Digital Images from the 2009 International Blues Challenge by Kurt Swanson and Soulful Impressions
E-Mail: kurtswanson@juno.com
under construction adding several times a week

Thanks to all the Blues societies, all the fans and all the IBC acts for making this 25th IBC such a special time. On Beale Street Friday afternoon during the Smokin' Bluz Youth Showcase and the FedEx International Showcase, Jack Sullivan surveyed the scene and jokingly noted in alarm "Look what you've done!!!" Walking out of The Orpheum Theatre after the band finals, one Blues fan complained "Thanks a lot. Now I have to come to the IBC every year for the rest of my life." As "Big Daddy" Rob Hecko, owner of B.L.U.E.S. on Halstead Club, Chicago, IL and 2009 Keeping the Blues Alive recipient, said "You call it Keeping the Blues Alive. I think the Blues is keeping us alive." As Walter Cronkite would have said "And that's the way it was." ~blues.org

Please visit The Blues Foundation at http://www.blues.org