A few weeks ago in front of a capacity crowd at the House of Blues in Hollywood, Kirby Kelley from Sherman Texas beat out more than 4,000 guitarists to be crowned Guitar Center’s 2009 King of the Blues.  At the final, Kelley competed against four other undiscovered blues guitarist from all across the country to a panel of celebrity judges that included Jimmy Vivino of the Tonight Show Band,  Elliot Easton of The Cars, accomplished session musician Blues Saraceno, blues legend Hubert Sumlin of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy waters, renowned guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Grammy Award winner Pete Anderson, session master Steve Lukather, Brad Tolinski of Guitar World , and Dweezil Zappa.

Wow!  That’s a lot of high caliber judges!

Watch Kirby Kelley’s performance at The House of Blues in Los Angeles here!

Hosted by Grammy-Nominated guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, the event was a celebration of guitar and the music that has defined and influenced generations of musicians and all of today’s popular music.  Grammy Award winning producer and guitarist Pete Anderson kicked-off the show with a set of red-hot blues, which was followed by the King of Blues final competition where each of five contestants fronted a vintage black tuxedo-clad live band lead by Pete Anderson  Performing to a live rendition of 1 of the 25 King of Blues backing-tracks, the five contestants also were required to perform a two-minute solo-performance on a Gibson acoustic guitar to display their ability to master two major aspects of the guitar.  Following the contestants’ performance, guitar wizard Joe Bonamassa, who invited a series of surprise special guest musicians to join him on-stage for a special collaboration which included Hubert Sumlin, Steve Lukather, Jimmy Vivino, Elliot Easton, and Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple.

Kelley’s victory was his crowning moment on the long road to being named Guitar Center’s King of Blues.  A life-long blues guitarist, Kelley has been playing the blues for his family and friends for years.  A friend of his entered him in the King of Blues contest, Kelley beat over 4,000 other guitarists in five rounds of grueling competition.

Congrats on the win Kirby and keep rockin those blues!

Just a little reminder that you never know what can happen with your music and music career if you just “sign up.”

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