Saturday Night Blues is a Canadian radio program, which airs Saturday nights on CBC Music."Saturday Night Blues celebrates 20 years". Edmonton Journal, December 2, 2006. Hosted by Holger Petersen, the program airs a mix of blues concerts, recordings and interviews with blues musicians.
Broadcast history SNB first broadcast on CBC Radio One in 1987."Patriot Lyon Mackenzie subject of radio tributes". The Globe and Mail, December 4, 1987. "Holger Peterson, president of Edmonton's Stony Plains Records and the artistic director of the city's immensely successful annual folk festival, gets a CBC radio show starting Dec. 12, 10 o'clock Saturday nights. The program, entitled Saturday Night Blues will cover both traditional and current blues artists, with all of the records coming from Peterson's personal collection." Initially airing for one hour weekly, the program was expanded to two hours in 1990."CBC goes under the covers for offbeat remakes of songs". Ottawa Citizen, September 1, 1990.
In 2009, a second airing of the program was added to the schedule of CBC Radio 2, the CBC's music network (now CBC Music)."CBC Radio 2 tweaks program schedule; Some depart, others added". Victoria Times-Colonist, June 4, 2009.
Host and legacy In 2021, it was announced that the program would be taken off the CBC Radio One broadcast schedule with its final broadcast on that network on September 4, but it would still air on CBC Music on its regular schedule.
Petersen, the program's host, is the owner of Canadian roots music label Stony Plain Records. A compilation album of live performances from the show, Saturday Night Blues: The Great Canadian Blues Project, Vol. 1, was released in 1991"Northern blues package a meaty meal". Edmonton Journal, December 8, 1991. and won the 1992 Juno Award for Best Roots and Traditional Album of the Year."Major Juno winners". Hamilton Spectator, March 30, 1992. Peterson has also published two books of his musician interviews from Saturday Night Blues and his other radio show, CKUA Radio's Natch'l Blues."Talkin' 'bout the blues; Radio host Holger Petersen releases second book of interviews". Edmonton Journal, January 28, 2018.
For his work on Saturday Night Blues and on CKUA Radio's Natch'l Blues, in 2008 Petersen won the 'Keeping the Blues Alive' award from the Blues Foundation."Holger Petersen". The Canadian Encyclopedia, October 8, 2008.
Great Canadian Blues Award In the 1990s and 2000s, the program presented an annual Great Canadian Blues Award to the year's best Canadian blues musician. Winners of the award have included the Downchild Blues Band, Jim Byrnes, David Gogo, Colin Linden, Rita Chiarelli, David Wilcox, Colin James, Long John Baldry, Big Dave McLean (1998), Matt Minglewood, Sue Foley, Georgette Fry, Harry Manx and Jeff Healey.
References
External links Saturday Night Blues Saturday Night Blues - Canadian Communication Foundation