Founded in July of 1995, the Capital Area Blues Society was designed to help support a growing interest in Blues music within the Lansing, MI. area and beyond.
Throughout the course of the years to follow, CABS has seen many ups and downs both within our own ranks (changes in leadership, membership, activity and so on), but always has supported the Blues music scene within our neighborhoods to the best of our abilities.
We have achieved this through many sources: A monthly publication, The Blues Ambassador, our "New" MYSPACE website (which you are seeing now), our first & regular web site: Capital Area Blues Society special events such as the mid-Michigan Blues Festival, CABS Blues Brawl (an annual event to select a band to compete in the Internation Blues Challenge), education programs, and, more recently, by becoming involved in the very succesful *OLD TOWN BLUES FESTIVAL*
We have welcomed many, many Blues artists to our community including Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, Junior Wells, Tab Benoit, James Harman, Koko Taylor, Johnny Winter and the list goes on and on for days. For a community that is not typically known to be a haven for Blues music, we have shown that with enough determination and some good fortune, many a great thing are possible.
In 2005, CABS celebrated it's 10th year of existence and sees no signs of slowing down. Another great step that CABS has recently taken is that of filing for our 501(c)3 status. Which essentially enables us to do even more within our community through educational initiatives and hopefully will also assist CABS in obtaining more grant monies to put towards future events. We will hopefully know something on the status of this by the first part of the year.
Take a minute to look around this (satellite) MySpace web site. See what we have to offer. Join our ever-growing membership base and, most importantly, become involved in perpetuating the successes of this organization by supporting the events that we and other organizations present to the Lansing community.
Thanks for stopping by,
CABS Board of Directors
Little known fact: The first dues paying member of the CABS organization was Dennis Cullinan who at that time was playing with Those Delta Rhythm Kings. You can catch Dennis currently with the Bill Malone and the Old Town Blues Band. On the web at Old Town Blues Band
The Old Town Blues Fest 2007 - "We had some mighty big Fun"
Last summer's 2007 "Blues On The Square" introduction was with; Stan Budzynski & Bill Malone of C.A.B.S. and Lansing's MAYOR: Virg Bernero. “The concert series will help get the blues on the front page rather than the back burner,†said Stan Budzynski, Blues Society board member and local bandleader.
* photo and story by * "Lansing State Journal" and "Lansing City Pulse"
