B.B. King to perform sold-out Norton Center show

RELEASED: March 22, 2007

DANVILLE, KY—"King of the Blues" B.B. King is performing at Centre College's Norton Center for the Arts for a sold-out show on March 26 at 8 p.m.

King, now in his seventh decade as a performer, has moved from small-town street corner gigs for nickels and dimes to big city concert halls for top dollar. With millions of records sold and 14 Grammy Awards, he is still at the top of his game and exploring new musical avenues from which to present his brand of the blues.

He continues to tour today just as he has done for the past 60 years, although in more comfort than in the early years of rickety, drafty, bone-crunching buses, playing the juke joints, tobacco barns, gin mills, hole-in-the-wall clubs, bars and funky saloons that comprised the "chitlin circuit" for black blues and R&B musicians and became a convenient form or segregation. And while King may have moved his touring schedule down a notch from the early average of 300 gigs a year—in 1958 he clocked a total of 342 one nighters—to around 150, he's still on top of his game.

Late last year, Bulfinch Press published a major book on the musician, titled B.B. King's Treasures, a combination of biography and collector's edition. Today, a museum for King is being built in Indianola, Miss. The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interactive Center will serve as a combined B.B. King showcase, learning facility, recording studio and tourist attraction. King also has established his own chain of blues clubs across the country, starting with one in Memphis in 1994.

Among King's many classics are "The Thrill Is Gone," "Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss," "Everyday I Have The Blues," "You Don't Know Me" and "Why I Sing The Blues."

For more information on this sold-out performance and other events, visit the Norton Center for the Arts website or call the box office at (859) 236-4692 (TOLL FREE: 1-877-HIT SHOW or 1-877-448-7469).

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