Blues on the Bay Returns for Third Year

Oscar Wilson. Submitted.

Door County’s only blues festival, Blues on the Bay, is scheduled for Aug. 27, with performances by well-known national and regional blues musicians from 3 to 9 pm. The third annual music festival will once again be held at the Ellison Bay Community Park, 11953 Hwy 42.

This year’s Blues on the Bay features a stellar lineup of noteworthy blues musicians, including Billy Flynn, Jimmy Burns, Oscar Wilson, Mighty Mouth and Dirty Deuce. Headliner Billy Flynn is a Milwaukee-based blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Soul and electric blues guitarist Jimmy Burns was born in the Mississippi Delta and resides in Chicago. Singer-songwriter Oscar Wilson originally hails from Chicago and now lives in Madison; Wilson is also a member of the well-known blues band Cash Box Kings. Festival opening band Mighty Mouth is the blues-focused offshoot of the beloved northeast Wisconsin band Big Mouth, based in Door County. Finally, Dirty Deuce’s music has been described as a “musical gumbo, with a pinch of hip hop, a dash of R&B, and a whole lot of rock ‘n soul.”

Festival organizer Jane Lee said the Aug. 27 music event “will ably cover the Delta Blues of the 1920s and ‘30s, the post-war Chicago blues of the 1940s and ‘50s, rhythm & blues, rock ‘n soul, and electric guitar blues in all of its many guises in the decades since.”

“Blues on the Bay was created to bring the blues to far northern Door County,” said Lee, “but it’s also a major fundraising benefit for Door County Secret Santa, a nonprofit that anonymously helps struggling local families with their winter home heating bills.”

Food and drink will be on sale throughout the event.

Free parking and shuttle service to the park is at the Liberty Grove Historical Society, located at the top of the hill just south of Ellison Bay. Festival attendees should bring their own lawn chairs and are also welcome to bring their own picnic items.

Admission is free, but attendees are encouraged to make a freewill donation to Door County Secret Santa. For more information visit facebook.com/ellisonbayblues.