrilling paradox, a sonic contradiction. He's an old-soul roots scholar who salutes
ancient musical forms – blues, jazz, soul, funk, gospel – but also a renegade gunslinger here to bend,
stretch and scratch them for the modern world. His songs race from earworm originals, past pop covers
torn up with electronica and punky riffs, to reignited blues standards that prove how potent this genre still
is in the right hands.
That alchemist ethos and melting-pot mentality to genre, reflects Hicks, is the product of his New York
childhood. Born in Harlem on 8 February 1995, he soaked up the sonic kaleidoscope that flowed through
city life. “I remember my mom would play music in the car: hip-hop with heavy 808s. But then she was
also into vocalists like Sarah Vaughan, Barbra Streisand, Nancy Wilson, George Benson. She even
showed me Neil Diamond. At first, I was like, ‘I like a harder guitar. Give me Thin Lizzy or Rory Gallagher'.
Then it was, like, ‘Actually, I like this'. So my ear went so many different ways. And it came to shape my
own sound.”
Mike Wheeler Band
Mike Wheeler has a vast knowledge of music with a voice that's reminiscent of the late Sam Cooke. He's
a veteran of the Chicago blues community, playing and writing songs for a variety of Chicago artists
including Peaches Staten, Nellie Tiger Travis, Sam Cockrell, Demetria Taylor, Big Ray & Cadillac Dave.
Mike was a well-known member of Big James & The Chicago Playboys with whom he recorded five
albums. He has travelled the world as an ambassador for Chicago blues music playing in Monaco,
France, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium. He's shared the stage with Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, B.B. King,
George Benson, Jimmy Johnson and Shemekia Copeland. Mike was inducted in the Chicago Blues Hall
of Fame in 2014 & 2016.
Jeff Rogers
Singer/songwriter Jeff Rogers' unmistakably soulful voice often evokes weighty comparisons to the past
– whether that's Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles or even Otis Redding…. however, his tone, range, phrasing,
and sincerity, all make him unmistakably contemporary – and totally original.
Born in Bathurst, N.B. and raised in Ottawa, his parents discovered their son's musical potential early on
and encouraged him to develop it further by providing him with his first piano and music lessons. Since
then, Jeff has taken up saxophone, guitar, and developed his unique vocal style to accompany his superb
piano playing.
Jeff has toured internationally and is in demand session player. He has also been a member of renowned
country/rock band The Cooper Brothers for over a decade.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2026
ZZ Ward
One of the most profound lessons ZZ Ward learned from growing up listening to the blues greats was to
be authentic to your story. When the LA-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist began to write
new music, she found herself in the midst of one of the biggest life changes a person will ever
experience: motherhood.
The resulting music is her truest and most blues-infused to date. Freed from the pop pressures of her
previous major label, ZZ is able to fully embrace the blues, her most formative influence. Her Sun
Records debut, Liberation, features a program of originals and re-imagined blues favorites done in ZZ's
singular way. Encompassing greasy Chicago blues, foot-stomping Delta blues, rootsy garage rock, and
vintage soul, the album is almost a ZZ-curated survey of the blues. The 14-track album was produced
by multi-platinum producer Ryan Spraker (Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Weezer, In This Moment).
ZZ's first single, “Put The Gun Down,” from her 2012 debut, Til the Casket Drops, broke into the AAA
Radio Charts Top 10, and stayed there for 10 weeks. It was followed by the single, “365 Days,” which hit
#2 on the charts. Til the Casket Drops also snuck into the Billboard Top 40 Alternative Chart. ZZ's
sophomore album, The Storm, released in 2017, peaked at Number 1 on the Billboard Blues Charts,
highlighted by singles featuring GRAMMY-Award winners Fantastic Negrito, “Cannonball,” and Gary
Clark Jr., “Ride,” which was also the end title song for Pixar's feature film Cars 3. This past summer ZZ
was personally picked by Slash to open the tour for his own blues album.
Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar
Samantha Martin is the lead singer, songwriter and focal point of this 10 piece, 2x JUNO nominated
group. A dynamic front woman, she possesses a stunning voice that is capable of summoning up tidal
waves of spine-tingling emotion in one instance while delicately bringing out the nuances of a gutwrenching
lyric in the next. A torrid force of nature, night after night she takes audiences to emotional
peaks while leaving them stunned with her sheer pin-you-against-the-wall power.
While Martin is a powerhouse unto herself, the vocal alchemy of Delta Sugar is not the work of a single
talent. In combination with what she likes to term her “co-vocalists,” the vocal blend that Delta Sugar
produces is pure, unadulterated gospel-tinged, neuron-tingling magic where the sum is even richer than
the already soul-melting parts.
David Gogo
David Gogo has six JUNO Award nominations, including Blues Album of the Year in 2025! He has been
named Guitarist Of The Year three times at the Maple Blues Awards, was named Musician Of The Year at
the West Coast Music Awards, won Blues Recording Of The Year at the Western Canadian Music
Awards, and received the Great Canadian Blues Award for his lifetime contribution to the blues in Canada
as voted by the listeners of CBC's Saturday Night Blues. An alumnus of previous Thunder Bay Blues
Festivals, he has performed on stage with the likes of BB King, Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, Bo Diddley,
and Otis Rush. He has been chosen to open shows for ZZ Top, George Thorogood, The Tragically Hip,
Little Feat, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray, Robin Trower and Wishbone Ash.
Nikki Hill
Nikki Hill is sweet seduction, sweeter threat, and smoldering energy. An original force in American music,
she is tender and tough, flamboyant, witty and dangerous. To put it plainly, Hill brings daggers back to
the stage and studio. Overlapping soulful, sensual and bold vocal tones with powerful chrome-plated riffs
and swagger, her voice finds a home in it – a soul singing, bar rocking, roots revivalist, that writes with
frank self-reflection at a dancing tempo.
“Think Tina Turner fronting AC/DC and you'll have half of the picture. She's a machine…you've got no
excuse if you miss seeing her… Nikki Hill is a revelation, her band masters of rocket-fueled bluesy swing,
her voice the beacon which calls you home… a vocal powerhouse who don't mess around.” - Rolling
Stone
Spencer Mackenzie
For nearly a decade, Maple Blues Award winner Spencer Mackenzie has been writing and recording true
blues, showcasing the raw emotion and honesty the genre demands. There's a familiarity and ease with
which he approaches the music, almost as though it flows through rather than from him. The energy of
his work is infectious, permeating through the listener until they, too, feel the heartbeat of the blues.
Spencer Mackenzie previously played the Thunder Bay Blues Festival in 2018 and will be making his
long-awaited return to a Thunder Bay festival stage. With an electrifying presence and a new album tour
on the horizon, this left-handed guitar slinger shows no signs of slowing down, delivering a performance
that leaves audiences buzzing long after the final note.
Marcus Trummer
A young blood with an old soul, Marcus Trummer marries modern sensibilities with tradition in his
distinctive style that encompasses blues, R&B, soul, and roots rock. Marcus Trummer's debut album,
“From The Start”, draws inspiration from the timeless sounds of the 60s and 70s. With his warm and
emotive vocals, Trummer pays respect to classic soul singers like Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye. His
expressive guitar work channels the impassioned approach of players like B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix.
Packed with raw emotion and honesty, Trummer's songwriting is not to be overlooked. His thoughtful
lyrics examine universal subjects of love and coming of age, unpacking experiences that resonate with all
listeners.
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