The 17th annual Erie Art Museum Blues & Jazz Festival returns to Frontier Park on Saturday, Aug. 1 & Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009. For two days and two nights, Frontier Park comes alive with what has proven itself to be the region’s most dynamic musical event; this free community event is held rain or shine.

The Erie Art Museum Blues & Jazz Festival, attracting more than 15,000 visitors, features musicians that range from regional favorites to international super-stars.

The event opens Saturday, Aug. 1 at 12 p.m. with a family performance from The Barnstormers featuring the Rock Candy Cloggers. Performing traditional, old timey, American folk music, they are joined on stage by the award-winning cloggers the Rock Candy Cloggers.

Hands-on art activities and instrument making are offered from 1-5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at the WQLN Kids art-making tent.

“Kids can craft percussion instruments and learn from Festival musicians,” said Tom New, creative services director at WQLN.

Headliners include Chicago blues prodigy Ronnie Baker Brooks, whose father, blues legend Lonnie Brooks, was a previous Festival headliner. According to Brooks, “Every time I play, I feel like I’ve got to do it with the authenticity and passion that I saw in guys Guy, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and my father. But I also have to put my twist on it.”

Blues fans also can look forward to a performance by Nick Moss & The Flip Tops with special guest Lurrie Bell. Both Moss and Bell have been nominated for various Blues Music Awards and Bell was voted Most Outstanding Guitar Player in the 2007 Living Blues critics poll. This year, Nick & The Flip Tops were nominated for Band of the Year and Bell is up for Best Traditional Blues Male Artist.

The jazz lineup includes the exciting Tessa Souter Quartet, New York based vocalist, composer, and lyricist, about whom AllAboutJazz says, “The words seem to come from her soul.” The Los Angeles Times calls Souter “A must-see for lovers of world class jazz.”

Sunday festival-goers also will be treated to a memorable evening when drummer extraordinaire Elaine Hoffman Watts and her daughter, world renowned trumpeter, Susan Hoffman Watts, tear up the stage with the Fabulous Shpielkehs. A National Heritage Fellow, Elaine Watts is the most unlikely drummer to have graced the Festival stage.

Local favorites round out Saturday & Sunday’s programming. Included in the line-up are Dollar Bill & the Spare Change, Carl Hultman & Jazz Friends with Barb Schwartz, the Valerie Horton Brown Project and Katie Chriest and theHeliotropes.

Almost as signature as the legendary music at the Festival, is the original artwork for the 2009 limited edition Festival poster created by artist Corry Lino and the designers at PAPA Advertising.

Lino states, “In my work, I use a printmaking approach to develop my style of line art. I like to build and then deconstruct lines to form unique visuals. Usually, I begin to develop concepts using pencil, ink and white out on paper sketching with the hope of the happy accident. As the lines build, they create abstract shapes that I begin to fill in. The harmonious relationship between positive and negative space yields the larger picture. While I always want the viewer to appreciate the overall goal of the piece, I also want them to be captivated by what is hidden or built up inside.”

Festival merchandise for purchase includes limited edition organic cotton t-shirts, posters and fun items for the kids such as instruments, bubbles and glow-in-the-dark necklaces.

Local vendors will cook-up festival fare ranging from Pittsburgh-style sandwiches, sausage hoagies to fresh squeezed lemonade and fresh ice cream.