Newsletter #6
To all friends, members and sponsors of the Texas Coastal Bend Blues Society, I have some news to update you all on.
Our Treasurer, and dear friend, Mario Lopez, known throughout the Coastal Bend as “Hambone” Mario Lopez, has passed away due to complications from heart surgery.
His Family, the Rialto Theater, the TCBBS Board, Members, Sponsors and Friends will be having a Celebration of Life for Mario at the Rialto Theater in Aransas Pass on Feb 21 at 7 p.m.
The public is invited to attend. There will be a time of remembrance and blues performed by his friends in his memory. Please attend if you can. We would like his family to know how much Mario is loved in this community of musicians, venues and sponsors that he worked so hard for.
There is no cost to attend. All are welcome.
Regarding our events calendar, we have a Poker Run coming up on March 22, with lots of live performances by Blues Society bands, the opportunity to check out venues you may not have visited, and to celebrate the Blues at each stop. The $20 per person fee includes entrance to the poker hands that win Ca$h. There will also be a 50/50 raffle worth your while to enter, a guitar raffle where you can have the chance to win a Fender electric guitar that will be demonstrated onstage for only $3 a ticket. All entrance fees go towards putting on the event, prize money and the guitar and whatever is left will go to the Jak Payne Scholarship Fund above and beyond the donations received that day for the event.
We also have our 2nd Annual Autism Awareness Concert Series on April 12, 2025. Our Autism Liaison, Jonathan Carmony, will MC the event and perform as well! That event will also be held at the Rialto Theater in Aransas Pass, which is the home address of the TCBBS.
We have an event called “Scott Graham’s Bayside Blues Festival” Slated for April 24th, 2025. It will be located in Bayside, Texas and we will have full details in the next newsletter as well as posted on our Facebook page.
We are proud to announce that Dorado’s in Conn Harbor will be the location of the 3rd Annual Jak Payne Waterfront Blues Festival! We are pulling out all the stops and bringing lots of really great blues bands to perform that day at that great waterfront venue with a full bar, awesome food, free parking and a great staff! And yes, two stages, just like last year! We have some surprises in store for that event we will announce later…
Please join our Blues Society if you haven’t already and help us to keep the Blues Alive!
Thanks,
Frank Butler
President
