• Wednesday 1 Oct, The Ottawa Blues Society at Tucson's hosts the 2nd round of a local “Blues Challenge” competition “Band” category with the winner of the final on Thursday going to Memphis, TN in February 2009 to compete as our representative in the 25^th International Blues Challenge.
  
  Last week, the Alyssa Mahoney/Lucas Hanneman Duo and Wicked Grin won the opportunity to be in the final competition. Competitions begin at 7 pm, this week with Phlegm, Tell Mama and Monkey Junk . A $5.00 cover charge at the door applies and will serve as fundraising support for travel and accommodation expenses for the winning OBS representative.

• Thursday 2 October, at Tucson's Four Finalists of OBS hosted International Blues Challenge compete. The two highest scoring bands from each Semi-Final Round are judged by the same criteria used for the International Competition in Memphis. Each band will provide a 25-minute performance and be judged by regional volunteers knowledgeable about The Blues.

• Saturday 4 October, René Gely is at Diwali and Caridad Cruz is at Pub 31.

• Check the Ottawa Blues, Jazz & Swing Guide calendar for more on these events. Besides these opportunities, you can also check the other possibilities on the events posted by musicians and venues with links to their web sites for more details where available.
  

Arts News:

News on the Arts Support Blues - These are two links providing an update on certain recent campaign rhetoric, Ottawa Citizen article by Peter Hum and on 'Ordinary Canadians' support for the arts, a responding Facebook Group now at about 31,700 members since its origin this past Thursday.

New 'DAWG' in town! The CRTC has granted DAWG FM, CIDG 101.9 an all-blues radio station in Ottawa scheduled to begin broadcasting in spring 2009. Click Press Release for more.

Other music news can be found an the Ottawa Blues, Jazz & Swing Guide Group on Facebook if you're a Facebook member check out what else is going on.