Get Hep Swing Ltd.

Valerie and friends from Get Hep Swing are doing a FREE pre-concert swing dance lesson from 7:30-8pm at the Beachland Ballroom for anyone who is attending the Candye Kane, Blue Lunch, Dani Wilde show.

$14 in advance/$16 day of
Location: Beachland Ballroom
Street: 15711 Waterloo Rd
City/Town: Cleveland, OH
216-383-1124

Come and dance in the VERY SPACIOUS BALLROOM at the Beachland Ballroom as you enjoy the fantastic show that will be put on by our buddies from Blue Lunch, Dani Wilde and the most FABULOUS ---CANDYE KANE!!!

The Toughest Girl Alive” is the name of Candyes’ original song and the title of her soon to be released memoir and stage play. It is also an apt description of the jump blues singer and songwriter from East Los Angeles who has earned this moniker the hard way. Nominated for a 2008 National Blues Foundation Award for Best Blues Contemporary Female (the highest honor for blues artists) and beating down pancreatic cancer the same year, Kane is one tough cookie. She has performed worldwide for presidents and movie stars, but her path to success was not always glamorous or easy.

Raised in a dysfunctional, blue-collar family, Candye became a teenage mother, a pin up cover girl and a punk rock, hillbilly and blues-belting anarchist by the time she was just 21 years old. Eight cds, six record labels, millions of international road miles and countless awards later, Miss Kane has proven to be a true survivor as she scrambled her way to the top of the roots music heap, creating a world renowned reputation that has spanned two decades.

A colorful mixture of the traditional and the eclectic, Kane cut her musical teeth in the early 80’s onstage with Hollywood musicians and friends, Social Distortion, Dwight Yoakum, Dave Alvin, The Blasters, X, Fear and Los Lobos, to name just a few. While raising two sons, this role model for the disenfranchised, championed large sized women, fought for the equal rights of sex workers and the GLBT community and inspired music lovers everywhere. Her fans are a mixture of true outsiders: bikers, blues fans, punk rockers, drag queens, fat girls, queers, burlesque dancers, porn fans, sex workers, rockabilly and swing dancers, grey haired hippies, sex positive feminists and everyday folk of all ages, flock to see Candye and hear her musical messages of love, hope and empowerment.

Kanes’ live shows are the stuff of legend. She honors the bold blues women of the past with both feet firmly planted in the present. She belts - growls - shouts - croons and moans from a lifetime of suffering and overcoming obstacles. She uses music as therapy and often writes and chooses material with positive affirmations that leave the audience feeling healed and exhilarated. A show that is part humor, revival meeting and sexuality celebration, she'll deliver a barrelhouse-tongue-in-cheek blues tune or a gospel ballad like Jesus and Mohammed, encouraging audiences to leave behind religious intolerance. She’ll slay the crowd with her balls out rendition of Whole Lotta Love or glorify the virtues of zaftig women with 200 pounds of fun. She often says she is a "fat black drag queen trapped in a white woman's body" and she dresses the part. Bedecked in bright colored feathers, sequins and rhinestones, Kane's performance is Mississippi by way of Las Vegas with a quick stopover in San Francisco.

Kane's ninth cd for premiere West Coast blues label, Delta Groove will be released on June 15th. Produced by Kane and Laura Chavez, it is aptly titled " I'm a Super Hero." The cd features her smoking live band that including Kanes’ eldest son, Evan Caleb on drums and bass veteran, Paul Loranger along with guest drummer Stephen Hodges, guitarists Dave Gonzales and Kid Ramos as well as harp player Mitch Kashmar, saxophonist Jonny Viau and pianist Greg Wydell. This newest effort is chock full of the songs of triumph and raw emotion that have made Kane a favorite with enlightened congregations everywhere. www.deltagrooveproductions.com

Candye has been included in countless Blues and Jazz Anthologies including the Rolling Stone and Musichounds Guide to Jazz and Blues and Dan Akroyds’ 30 Essential Women of the Blues. In addition to her music successes, she is an activist and philanthropist. In August 2008, she appeared in Cape Town, South Africa for the World Congress for people with disabilities with her United by Music show for special needs kids (www.unitedbymusic.eu). This project provides performance opportunities, blues history lessons and songwriting instruction to young people with disabilities, encouraging them to write their own blues songs to help them overcome their daily challenges. Kane will take the UBM project on the road again in august 2009 starting off at the world congress for people with disabilities, this time held in Dublin, Ireland.

Candye is a fighter par excellence and her authenticity, determination and optimism are what keep her shows passionate, honest and irresistible. One evening with Candye will keep the crowds happy, hopeful and coming back for more!

Valerie Salstrom and the Denison Juniors Couples
As seen on NewsNet Channel 5!