Laurie Morvan Band August 10, Monday, 8:30pm Alamo, Illinois Central Blues Club Blue Monday Jam www.lauriemorvan.com www.myspace.com/lauriemorvanband

Let’s just dispense with all the female blues guitar player business and forget the tall California blonde girl stuff and get to the heart of the matter right now. Laurie Morvan can play the blues. Go check out some YouTube cuts of her singing and playing and listen to the killer tone she gets on her classic Fender Stratocaster. Morvan, a finalist at the International Blues Challenge in 2008 and winner of the Blues Artist on the Rise, plays with taste and abandon. She’s backed by a dynamite band of bassist Pat Morvan and Kevin Murillo on drums, and in a distinctive move for a blues band, uses female backup singer Lisa Grubbs as a permanent member of her touring combo. Morvan, who teaches college math in California when not playing the blues, lists herself as an Illinois native and attended UIUC for electrical engineering in the 80s.