Tickets available at:
HPU Bookstore, 1132 Bishop Street, 1st Floor, Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: (808) 544-0290
Hawaiian Brian’s, 1680 Kapiolani Boulevard, Honolulu, HI 96814
Phone: (808) 946-1343
Online at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/539896
For immediate release
Contact: John Hart, [email protected]
Blues Legends headline HPU benefit
Music legends Delbert McClinton, Marcia Ball and Cindy Cashdollar will headline a benefit for the Hawaii
Pacific University Department of Communication Student Success Fund. The concert will be Sunday,
January 12, 7pm, at the Crossroads, Hawaiian Brian’s, across from the Hawaii Convention Center.
Blues and country legend McClinton is a three-time Grammy winner. Ball has won ten W.C. Handy Blues
awards and is a five-time Grammy Nominee. They will be joined by Johnny Nicholas and Hell Bent,
featuring Cindy Cashdollar, the mainland’s best known touring steel guitarist. Cashdollar won five
Grammys while a member of Asleep at the Wheel.
The venerable Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas roots music aficionados, not only for his
amazing longevity, but for his ability to combine country, blues, soul, and rock & roll as if there were no
distinctions between any of them in the best time-honored Texas tradition.
Delbert McClinton grew up in Fort Worth. Discovering the blues in his teenage years, McClinton quickly
became an accomplished harmonica player. It gave McClinton the opportunity to play harp behind blues
legends like Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Bobby "Blue" Bland. McClinton's
harmonica was prominently featured on Fort Worth native Bruce Channel's 1962 number one smash,
"Hey! Baby"; brought along for Channel's tour of England with the Beatles. Echoes of McClinton’s
harmonica style can be heard in John Lennon’s “Love Me Do” solo.
In the seventies, other artists started to mine McClinton's catalog for material; in 1978, Emmylou Harris
took his "Two More Bottles of Wine" all the way to the top of the country charts. His version of "B Movie
Boxcar Blues," later became a part of the Blues Brothers repertoire. The Blues Brothers had earlier tried
to get Delbert to be their backup band.
In 1989, McClinton issued the comeback album “Live from Austin,” which earned him his first Grammy
nomination (for Best Contemporary Blues Album). Over the next few years, McClinton placed material
with stars like Wynonna, Vince Gill, Lee Roy Parnell, and Martina McBride, among others. His biggest
break, though, came when he was tapped for a duet with Bonnie Raitt. The result, "Good Man, Good
Woman," brought McClinton his first Grammy for Best Rock Vocal, Duo or Group.
McClinton capitalized with 1992's “Never Been Rocked Enough,” which featured not only his duet with
Raitt, but also guest appearances from Tom Petty and Melissa Etheridge, and his biggest hit single since
1980, "Every Time I Roll the Dice." Later that year, he hit the country charts with another duet, this time
with Tanya Tucker on "Tell Me About It."
In 2001, “Nothing Personal” ended up one of the year's biggest hits on Billboard's Blues chart; it also
won him another Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. 2014 will mark the 20th year of
McClinton’s legendary Sandy Beach Blues tour cruise to the Caribbean.
Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist/vocalist/songwriter, Marcia Ball is famed worldwide for igniting a
full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she strolls on stage. Ball's groove-laden New
Orleans boogie and rollicking Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music fans all
over the world. And, she's also a master at transfixing her audience with an emotionally rich,
passionately sung ballad. The Boston Herald says, "Ball plays masterful, red hot tracks from the TexasLouisiana border. Her voice can break your heart with a ballad or break your back with a rocker."
For over four decades, Johnny Nicholas’ consummate musicianship and vocal skills have graced the roots
and blues music scene across the country and abroad. He has toured, performed and recorded with
Blues, Americana, and Roots legends including Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Lockwood Jr., Johnny
Shines, Big Walter Horton, and Roosevelt Sykes. He was a lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with
Asleep at the Wheel when they won their first of many Grammy awards.
Johnny's band, Hell Bent, features Bruce Hughes, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, and John Chipman, with
leading Austin-based Dobro and steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar, a master of bluegrass, gutbucket blues,
swampy R&B, and honky tonk. Cashdollar's guitar can be heard on songs by Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan,
Van Morrison, Dave Alvin, Rod Stewart, Asleep at the Wheel, Jorma Kaukonen and Leon Redbone.
HPU’s Department of Communications (DOC) develops global citizens who appreciate and understand
how the local fits into the global, and vice versa. Our students study how to communicate effectively,
ethically, across multiple platforms and with people from diverse backgrounds. DOC provides a rigorous
curriculum in a stimulating integrated environment that addresses the history, theories, mechanisms
and techniques of communication.
The HPU DOC Student Success Fund will be used to support opportunities and experiences that benefit
our students such as activities that build student and faculty community, student and faculty travel,
student and faculty expenses associated with participation in student research, group projects,
conferences, competitions, and equipment and materials related to student research.
Tickets are $50 reserved, $25 general admission ($20 with HPU ID) and are available at the HPU
Downtown Bookstore (1132 Bishop St.), Hawaiian Brian’s (1680 Kapiolani Blvd.) and online
at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/539896.
Hawai‘i Pacific University is the state’s largest private university with 7,000 students from the United
States and more than 80 foreign nations. HPU is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and
Colleges, the Council on Social Work Education and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
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