On Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19, Pietermaai will once again be the place for blues lovers during the seventh edition of the Curaçao BlueSeas Festival. The free street festival will bring international blues talent to various stages in the historic district. The festival will kick off on Thursday evening, April 17, at Kura Hulanda Village with a concert by Berget Lewis & Leif de Leeuw Band.

Soul singer and vocal powerhouse Berget Lewis and the blues rockers of the Leif de Leeuw Band have been joining forces since last summer. The result was a joint EP, The Edge, and concerts at festivals and clubs. Lewis is known as one of the best Dutch singers and already has four albums to her name. The Leif de Leeuw Band calls itself ‘the southern jam band of Europe’ and draws inspiration from the Allman Brothers Band, Little Feat and Derek and the Dominoes.

Altered Five Blues Band is a five-piece blues collective that was formed in 2002 and hails from Milwaukee. Since their debut Bluesified from 2008, the band have recorded six studio albums so far, the latest being 2021’s Holler If You Hear Me. Last year saw the release of their EP Testifyin’.

Singer and guitarist Laurie Morvan discovered the blues through the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan. With six well-received albums to her name, Morvan has built a career playing guitar-driven, rocking blues. She and her Laurie Morvan Band have toured all over the world and can’t wait to make Curaçao the next place on their touring schedule.

Blues rock artist Eric Johanson is a Louisiana native who grew up idolizing bluesmen like Freddie King and Robert Johnson. On his latest album, 2023’s The Deep And The Dirty, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Charts, Johansen offers “everything from roadhouse roots-rock to dark, bluesy Americana”. He has performed with varied artists such as the Neville Brothers, JJ Grey and Mike Zito, and at blues festivals around the world.

John Németh is a respected blues harmonicist, singer and songwriter with many Blues Music Awards nominations and twelve albums to his name. His latest studio recording, May Be The Last Time, was released in 2022, followed a year later by Live From The Fallout Shelter: Celebrating 20 Years.

Blues guitarist and singer Sue Foley has released thirteen albums so far and won many awards, including the Blues Music Award for Traditional Female Artist of the Year, which she has won three consecutive times. On her latest album, 2024’s Grammy-nominated acoustic One Guitar Woman, Foley covers and honors female guitar pioneers such as Memphis Minnie, Maybelle Carter, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

American electric blues band Rick Estrin & the Nightcats was formed in 2008. In their long history of playing together, the band have toured the world, performed at numerous blues festivals and picked up awards left and right; as a band, for specific songs and albums, and Estrin as a singer as well as his harmonica playing. The band’s sixth and latest album, The Hits Keep Coming, was released in 2024.

The 80-year-old American blues guitarist and singer John Primer played on stage with Junior Wells and joined Willie Dixon’s All-Star Band in the late 1970s before moving on to Muddy Waters in the 1980s and ultimately playing with Magic Slim and the Teardrops. Primer started his solo career the following decade and made his mark with his 1995 album The Real Deal. In 2023, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Blood Brothers is the exciting project of Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia which have been captivating audiences for several years. It resulted in the 2023 album of the same name which was produced by Josh Smith and Joe Bonamassa, who said of the pair: “Mike and Albert finish each other’s sentences musically.” In November of that same year, their studio album was followed by a live recording, Blood Brothers: Live in Canada.

The full program is as follows:

Thursday April 17, opening in Kura Hulanda Village: Berget Lewis & Leif de Leeuw Band

Friday April 18: Altered Five Blues Band, Laurie Morvan Band, Eric Johanson, John Németh

Saturday April 19: Sue Foley, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, John Primer & The Real Deal Blues Band, Blood Brothers featuring Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia