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THE SAGINAW BAY BLUES SOCIETY PRESENTS LEAP YEAR EXTRAVAGANZA
By Scott Baker

In recent years when Saginaw's Jim Zimmerman passed around business cards
that said 'Retired Blues Lover', he wasn't kidding.

Zimmerman has spent the better part of the past year holding down the fort
as the Chairman of the Saginaw-Bay Area Blues Society (S.B.A.B.S.) and now
passes around a Society business card along with a membership application.

This March will mark a year for the Society which started with a bang, lost
some steam in the late summer, revived itself on a Blues Cruise in early
fall and is now charging into its second year after a long cold winter.

Sharing the music and getting the word out on the blues, the S.B.A.B.S. is
putting its money where its heart is and has put together the ultimate club
package.

On Sunday, Feb. 29, the S.B.A.B.S.  features a Leap Year Day Blues Bash at
Captain's Cove, 118 N. Niagara St., in Old  Town Saginaw, with The Blues
Creators, Luther 'Badman'  Keith from  Detroit, and  Saginaw's own
legendary Sharrie  Williams and the Wiseguys. Food will be included in the
evening provided by Pops and Wiseguy's Smokehouse, along with a free 1-Year
Membership to the Blues Society itself.

"There's nowhere that you're going to get a better deal than what we're
offering with a year's membership, the concert, and food for $15-that's a
steal," said Zimmerman this week. "We had some money in our coffers that we
picked up on the Blues Cruise, so we decided to utilize it to have a
concert and hopefully we can get members and make a little money besides."

Getting the word out over the course of the past month has been slow.
"Our main goal is to sell these tickets in advance. We're going to have
tickets available at the door, but we want to try to get the bulk of them
in advance so we've got some kind of idea of how many people we're going to
have for food and stuff."

With the strong love for the musical style in the forefront, the S.B.A.B.S.
showed what was possible by hosting a sold out Blues Cruise on the Princess
Wenonah this past September. More events will be planned pending on the
turnout for the Leap Year Bash.

"Hopefully we'll have some more events," said Zimmerman. "Maybe another
Blues Cruise if we can possibly work that in, because everybody that was at
the last one would like another one. We want to be able to educate some
people on the blues in this area (as well as) support the blues in this
area. So far there are not enough memberships and support to put on a big
festival like in the past. The few that we have and the few that are active
wouldn't be enough to put one on. You must have a great deal of memberships

and a great deal of active people that are going to help carry it."

Zimmerman has pointed out that after 2003's Year of the Blues, the blues
word on the scene has taken a nosedive.

"There's many, many things that we need to do to get the blues out of its
doldrums now. I mean, obviously right now is a bad time for the blues. A
lot of blues clubs are closing up all over, including the Detroit area.
People haven't been turning out. We have a couple places that play the
blues here in Saginaw; Wiseguy's White's Bar, and The Cadillac Lounge. We
need to support them 100% and that's the job of the Blues Society."

With the three acts, food, and a free membership thrown in, Zimmerman
expects to see many holdouts from this past year jump at the chance to
support the scene.

"We have somewhere between 65 and 70 members and would like to triple that
if possible," stated the Chairman.  "When you're talking about the
Saginaw/Bay City/Midland, Tri-city area, we should have more than 60 some
members. When Larry McCray sells out three nights in a row with blues
lovers, granted (White's) seats like 60 people, but we should have all
those people as members. We'd be happy campers."

So far, the S.B.A.B.S. has already proven to be in fine form compared to
some other Blues Societies in the state according to Zimmerman.

 "There are societies in Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Alpena,
Tawas, Jackson, and a new one up north. There used to be one in Traverse
City, so this new one kind of picked up the slack on that. There are
societies all over the state."
Handpicking some of the finest blues entertainment around, the S.B.A.B.S.
took some time to mull over many choices for the Leap Year party.

"The Blues Creators are a band that volunteered at a couple of our
functions, so we felt that we owed them a slot," stated Zimmerman. "The
band out of Detroit, Luther 'Badman' Keith, I had taken a couple of the
other Blues Society members down to Detroit and he was performing that
night. They really got off on him because he's very good! I don't think
anybody will be disappointed. Obviously with Sharrie making it so big in
Europe right now, and they have done so much for the Blues Society as well,
(we got) them on the show too."

"Wiseguy's catering we selected because we feel Pops is the best caterer in
the area. After the feed that he put on for us in the Blues Cruise, we went
back to him. We're going to have picnic food and are trying to make it a
flavor of a picnic type event. An outdoor (style) indoor concert for leap
year."
As for the venue, because of the 250 plus sellout for the Blues Cruise, the
S.B.A.B.S. went with a spacious room in mind for the variety of bands. "We
decided to go with Captain's Cove because of its size. It is the biggest
venue in the Tri-city area."

"We thought that the Blues Creators and Sharrie went over really well (for
the turnout) on the Blues Cruise.  This event will offer three different
bands with three different styles of music. The Blues Creators will be
doing the R&B form of the blues, Luther 'Badman' Keith will be doing some
rock and blues, and Sharrie will be doing some rock and gospel blues. It's
going to be a concert not to miss and it's the only thing going on for leap
year in this area."

With his presence known around the state for his blues support, Zimmerman
is pleased to have the S.B.A.B.S. Leap Year Bash known statewide as well.
The Juke Joint, CMU's public radio blues program has a regular listing for
the Blues Bash.
"We are on the web page for the Detroit Blues Society, it was in the paper
for the Capitol Area Blues Society out of Lansing, the Grand Rapid's West
Michigan Blues Society is having their President coming over. Sunday is a
great day to have it.

Hopefully we'll be able to pick up some musicians that will come in too, to
kind of lay back and relax."
With membership and support on the up and up, eventually the S.B.A.B.S.
will be able to support a local blues artist and send them to Memphis, as
other societies around the state and country have in the past.

"I just judged 25 bands in Detroit at a blues competition," said Zimmerman.
I've been involved in the Detroit Blues Society for quite a while. I
volunteer for a lot of stuff. Because I travel so much and I hit all these
concerts and festivals, I was honored that they asked me to judge to send a
representative from Detroit to the national Memphis Blues Competition. I
did it last year too, 2002 and 2003. It was tough - some of them are
really, really good. I went to the Lansing one as well, though I wasn't a
judge."

"With enough membership and support, that is something that we'd like to
do. We are a member of the National Blues Foundation - the mother blues
organization. I think we've done quite well thus far, even though our
membership is down from what it should be and we don't have a lot of
support from the members that we do have.

But like getting that 501(C) for our non-profit status - there's Blues
Societies in this state that are shocked that we got it already."
Tickets for the Leap Year Blues Bash are available in Saginaw at White's
Bar and from Pops at Wiseguy's. You can also purchase them directly from
any Blues Society Member,  including Jim Zimmerman at (989) 797-3923; in

Bay  City, at Bay Computer Repair from Dan 'Swivel' Sliwinski  at (989)
892-0831.
Doors open at 5 p.m. and the show runs from 6-11 p.m.