News: king of the blues top 5 announced


Guitar Center Announces Top 5 Blues Guitarists in the Nation!

Top 5 Winners of World’s Largest Blues Guitar Competition to Compete in Grand Finale November 12 in Los Angeles,

Sharing Stage with Blues Great Joe Bonamassa

and Grammy Award Winner Pete Anderson

October 27, 2009 - Westlake Village, CA – Guitar Center today announced the names of the Top 5 Blues guitarists in the country, who will compete in front of a live audience and a panel of judges at the upcoming King of the Blues Grand Finals on November 12th @ the House of Blues Sunset in Hollywood, CA. Tickets for this very special event are just $20, and are available at Ticketmaster.com or the HOB box office.

The five Grand Finalists headed to Los Angeles on November 12 are Roosevelt Collier (Kissimmee, FL), Joshua Gooch (San Diego, CA), Kirby Kelley (N. Dallas, TX), Dan Peters (Morton Grove, IL) and Graham Whitford (NYC).

In addition to showcasing these aspiring guitarists as they compete for the King of the Blues crown and $25,000 cash, the Grand Finals will also feature performances by renowned blues guitarist and Gibson artist Joe Bonamassa, who was featured last week on “World Café,” distributed by NPR. Check out the “World Café” interview and performance with Joe Bonamassa here.


Also performing at the event is Grammy Award winning producer and guitarist Pete Anderson, who’s band will also back the 5 finalists. Anderson has worked with artists ranging from Roy Orbison to Dwight Yoakam to the Meat Puppets, and has released several solo records. Additionally the event will be hosted by world renowned blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Like Guitar Center’s other talent search competitions – the legendary Drum-Off (now in its 21st year), and the recently launched On-Stage, King of the Blues is part of Guitar Center’s ongoing mission to provide emerging artists and musicians with career-altering opportunities and vehicles to achieve success. Introduced in 2006, King of the Blues is more than just a competition to find the most technically skilled players. King of the Blues is designed to seek out the most passionate, innovative and authentic guitar players and give them a shot at stardom. For example, the winner of Guitar Center’s 2007 King of the Blues, Aaron Loesch, was invited to perform at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival in front of over 25,000 attendees.

Guitar Center’s King of the Blues champion will win an impressive package of prizes, including $25,000 cash, along with a Gibson ’59 Les Paul reissue guitar, a $2,500 Levi’s® shopping spree, a Marshall Vintage Modern 50 watt half stack, a Boss GT-10 Guitar Multi Effects Pedal, a feature in Guitar World magazine, worldwide distribution of their music in iTunes and more, plus endorsement deals from Ernie Ball, Marshall Amplification, VOX Amplification and Gibson. Additional regional, district and local prize packages will also be awarded, thanks to the generous support of Gibson Guitar, Levi’s®, Ernie Ball, Marshall, Boss, VOX, Guitar World Magazine and TuneCore, all of whom are proud partners of Guitar Center’s King of the Blues.

Some of today’s most iconic and groundbreaking artists, including BB King, John Mayer, The Black Crowes, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Hubert Sumlin have participated at past King of the Blues events. With “the Blues” being the foundation for nearly all of today’s popular music, the search for the nation’s greatest undiscovered blues guitarist is expected to unearth a goldmine of unsigned talent, some of whom are destined to become tomorrow’s legends.

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