Funded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity/Bureau of Tourism, the June 2008 Living Blues
highlights the contemporary blues scene in Chicago and the
25th anniversary of the Chicago Blues Festival. The
festival is the area’s premier blues event and has
presented such artists as Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Bo
Diddley and James Brown.
“True blues fans have always seen Living Blues as the
qualified blues magazine,” said Barry Dolins, deputy
director of the Chicago mayor’s office of special events.
“It was founded in Chicago and has really set the standard
for blues journalism. (The special issue) will provide a
document that will help our city’s Convention and Tourism
Bureau present the Chicago blues industry to a wider
audience.”
The special issue, featuring legendary Chicago guitarist
Buddy Guy, is to include dozens of photographs of blues
artists, a blues club guide, street maps, roundup of record
stores and coverage of the historic Maxwell Street scene,
as well as guest editorials by Guy, Chicago Mayor Richard
M. Daley and others.
“A few years ago, we produced a similar issue for the
Mississippi Board of Tourism,” said Brett Bonner, editor of
Living Blues. “Four years later, people visiting
Mississippi still order the issue. Similarly, our Chicago
Blues issue will serve as the modern travel guide for blues
fans and attract tourists to Chicago from around the
world.”
“This grant from the state of Illinois makes special issues
like this possible,” said Mark Camarigg, publications
manager. “We can promote the very active Chicago blues
scene and provide our readers substantive information
should they decide to visit.”
Living Blues was founded in Chicago in 1970 and was
acquired by UM’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture
in 1983. For more information about the magazine, go to
Details about the 2008 Chicago blues Festival are available
at