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Blues fans ready for rowdy weekend

 
Published March 29, 2002|Updated Sept. 2, 2005

Blues music fans can listen to two great acts this weekend, as The Accelerators perform tonight and Saturday at The Shed in Homosassa, and the duo of "Spider" John Koerner and Dave "Snaker" Ray perform at the King's Theatre Opry in Wildwood on Thursday.

Koerner and Ray will perform acoustic country blues, covering artists such as Leadbelly and Rev. Gary Davis.

Koerner and Ray are part of the early 1960s folk and blues revival, and they recorded some influential albums in that era. Their best known work was Blues, Rags and Hollers, released in 1963 and then re-released in 1999.

In concert, Koerner and Ray switch off on six- and 12-string acoustic guitars and harmonica.

The Koerner and Ray concert begins at 7 p.m. The Kings Theater is at 206 N Main St., Wildwood, one mile north of State Road 44 and three miles east of Exit 66 on I-75. Tickets are $8.

Riverside Blues

One of Robert Johnson's songs was called Traveling Riverside Blues, and life will imitate fabled art this weekend as one of the county's hottest blues bands, The Accelerators, perform at The Shed, a tiki bar on the Homosassa River.

Keith Caton of Dunnellon fronts the Accelerators, who play mostly red-hot Chicago style blues. This means that most songs include long guitar solos, featuring Caton on standard and slide guitar. The band is Caton, Dan DeGregory on drums, Kim Harpo on harmonica and Richard Price on bass.

The Accelerators have released several independent CDs including their current release Long Time Coming. The band performs about 200 dates a year all over the east coast. The CD features their blues music mentor Bo Diddley on the song Sure Is.

As a result of their busy tour schedule, The Accelerators' music is consistently in top 100 on mp3.com electric blues charts.

The band just performed at the Chasco Fiesta with Bo Diddley and will perform at the Suwannee Music Park in July and plans to tour North and South Carolina and finish up the summer in Key West.

The Shed is at the end of Cherokee Drive in Old Homosassa at MacRae's. Cover charge is $3. Call 628-5714.

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