What is Digital Blues?

Since it started out, Digital Blues has sought to become the home of all things Blues in Essex and beyond. It is a site which is constantly being updated with new items being added regularly. The gig guide is updated at least once a week and often a great deal more frequently. 

We hope you enjoy our site and find it of both interest assistance. With this website we are building upon what we have done with e-mail etc. and providing a resource to the Blues community. This we can only do with your help and support. 

Digital Blues started out as a radio programme on PhoenixFM, a local, community radio station based in Brentwood, Essex, England currently applying for a full time licence. In June 2001, the station became PhoenixFM.com and started broadcasting on the Internet 24/7, the first community radio station to do so, we believe.

So Digital Blues became an Internet radio blues show. In 2007 Digital Blues & PhoenixFM went live when Phoenix won a full time licence. Unfortunately, the management of PhoenixFM cancelled Digital Blues in June 2007

But back to the beginning. To help promote both the station and the programme, in June 2001 I wrote a Digital BluesLetter, which sought to let people know what gigs were on in South-East Essex, to bring readers news of local bands and venues and review the CD's which had been submitted to the programme or which I had bought. This was met with great enthusiasm and so the following month I wrote another one and the monthly Digital BluesLetter was born.

Now, the Digital BluesLetter is a rather more irregular affair and news items are posted on the News page of this site. We still concentrates on the vibrant Essex blues scene but also cover other parts of the country, especially when there is an Essex involvement. We also review CD's which come in from all over the World.

We are often asked to review CDs submitted by artists and labels from around the World and you can read these and a selection of other reviews on our Reviews page as well as reading our thoughts on some of the great gigs we have attended. Many of these have also been published in Blues Matters! the most widely read specialist UK Blues magazine.

We send out e-mail updates when new news items are added and also details about local gigs and jams. In addition, the Digital Blues Gig Guide, which is on the Gigs page of this site, carries details of loads of local gigs in the coming month as well as details of the excellent local blues jams.  For gigs further afield, visit the Movinmusic Digital Blues Gig Guide which we run in conjunction with our very good friends Mike & Grant at Movinmusic.

If you want your gigs published in the Movinmusic Digital Blues Gig Guide then drop us an e-mail and we will tell you how. If you want to be added to the Digital Blues mailing list then send us an e-mail request to join telling us who you are and where you are from (no other reason than we are nosy!!!) and we will add you so that you can become a member of the World wide Digital Blues community. 

The Digital Blues programmes featured local Essex talent but have also become a means for many bands and artists to get some airtime because on Digital Blues we broadcast much material which is not heard anywhere else. We have interviewed Connie Lush, Monica Madgwick of Boogaloo Promotions, Gregg Wright, Dave Berry, Colin John, Gwyn Ashton, T S McPhee, Larry Miller and many more. We have been the first radio station in the World to play tracks from CD's from the likes of the Cadillac Kings, Dave Berry, Guy Tortora, Roach Twins Band, the Strats, Hair of the Dog and many others and we often have local guests in our studios such as Roy Mette, Mike Thomas and harp maestro, Gary Potts from the Cadillac Kings, as well as members of other local bands such as Deja Blue, Doghouse, Temperton Bones and the Heaters who have taken part in live programmes.

Nublues

Ed Vans, Ramon Goose, (Nublues), Ashwyn, Jay Nicholls, (Nublues) &

Paul Dean (Heaters & New Crawdaddy Blues Club) at the Digital BluesFest

- October 2004 - photo by John Nicholls

 

We feature live sessions when we are able to and have welcomed people such as NuBlues, Roy Mette, Tim Aves, Martin McNeill, Gwyn Ashton, the Jives, the Cruise-o-Matics, Nublues and many more. In co-operation with local venues such as Blues at Farm and the New Crawdaddy Club in Billericay, we broadcast exclusive live recordings by bands such as Bad Town Blues & Deja Blue , all of which were available only via PhoenixFM.com. We also broadcast news of gigs, venues and bands as well as playing tracks from the reviewed CD's each month.

In the four years since it was born, Digital Blues  has grown to such an extent that we were delighted recently to be described by the Cadillac Kings as "the voice of and for the Blues in Essex". Now supported by Blues Matters!, the most widely read UK Blues magazine and a vibrant specialist Blues record label, Digital Blues is a regular port of call for bands looking for gigs, promoters looking for bands, musicians looking for bands or bands looking for musicians.eastgate

Please bookmark this site and keep on coming back as things develop. If you have a CD which you would like us to review on Digital Blues  and, maybe, to feature on the programme, then e-mail us and we'll let you know how. We receive CD's from all over the World and have given first airplay to many of them.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has helped Digital Blues become what it is. We could not have done it without your support and assistance. An especial thank you to Ray Bartrip whose encouragement, help and support lead to the creation of this website. Thanks Ray!

Ashwyn Smyth 

 
 
(C) 2008 Ashwyn Smyth - Any material contained on this website is the property of the website owner. Any quotes taken from this website should be suitably accredited.
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