2026 Tucson Blues Festival promises blues of all shades

Memphis blues?

Idaho-born/Memphis-based headliner John Németh, a five-time Blues Foundation Blues Music Award winner, including a pair of Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year nods, plays a wicked mean harmonica and is known to go on extended improvised jams.

Chicago blues?

The fabulous trio of Bob Corritore, Jimi “Primetime” Smith and vocalist Carla Denise, whose musical souls reside in Chicago while they all call Arizona home, including Corritore, who owns the iconic Rhythm Room blues and roots club in Phoenix.

Traditional blues?

The rising young trio GA-20, which is leading the trad-blues revival at the intersection of country, blues and rock and roll. The trio in late July released “Blues Now,” a collaboration with the legendary bluesman/harpist Charlie Musselwhite.

“They're younger guys and they love blues and they just bring a new energy to it and enthusiasm, you know, with their youth,” Musselwhite told the Star before his sold-out headlining show at La Rosa in early June. “It's a lot of fun playing with them.”

Tucson blues?

OK, that’s really not a thing, but it could be given the number of local blues artists on Saturday’s Kennedy Park main stage: an impressive teen newcomer, a rockin’ blues quintet, a blues-funk fusion band out of Prescott with a Tucson-born lead singer and the dynamic Tucson duo of Steve Grams and Danny Krieger.

“If you think about the history of blues in Tucson, you know, they certainly come up in your mind,” said the blues foundation's president Rita Flattley, who was recently inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame.

The 2026 lineup was a group effort from the nonprofit foundation’s volunteer board of directors that Flattley leads.

“Any board member can say, ‘Boy, I'd love to have this person. I'd love to have that person’," Flattley explained.

After seeing which artists are available, the board votes on the final lineup.

“What we want to present is a full, rich range of what American blues is today, from younger acts to seniors that have a lifetime of experience,” she said, including a mix of female and male artists and instrumentalists, from pianists and guitarists to harmonica players.

Saturday’s Blues Heritage Festival at Kennedy Park, 3357 S. La Cholla Blvd., opens at 11 a.m. with 15-year-old Tucson blues singer Sienna Rea, accompanied by Joshua Rhoads on guitar.

Flattley said she first saw Sienna when she was 11 years old and was part of the SABHF young artist showcase at Monterey Court.

“She is just sweet and has a lovely voice,” Flattley said.

In July, Sienna took first place in the Phoenix-area Foley Ranch Rising Stars singing competition.

Arizona Blues Hall of Fame drummer Ralph Gilmore joins Grams and Krieger at 11:45, followed at 12:45 p.m. by Black Cat Bones, a high-energy five-piece band that mixes blues classics with original songs from lead singer Charles Pitts.

Tucson native Harrison Begay is lead singer and founder of the Prescott-based Sir Harrison Band, which blends Begay’s Navajo roots with soulful R&B and funk-infused blues. Begay takes the stage at 1:45 p.m., followed by Corritore, Smith and Denise at 2:45 p.m.

Corritore and Smith have lived in the Phoenix area for some time, but Chicago-born Denise is a relative newcomer to the state, where she lives part of the year.

“Carla Denise is amazing. Wait till you hear her. I'm so excited,” Flattley gushed during a phone call last week.

Denise comes here weeks after she performed at the prestigious King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas, which is widely regarded as one of the world’s most authentic and culturally significant blues festivals.

“She's making the rounds and making a big splash here because she is just a knockout vocalist,” Flattley said.

GA-20, which takes the stage at 3:45 p.m., has performed a number of times in Tucson, including opening for blues guitar great Tab Benoit at Fox Tucson Theatre in summer 2025. The band’s first show in Tucson came three years after they formed in 2018, when they did a show at 191 Toole in 2021.

Headliner Németh, who takes his cues from contemporary hip-hop, hard-rocking blues and old-school soul, takes the stage at 5:30 p.m.