Blues Links and Resources
The Southern California blues scene doesn't have one central office — it runs through a handful of small nonprofits, a couple of community radio shows, and a national foundation based 1,800 miles away in Memphis. This page is an independent, non-commercial directory of the organizations and resources we found most useful while researching this site, each with a short description and a link to its own official page. We don't run any of these organizations, and inclusion here isn't an endorsement — it's a starting point for readers who want to go deeper into any one part of the scene.
National organizations
The Blues Foundation (blues.org) is the Memphis-based nonprofit, founded in 1980, that administers the International Blues Challenge, the Blues Music Awards, and the Blues Hall of Fame, and describes itself as affiliated with more than 100 blues organizations nationwide. Living Blues, founded in Chicago in 1970 and now published through the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, bills itself as America's oldest blues magazine and still publishes a monthly blues radio airplay chart. Blues Revue, a separate magazine launched in 1991 by Bob Vorel, covered the genre for roughly two decades before ownership changed hands and the title eventually stopped publishing; we mention it here as a historical resource worth knowing about if you're researching older blues coverage.
Southern California and regional societies
Several smaller nonprofits cover parts of the region. The Santa Barbara Blues Society, founded in 1977, is one of the older blues societies on the West Coast and maintains its own events calendar and links page. Blues Lovers United of San Diego (BLUSD) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and Blues Foundation affiliate serving the San Diego area. The Long Beach Blues Society, incorporated in 2015 and granted tax-exempt status in 2016, grew out of the team behind the New Blues Festival and runs community programs including Blues for Vets, Blues for Seniors, and Blues in the Schools; it's a separate organization from the earlier, now-discontinued Long Beach Blues Festival that KLON/KKJZ radio produced from 1980 to 2010. For a fuller, continuously updated directory of societies across the state and the country, the Blues Foundation's own affiliate map is the most authoritative source available.
Radio and listening
On the airwaves, the longest-running local blues show is "Nothin' But the Blues" on KKJZ, 88.1 FM in Long Beach (the station was known as KLON when the show began in 1992). Host Gary Wagner has aired it on weekend afternoons for decades, with a break from the station in the 2000s before returning in 2009.
We'll keep adding to this list as we verify more resources — see our extended links page for additional entries, our guide to finding and contacting blues societies for how to track down a group near you, and our event calendar for what's happening locally right now. Readers are also welcome to start from our home page for an overview of everything this journal covers.