2016 Doheny Blues Festival Event Guide

Southern California’s premier beachfront musical experience, the Doheny Blues Festival, returns to Dana Point on May 21 and 22. With Lynyrd Skynyrd and Brian Setzer each set to headline a night of the festival’s 19th installment, this year’s lineup continues the event’s enduring tradition of showcasing the wide-ranging sounds of blues, rock and roll, bluegrass, soul and rockabilly on the lawns of Doheny State Beach. This weekend-long event will see 22 artists perform on three rotating stages—two main stages situated just 100 yards from the Pacific Ocean and the intimate Backporch stage. Music lovers descend annually on Doheny to experience the best of blues, rock and soul music set against the gentle breaks that helped make this locale a focal point of surf culture. An international food court, vendor village, microbrew tasting and wine lounge round out this two-day beachside festival of blues.

Lynyrd Skynyrd The legacy that began 41 years ago in Jacksonville, Florida, was halted for a decade when three band members—including Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines—were killed in a 1977 plane crash. Since then, the band tragically lost Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson and Huey Thomasson, yet Lynyrd Skynyrd rocks on with original member Gary Rossington and a lineup of powerhouse musicians. “We’re still standing, still keeping the music going,” Rossington says. “We wanted to do the guys who aren’t with us any more proud, and keep the name proud, too.” With a catalog of more than 60 albums and record sales beyond 30 million worldwide, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Lynyrd Skynyrd remain a cultural icon that appeals to all generations.

Brian Setzer Brian Setzer is an iconic guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, and he’s also the winner of three Grammy awards. Brian’s a “musician’s musician,” credited with taking chances with daring musical styles, while single-handedly resurrecting two forgotten genres of music—rockabilly in the ’80s and swing in the ’90s. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee has scored chart-topping hits and sold 13 million records throughout his career as leader of the Stray Cats, his 18-piece Brian Setzer Orchestra and as a solo artist. Consistently cited as one of the world’s greatest living guitarists, Brian appeared in the film La Bamba, portraying rockabilly pioneer Eddie Cochran, and he was animated in an episode of “The Simpsons” alongside Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Tom Petty.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Over the course of a 20-year recording career that began when he was just 16, Kenny Wayne Shepherd has established himself as an immensely popular recording artist, an in-demand live act and an influential force in a worldwide resurgence of interest in the blues. Now, the five-time Grammy nominee delivers one of his most personal projects to date with Goin’ Home, his eighth album and first to be recorded in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. “It was definitely an emotional experience, and it was the most fun I’ve ever had making a record,” Shepherd said. The raw, righteous release finds Shepherd revisiting a dozen of the vintage blues classics that originally inspired him to pick up the guitar and pursue a life in music.

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