Could the blues be making a comeback as a young person’s music, possibly heralding a new age of hybrid music-making similar to what occurred some 50 years ago in New York and on the outskirts of London and San Francisco and in countless small towns and suburbs the wide world over? Some people are apparently counting on it; and as a result, we’ve just gotten in the announcement that WDST Radio Woodstock and Hunter Mountain – the folks who have been bringing us all the Mountain Jam each spring – will also be producing the first-ever Bluestock this summer with veteran event producers Steve & Jeff Simon Presents.

The three-day festival, set to run August 26 to 28, will feature numerous top blues artists from around the nation, with headliners including five-time Grammy-winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Buddy Guy, and the one-and-only former New Paltz resident Elvin Bishop, of Paul Butterfield Band, “I’m Drunk Again” and solo career fame. Also appearing for the summer bash will be Tommy Castro & the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue, Louisiana’s Tab Benoit, Chicago blues veteran Ronnie Baker Brooks, blues legend Bob Margolin performing with Matt Hill, International Blues Challenge winners Trampled Under Foot, Curtis Salgado & His Big Band, Reba Russell, Alexis P. Suter, Shakura S’Aida, Zac Harmon, Bruce Katz, Albert Cummings, Ty Curtis, the Port City Prophets, Mitch Woods, Billy Gibson and Telarc recording artists Moreland & Arbuckle.

“Bluestock is our vision of  ‘Woodstock meets the Blues Cruise’: three days of nonstop world-class blues entertainment in a magical outdoor setting,” says Steve Simon, who founded his international events company in 2000. “Co-promoting with Steve & Jeff Simon Presents is a marriage made in heaven,” adds Gary Chetkof, president of Radio Woodstock, “two great festival production companies united by their enormous love for the blues.”

Elvin Bishop came upon the blues while attending the University of Chicago as a National Merit Scholar with an interest in advanced physics, and quickly joined Butterfield while he was pioneering electric blues alongside the legendary Mike Bloomfield. Later, on his own, he had a Southern rock hit with “Travelin’ Shoes,” and then a Top Ten slow burn (and retirement funder) with “Fooled around and Fell in Love.” For a while during the late 1960s, Bishop lived in the New Paltz area, where he gigged (and drank) regularly. His nickname, then at least, was Pigboy Crabshaw: an ode to his Oklahoma roots.

As for Bluestock, suffice it to say that there are deals aplenty this early out on the ticket circuit and further developments to be announced. For further information, visit www.bluestock.com.