This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
On Tuesday, January 16, local band Mojomama went to Memphis, Tennessee to perform at the International Blues Challenge.
Mojomama is representing the Colorado Blues Society with a combination of Old School R&B with Funk styles of music. They "hope to make a great impression on the judges and music industry folks that attend the event," states bassist Paul Rogalski in an email to the Longmont Observer.
The International Blues Challenge invites all the bands to play on Wednesday, Jan. 17 and Thursday, Jan. 18, where each band will be scored based on a points system. The bands with the "right amount" of points will continue on to the semi-final round on Friday, Jan. 19.
The Finals will take the stage on Saturday, Jan. 20 in the Orpheum Theater. Mojomama will be updating their Facebook page with their progress through the competition. They also hope to live-stream their performances.
Mojomama was selected to represent the Colorado Blues Society after participating in a competition last spring against several other local bands. The event was hosted at Dickens Opera House. There were two rounds of performing in front of a panel of seven judges. The bands were judged on Blues content originality, stage presence and musicianship. These are the same things that they will be judged on at the International Blues Challenge.
According to Rogalski, "If we do win out here it's bragging rights and hopefully connections to bigger and better gigs and opportunities in the music industry for the band. The event here is full of music in the street personnel which is more of the goal than actually winning everything."
"Will be performing an original set of Mojomama music that we haven't recorded in the studio yet. There are videos of us performing the songs live on our website. We hope to record them very soon," states Rogalski. Below is the list of songs being performed at the International Blues Challenge:
Blues Sister
Without Your Love
Rise Above
Lazy River
Sing You the Blues
Night After Night
If you want to listen to Mojomama's music you can find it on their website, iTunes, cdbaby and other online music shops.
Mojomama returns home to Nissi's in Lafayette on January 24. They will also be playing a few shows in Longmont in the next few weeks. Look for them at Longtucky Spirits on Feb. 3, Bootstrap Brewing on Feb. 9 and The Speakeasy on Feb. 10. For more details visit the Mojomama website.
