The Copenhagen Blues Festival is back for five days of top international and homegrown blues music spread out over 60 concerts at 20 clubs and venues in Copenhagen. It’s a finely balanced line-up of seasoned veterans and younger stars, and of traditional and progressive styles.
And as ever, Rødovre Shopping Centre is a good location to find some of the top acts playing free afternoon concerts, including Janice Harrington and her Bag of Blues (Sat Sep 27, 14:00).
Visiting the festival this year is like taking a roadtrip across the States. Start the motor running in Texas with Hamilton Loomis (Fri Sep 26, 19:00; Mojo) and head up to Colorado and Cary Morin (Sat Sep 27, 14:00; Rødovre), followed by stops in Michigan with the Larry McCray Band (Fri Sep 26, 17:30; Rødovre ) and Chicago with John Primer & Copenhagen Slim (Thu 20:00; Huset-KBH).
As well as concerts, there will also be a chance to meet the musicians (Thu 17:00; ‘Artist Talk’ at Hovedbiblioteket presents Paul Oscher) and learn about the history of blues at ‘The Lead Belly Story’ event (Fri 20:00, Pilegården).
Don’t miss the yearly traditions, including the spiritually uplifting church blues service (Grundtvigskirken, Bispebjerg; Sun Sep 28, 14:00) and the Blues Cruise canal tours (Sat & Sun 15:00; Nyhavn).
And try and make some room for Paul Oscher (Thu 21:00; Bartof Cafe), Kokomo Kings (Fri Sep 26; Mojo) and the festival’s closing act, Rick Vito & the Lucky Devils (Sun Sep 28, 20:00; Huset-KBH).
