Local talent will rule the stage at the Baton Rouge Blues Festival.
“We could fill three weekends with local talent,” Blues Festival executive director Lauren Lambert-Tompkins said. “We’re proud of how much local talent we’re showcasing this year, and we’re also booking some incredible touring acts.”
Blues Fest 2025 runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday on five stages along North Boulevard in downtown Baton Rouge. Opening night features three nationally known young local performers — singer-pianist Hanna PK, singer-guitarist Jonathon “Boogie” Long and former “American Idol” finalist Jovin Webb.
Festival goers enjoys the performance on the Watermark Slim Harpo Stage at the Baton Rouge Blues Fest downtown on April 21, 2024.
National acts at this year’s festival include Cedric Burnside, the grandson of the late north Mississippi hill country blues star R.L. Burnside, and Adia Victoria, a Nashville-based singer-songwriter originally from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
A new attraction, Baton Rouge blues artist Kenny Neal’s antique car show, parks Saturday only at the Old State Capitol.
“There’s a crossover of interest in the blues and antique cars,” Lambert-Tompkins said. “Kenny’s calling all of his friends and organizing the show.”
The Juke Joint Juniors is a band that grew out of the West Baton Rouge Museum’s Blues After School program.
The local acts Lambert-Tompkins is especially enthusiastic about include the Juke Joint Juniors, a band that grew out of the West Baton Rouge Museum’s Blues After School program. The Juniors perform at 12:45 p.m. Saturday.
“These are high school students who go to the museum on Friday afternoons to learn how to play the blues,” she said. “They’re really talented.”
On another note, Lambert-Tompkins hopes that festgoers will support the Blues Festival by buying drinks, food and T-shirts from the event’s vendors.
“We’re struggling to keep the festival free,” she explained. “A big portion of our income comes from drink sales, so people bringing their own drinks affects us. Imagine how much you’d spend otherwise for a ticket to a festival of this size with this much talent.”
While admission to the festival is free, VIP passes are available for purchase. Some of the 30 acts at the Blues Festival are previewed below.
The senior member of Baton Rouge’s Neal family of musicians, Kenny Neal plays the festival at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Kenny Neal
6:30 p.m. Saturday, Visit Baton Rouge Swamp Blues Stage
The senior member of Baton Rouge’s Neal family of musicians, Kenny Neal is a second-generation Baton Rouge bluesman who’s made international impact. His dozens of honors include a Grammy nomination for his 2016 album, “Bloodline.” Neal followed that project with 2022’s “Straight from the Heart.” In February, he released the single “Devil’s in the Delta.” A duet with his son, Micah Willis, the song fuses Neal’s swamp-blues sound with Willis’ soul music style.
“Now I know how my dad, the late, great Raful Neal, felt when I shared the stage with him,” Neal said. “As a young kid and a young man, it was a thrill to perform alongside my father. He inspired my love of music. I followed in his footsteps and launched my own career. Now, I’m passing the torch to my own son.”
Neal’s daughter, Syreeta; brother, Lil’ Ray; and more Neal family members are also performing this year.
Chris Thomas King has released two dozen albums and co-starred with George Clooney in the Coen brothers’ 1930s-set Southern fable, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Chris Thomas King
5:30 p.m. Sunday, Visit Baton Rouge Swamp Blues Stage
Like Kenny Neal, Chris Thomas King is a second-generation Baton Rouge blues star. During his more than 40-year career, he’s released two dozen albums and co-starred with George Clooney in the Coen brothers’ 1930s-set Southern fable, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” King won a Grammy Award for his contribution to the film’s multiplatinum soundtrack album.
In 2021, King added author to his credits with the publication of “The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture.” Part memoir, part reenvisioned blues history, the book was the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s One Book One Community selection for 2023.
Grammy-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers will take the Watermark Slim Harpo Stage at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Lost Bayou Ramblers
1 p.m. Sunday, Watermark Slim Harpo Stage
Though the two-time Grammy-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers has boldly and loudly carried Cajun music into the 21st century, this Acadiana band never lost touch with its traditional roots. Following a Grammy win in 2018 for the sonically and musically daring “Kalenda” album, Lost Bayou Ramblers won a second golden statuette in 2024 for its collaboration with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, “Live: Orpheum Theatre NOLA.”
Launched in 1999 by brothers Andre and Louis Michot, Lost Bayou Ramblers’ credits also include the soundtrack for “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; touring with Arcade Fire; and collaborations with the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano and the Pogues’ Spider Stacy.
In addition to Lost Bayou Ramblers’ group performance on the big Watermark Slim Harpo Stage, frontman Louis Michot will play solo at the Arts Council of Great Baton Rouge Front Porch Stage.
Catch north Louisiana blues singer-guitarist D.K. Harrell at 5 p.m. Saturday.
D.K. Harrell
5 p.m. Saturday, Visit Baton Rouge Swamp Blues Stage
In March, D.K. Harrell, a 26-year-old blues singer-guitarist from north Louisiana, signed with the world’s greatest blues label, Alligator Records in Chicago. His forthcoming album, to be released in June, will join the 350 recordings Alligator has released since 1971.
Especially influenced by B.B. King though he is, Harrell blends blues-rock, Americana and funk-blues into a sound of his own.
“The past gives a blueprint that I can add myself to,” he said. “I progress by keeping all the genres in the mold.”
Alligator Records founder and president, Bruce Iglauer, cited Harrell as being “at the forefront of the exciting new generation of blues musicians. With his elegant guitar playing and straight-from-the-soul vocals and mesmerizing talent as a live entertainer, he has, in just two years, moved from being an opening act to headliner at festivals all over Europe.”
Georgia native Jontavious Willis will perform at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
Jontavious Willis
3:30 p.m. Sunday, Watermark Slim Harpo Stage
Acoustic blues master Taj Mahal says Jontavious Willis is “a great new voice of the 21st century in acoustic blues.” Mahal lauds the Georgia native’s singing and distinctive guitar playing.
“There’s not a bluesman alive who can pick his instrument up and play it like that,” Mahal said.
Willis’ album debut, 2016’s “Blue Metamorphosis,” received great reviews. His second studio project, “Spectacular Class,” earned a Grammy nomination.
“The blues is the most important musical genre and the roots of many others,” Willis said. “Deeper than that, it’s a cultural thing for me and my heritage. When I play the blues, I’m connecting with those who came before me, a spiritual-type thing.”
Unselfish Lovers of the Blues, performing blues and rhythm-and-blues from the 1950s and ’60s, plays Phil Brady's at 8 p.m. Friday.
Unselfish Lovers of the Blues
1:30 p.m. Sunday, Chris Whittington Family LA-1 Stage
Unselfish Lovers of the Blues graduated from bassist and music educator David Hinson’s band school for grown-ups, the Adult Music Club. Performing blues and rhythm-and-blues from the 1950s and ’60s, the Unselfish Lovers have made multiple appearances at Phil Brady’s Bar & Grill and Beauvoir Park. The seven-member group’s lovingly crafted arrangements, harmony vocals and, as the band’s official bio says, “dancing tunes and romancing tunes,” has made the Unselfish Lovers a local favorite.
Baton Rouge Blues Festival
Friday (5 p.m.), Saturday (12:30 p.m.) Sunday (11:30 a.m.)
North Boulevard, downtown