Blues Spotlight

When the River City Ohio Blues Competition started 18 years ago, it was part of the River City Blues Festival and originated as a fun event for local musicians.

"It was a little thing that was kind of a time-passer but gave local musicians a chance to come in and play and have a good time," said Steve Wells, vice president of the local Blues, Jazz & Folk Music Society, which puts on the competition.

But the competition has evolved into something much more significant.

"It started to get bigger and bigger and bigger until we couldn't accommodate the bands that wanted to play, so we made the competition a separate event in 2000," Wells said.

This year's competition began Friday evening at the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, and continues Saturday. Seventeen performers - bands, soloists and duo acts - will compete for Blues, Jazz & Folk Music Society sponsorship to the 2011 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn.

Two acts from Friday and four acts from Saturday's preliminary will be selected to compete in Saturday's finals, which begin at 8 p.m. The top band and solo/duo act - if they finish in the top three - will receive sponsorship to Memphis

The first-place winner will also receive $1,000, and those in second and third place will win $200 and $100, respectively.

Doc Dalton and the Healing is one of those groups that hopes to take home the prize. The members of the Caldwell-based band are Doc Dalton, Mark Ogle and Judy and Bob Parks.

Dalton was pleased with Friday's performance and said he doesn't let his nerves get to him.

"I get nervous up to it, but once I get up there I'm not nervous; it's the anticipation," he said. "We just really love what we're doing... we're all old, good friends, and we just really enjoy it."

Wells said the International Blues Challenge can mean a big break for those who compete in it.

"What it can do is take a band that's good and take them to next level and make them a national act and put them on the national stage," he said.

Wells said the weekend-long event is usually a sell-out and many of the same people attend year after year. The acts, which come from all over Ohio, West Virginia and as far away as Massachusetts, also have quite a following.

"At the competition, a lot of people who are there are there to support the band, wherever that band is from," he said.

Mineral Wells, W.Va., resident Dale Carson was one of the hundreds of spectators at the competition Friday night. He's been to several of the society's events.

"They always have very good entertainment... very good groups," he said. "You get to see a lot of groups in a short period of time."

Wendy Wharff, executive director of the Marietta/Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the yearly event not only boosts the local economy, but enables folks to explore the city.

"It brings people in for the whole weekend to dine and shop and stay in the hotels," she said. "What we try to do while they're here is encourage them to get out and see Marietta and go back with having had a great experience, and hopefully they'll return for not just another blues competition, but with friends and family to visit here again."

Marietta Mayor Michael Mullen, a co-founder of the Blues, Jazz & Folk Music Society, said the Pioneer City is an obvious venue for the competition.

"There are organizations just like this around the state of Ohio and West Virginia, and this has become a gathering point for them to get together and do one of the things they love to do, and that is celebrate this unique American music that is the blues," Mullen said. "It is a great showcase of our historic river city."

The mayor also noted that the society has served as a catalyst for a number of other musical events in the city.

"The Red, White and Blues Festival has made tens of thousands of dollars to support downtown revitalization," he said. "The Mayor's Jubilee has drawn thousands of people to the historic district on summer evenings."

Mullen also pointed out that the city was nicknamed the "Blues Cradle of Ohio" by Ohio magazine a few years back.

"It is a great point of distinction to have a small river town be recognized," he said.

"The rivers have always been a conduit for that music as it evolved," the mayor added. "It's a natural extension that Marietta would be a blues town."