SiriusXM and The Blues Foundation announced today their new collaboration to broaden the content and reach of B.B. King’s Bluesville (ch. 74). The channel will be powered by The Blues Foundation, which will directly expand the featured programming to include exclusive performances, artist interviews and archival content that only The Blues Foundation can provide.
To kick off this collaboration, B.B. King’s Bluesville will exclusively air the 2020 Virtual Blues Music Awards (held earlier this year), featuring SiriusXM host Shemekia Copeland as the ceremony’s host, beginning Friday, September 4 at 3 p.m. ET. (See full rebroadcast schedule below.) The special programming will include exclusive at-home performances from BMA nominees, including Tommy Castro, Walter Trout, Thornetta Davies, Southern Avenue, Sue Foley, Billy Branch, Victor Wainwright, Samantha Fish, Kingfish, and more, along with presentations by Charlie Musselwhite, Ruthie Foster, Fantastic Negrito, Keb’ Mo’, Warren Haynes, William Bell, and Beth Hart. To complement the performances and award announcements, there are also appearances from special guests such as Bonnie Raitt, Bettye LaVette, Robert Cray, Elvin Bishop, Steve Cropper, Steve Miller, Dion, and SiriusXM host Little Steven Van Zandt, along with flashback performance moments by great bluesmen and women such as, Koko Taylor, Honeyboy Edwards, Irma Thomas, Luther Allison, and Taj Mahal.
Based in Memphis, Tenn., the home of the blues, The Blues Foundation is world-renowned as THE organization with a mission to preserve blues heritage, celebrate blues recording and performance, expand worldwide awareness of the blues, and ensure the future of this uniquely American art form. With approximately 4,000 individual members and over 170 affiliated local blues societies, it represents hundreds of thousands of blues fans and professionals around the world. In addition to the Blues Music Awards, the Foundation’s other signature honors and events include the Blues Hall of Fame, Keeping the Blues Alive Awards, and the International Blues Challenge. Its HART Fund provides the blues community with medical assistance and advocacy for blues musicians in need while Generation Blues scholarships and Blues in the Schools programming expose new generations to blues music. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, The Blues Foundation has recently established the COVID-19 Blues Musician Emergency Relief Fund to provide financial support for basic necessities such as housing and utilities to blues musicians negatively impacted by the pandemic. The Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame, opened more than five years ago, adds the opportunity for music lovers of all ages to interact with the music and the history. Throughout the year, the Foundation staff serves the worldwide blues community with answers, information, and news.
Support The Blues Foundation by becoming a member or by making a charitable donation at blues.org. The Blues Foundation is a 501c3 organization and all donations may be tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
B.B. King’s Bluesville, powered by The Blues Foundation, on SiriusXM, is devoted to all blues music, from traditional to contemporary, rockin’ blues to soul, from B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Etta James,Robert Cray, Joe Bonamassa, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Minnie, Ruth Brown, Johnny Winter, and many others.
SiriusXM subscribers can listen to B.B. King’s Bluesville (ch. 74) and other channels on SiriusXM radios, and those with streaming access can listen online, on-the-go with the SiriusXM mobile app and at home on a wide variety of connected devices, including smart TVs, devices with Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant, Apple TV, PlayStation, Roku, Sonos speakers and more. The SiriusXM app also offers additional features such as SiriusXM video, Personalized Stations Powered by Pandora that listeners can curate themselves, and an On Demand library with more than 10,000 hours of archived shows, exclusive music performances, interviews and audio documentaries. SiriusXM has special offers for new subscribers including three months of a SiriusXM Essential Streaming subscription for Free. To see Offer Details and to subscribe, visit www.siriusxm.com/BBKing3
Rebroadcast Schedule of the 40th (Virtual) Blues Music Awards on B.B. King’s Bluesville, (ch. 74):
Friday 9/04/20 at 9 p.m. ET
Saturday 9/05/20 at 3 a.m. ET
Saturday 9/05/20 at 6 p.m. ET
Sunday 9/06/20 at 6 a.m. ET
Sunday 9/06/20 at 3 p.m. ET
Monday 9/07/20 at 12 p.m. ET
