Women In Blues @ The Zeppelin Room

Canberra Blues Society proudly presents a very special night of Women In Blues, featuring some of our finest local and interstate Blues women.

Fiona Boyes - guitars/vocals

Fiona Boyes plays deep Blues, influenced by a myriad of traditional regional styles. She has carved an international reputation as a blues guitarist, bandleader, vocalist and songwriter. International reviewers have described her as a ‘musical anomaly’ and ‘Bonnie Raitt’s evil twin’! Equally at home on acoustic or electric guitars, her mostly original repertoire is like a Blues travelogue. Listen to her play and you’ll hear Delta slide guitar, single chord Mississippi Hills grooves, intricate country blues finger picking, along with material drawn from the classic blues sounds of New Orleans, Chicago and Memphis. As her friend and mentor, the late, great Hubert Sumlin (Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist) said. 'She's got it! I've played with all of them - and she's got it!'

Fiona was recently inducted into the 2022 Blues Music Victoria Blues Hall of Fame and is the only Australian musician ever to be recognised in the American Blues Foundation (Memphis) ‘Blues Music Awards’, with 8 nominations, including 2019 ’Traditional Female Artist of the Year’

”...one of the world’s best fingerpicking blues guitarists...” (The Guardian, Australia)

Ali Penney - keyboard/vocals

Ali can be summed up in just five words: a breath of fresh air.
Ali has been performing, recording & composing music in bands for over 25 years. These bands include The Hippos, Midnight Ramblers, Supro & Wayne Jury’s Dry Bones as well as international acts such as Andrew Junior Boy Jones (Freddy King’s guitarist), Kid Bangham (Fabulous Thunderbirds), Lloyd Jones & Todd Sharpville. She has recorded with Fiona Boyes, Dom Turner, the Cyril B Bunter Band & those west coast hipsters, The Vibrolators.
Together with her band, The Money Makers she has won six Chain Awards (including Best Female Vocal).

“She gotta lotta soul,” - Andrew Junior Boy Jones

Anna Scionti - guitars/vocals

Singer-songwriter, guitarist and bottleneck slide player who mixes it up on cigar box guitar, resonator, lap steel and six-string guitar. Scionti walks her own creative path. Driving guitars and honey-soaked, gravel-infused vocals draw you deep in to her world of emotionally charged, electrified rhythmic tunes. Her songs of love, loss, and longing are uninhibited, raw and unapologetic in their honesty.
Think Janis Joplin, Big Mama Thornton or Suzie Quatro’s dirty gravel vocals combined with a rhythm on guitar set by her percussive right hand. You’ll be saturated by her warm, yet haunting, blues embellished vocals.

Sweet Felicia - bass/vocals

Australia’s darling of the Blues and multi-award winner, Sweet Felicia was a popular winner and entrant at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis USA 2012.
Out of 200 blues bands worldwide, Sweet Felicia and her band, The Honeytones, toughed it out to become one of the top 40 bands to make it to the semi-finals.
Sweet Felicia has spent 35 years in the industry and has played with the best of them.... including supporting and meeting BB King, who graciously signed her Telecaster Bass!! Felicia also spent 10 years as the main bassist in The Chris Wilson Band.
Her sound is paramount to the fact that music must be played from the heart to be enjoyed. She drives her band to swing hard and play hard.

"Sweet Felicia knows how to make a band's music move with her bass, and her voice soars above it like a bird... a sassy, take-no-crap kinda bird at that." - Jeff Lang

Naomi Smith - drums

Naomi played flute, piano and ukulele from a young age before beginning lessons at 16 on the instrument she was truly the most passionate about; the drums! Shortly after picking up drumming she completed a Certificate IV in Music Performance at CIT in 2017, met some wonderful musicians, and is currently playing regularly around Canberra in local bands ‘Thyme’ and ‘Betty Alto,’ folk rock band ‘The Dalmatians,’ and with folk artist Kim Yang. She also recently played in 'The Mallory Brown Experience' who hosted our Blues Jam at the Australian Blues Music Festival in Goulburn and made a huge impression on the other festival performers who had come to the Jam.
Whilst she usually finds herself playing rock music, she is heavily influenced by many diverse styles such as jazz, blues, folk and just about anything with a drumbeat!

With special guests: DJ Gosper, Gaye Reid and Angela Lount

There'll also be some great raffle prizes drawn on the night.

Pre-sales: CBS members $25 / General $30 (pre-sales ends at 4pm on 25 Feb)

Door: $35