The hottest blues act in the country, Tas Cru and The Slow Happy Boys, headline this weekend’s two-day Take Me to The River Blues Fest in Troy , New York presented free to the public by the Northeast Blues Society, The City of Troy and Collar City Live. The group is one of six area blues bands scheduled to perform beginning Saturday at 4 p.m. in Powers Park, Troy, with The Tom Healey Band at 4 and the Foy Brothers at 6 p.m. and a 1 p.m. start Sunday at Riverfront Park with The Blues School Band featuring 11-year-old Jared Alpern and Charlie Smith at 1 p.m.; Joe Lowry & The Second Miles Blues Band at 2; Blues Sanctuary at 3:45 and Tas Cru & The All of the bands are past and/or present winners and/or contenders in the Northeast Blues Society’s Colossal Contenders Contest.

Tas Cru & The Slow Happy Boys were last year’s Colossal Contenders winners. Their CD gravi-Tas rose to number 4 on XM Satellite Radio’s Bluesville’s Rack of Blues chart earlier this summer and has enjoyed across the board rave reviews in Blues Revue and Living Blues magazines as well as European press coverage. The group has shared summer stages with Magic Slim & The Teardrops at the Mohawk Valley Blues Fest in Herkimer and Kenny Neal at the Electric City Blues Fest in Schenectady.

Prior to that, Tas Cru completed a whirlwind 24-stop tour of the south billed as “The Tornado Alley Tour.”  From the Clarksdale Caravan Festival to a Friday night on Beale Street in Memphis , Tas Cru played tag with some of the most brutal weather this century. Dodging tornadoes, hail, thunder, lightning and floods, he rubbed shoulders with Texas guitar vet Bugs Henderson in Tulsa and in Springfield, Missouri picked up backing from musicians who included Mic Flori, a right-handed bass player who plays left handed on a guitar that’s strung upside down.

            The Tom Healey Band opens the festival at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday in Powers Park , North Troy . One of the Northeast Blues Society’s early entries in the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, Healey’s band plays hard-edged Chicago blues.

            The Foy Brothers headline Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in Powers Park. Also veteran Colossal winners, this group has become area favorites with soul and gospel-inflected blues with a large repertoire of originals and covers.

            The Blues School Band featuring 11-year-old Jared Alpern and Charlie Smith open festivities Sunday in Riverfront Park at 1:00 p.m. Charlie Smith is the tenured professor of the local blues scene with over 40 years of performances and teaching to his credit. He has opened for B.B. King, Roy Buchanan, and Led Zeppelin.  Child prodigy Jared Alpern plays guitar, piano, and keyboards and is the youngest musician that Charlie has ever trained.

            Joe Lowry & The Second Mile Blues Band came in second in this year’s Colossal Contenders contest. They perform at 2 p.m. They call their music “adrenalin-rich, usually exhausting and almost dangerous.” The name refers to Paul’s second go at music after fathering five children and is a reference to Jesus’ words about going the second mile. The Second Mile Blues Band started when Joe Lowry and Paul Rosamilia met at a 1999 Blues Society jam. Joe is former lead guitarist with Blue Jeanne Blue and Split Decision.

            Blues Sanctuary is this year’s Colossal Contenders winning band. They perform Sunday at 3:45. The five-piece group plays classic postwar Chicago blues featuring three-part harmonies. The Vermont-based group was formed as a three-piece in 2002 by Ken Pallman who represented the Northeast Blues Society as the drummer in Albert Cummings’ band who were the winning Colossal Contender band in 1999.

            Tas Cru and The Slow Happy Boys will perform from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. All are invited to a post-fest party as part of the Northeast Blues Society’s regular Sunday night jam at Cheers Road House Grill, Fuller Rd. in Albany beginning at 8 p.m. Admission is $3.00.