Local musicians were wailing in force again for the White Rock Blues Society’s Yuletide Blues fundraiser for Sources’ White Rock-South Surrey Food Bank, Sunday at Pacific Inn’s Rhumba Room.
Society president Rod Dranfield said organizers were hoping to raise at least $4,000 and 1,000 pounds of food collected at the fifth annual event (tickets were $15 plus two non-perishable food items).
Over the past four years, the event has brought in more than $12,000 and 3,500 pounds of food.
Among bands and performers participating in this year’s marathon were society artistic directors Harpdog Brown and Jason Buie, whose suggestion launched the first Yuletide Blues event in 2007.
As Dranfield has noted, “the blues has always been the song of downtrodden people and hunger.”
Also in the lineup were Steve Kozak, David ‘Boxcar’ Gates (who will represent the society next month at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn.), Wes Mackey, Pete Sweetzer, The Harpoonest & The Axe Murderer, Velvet Bulldozer and The Headlines, the Compound Blues Band and Dalannah Gail Bowen.