BETHLEHEM, Pa. — In 2020, at the 15th and final Lehigh Blues Jam, organizer Bev Conklin said the Lehigh Valley blues scene had grown so much since she gave the area its first blues festival that it had run its course.
“This was a mission to bring everyone together,” Conklin said at the time. “Now, you can see this free on any given weekend in the summer.”
Just a month later, coronavirus hit and severely diminished the blues scene across the Lehigh Valley and everywhere else.
Now, Conklin said it may be time again to resurrect Lehigh River Blues Jam.
And she will.
"And I just basically said, ‘Do it.’"Blues artist Bev Conklin
The 16th Lehigh River Blues Jam will be 2-10 p.m. Feb. 1 at The Charles A. Brown Ice House, 56 River St., Bethlehem.
The festival will pick up where it left off with headliners, with Blues Hall of Famer Bobby Kyle, who has had a career of more than 40 years and played on one of the great blues guitar albums of all time.
Kyle also headlined the 15th annual Lehigh River Blues Jam.
Also headlining will be Chicago Blues Hall of Fame guitarist Mike Wheeler and his band, who previously headlined the Pennsylvania Blues Festival that was held in the Poconos for many years.
Other acts will include New York keyboardist, singer and songwriter Dave Keys, a 2024 Blue Music Awards nominee for the fifth time in the Instrumentalist category.
Blues-soul guitarist Dave Keller and his band, a three-time Blues Music Award nominee, eastern Pennsylvania blues-rock favorites Big Bone Danny and traditional blues guitarist James Armstrong further round out the lineup.
And, of course, a performance by Conklin's band BC Combo.
Ticket prices, schedules, vendors and other information will be released next month, Conklin said.
"People were asking, ‘When is it coming back? Where is it?" Conklin said. "All these musicians sending me their promos, and record labels [asking] ‘What can I do to get back onboard?
“It took me awhile to recover and get my moxie back, but I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ I really enjoyed doing it, the volunteers wanted to continue doing it.
"And I just basically said, ‘Do it.’"
Overcoming coronavirus
Conklin said it wasn't coronavirus that shut down Lehigh River Blues Jam. In fact, she points out that the last one was held in early February 2020 — before COVID-19 even hit.
"We were one of the only festivals that got in that year because it was so early on in the year,” she said.
Instead, Conklin said, it was family obligations — she was taking care of her dying brother, she said — and that sense of a strong blues scene.
But oddly, coronavirus was a big reason for Lehigh River Blues Jam returning, she said.
"There’s a lot of people that have kept me going — inviting me to events, private parties, concerts to perform at. So I said, ‘I’ve got to keep us going.' So it’s a kind of pay-it-back-pay it forward situation.Blues performer Bev Conklin
“There was nothing going on during the pandemic," Conklin said. "No matter what level [performers] were on, an A-lister, grassroots, just starting out, it seemed to be really frustrating somehow to not be able to play during the pandemic.
"It really squelched their creativity, artistic outlet. I think that more than anything was the outlet, because you have connectivity to people."
Conklin said BC Combo released a brand-new CD that "was done in the basement."
"We had nowhere to go with it" or promote it because everything was shut down, Conklin said.
"For me it was a huge loss financially and was a lot to the band because we had nowhere to play with all the new songs."
In addition, Conklin said, the Valley's blues scene contracted.
Pennsylvania Blues Festival ended. ArtsQuest’s Blast Furnace Blues festival reduced to two days and, with music festivals "every weekend now" no longer gets the attention it once did, she said.
"There’s a lot of people that have kept me going — inviting me to events, private parties, concerts to perform at," she said. “So I said, ‘I’ve got to keep us going.' So it’s a kind of pay-it-back-pay-it-forward situation.
“And it’s a savable situation as long as everyone who volunteers are my family and friends."
Bringing back the blues
By returning to the Ice House, Lehigh River Blue Jam returns to the site of another important moment in its history.
Lehigh River Blues Jam started as a one-day festival in Catasauqua borough park and grew into a four-day June event.
It celebrated 10 years at that location, but the outdoor festival was plagued by rainstorms, frequently having to move indoors.
The borough’s recreation committee in 2016 withdrew as a sponsor for the 11th year, and the event moved and split into single-day spring and summer festivals — originally in April at Days Inn Ballroom and July at the Ice House.
But after just one year as a split festival, in 2017 it moved to its final formation: As a solo January festival at Days Inn in Allentown, with Kyle headlining.
At the revived festival, Kyle, a native of Milford, Pike County, will be joined by Keys.
Kyle spent eight years touring the world with late blues guitarist and singer Johnny “Clyde” Copeland, and won a W. C. Handy Award in 1981 for the album “Copeland Special” and a Grammy Award in 1987 for best traditional blues album for “Showdown!”
In 1983, he won The Blues Foundation’s 1983 Entertainer of the Year Award.
But perhaps Kyle's biggest moment was in 1993, when he played on Blues Hall of Fame guitarist Johnny Copeland’s “Catch Up with the Blues” album.
Three years later, Kyle released his own disc, “After the Storm,” to critical raves.
Wheeler is a songwriter, vocalist and guitarist who has performed with such artists as Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy and Shemekia Copeland. He was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2014.
Keys, a 30-year veteran of the blues and American roots music scenes, has recently worked with bluesman Popa Chubby, girl-group icon Ronnie Spector until her passing. He previously had lengthy stints with Odetta, David Johansen, Bo Diddley and others.
He also has extensive Broadway and TV music credits including being the conductor for the six-year Broadway run of the Grammy-winning show “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.”
