Today's Black on Blues Podcast Track Of The Day features music from Eddy The Chief Clearwater, Dave Honeyboy Edwards, Mississippi John Hurt, Fenton Robinson, Roscoe Chenier, Raful Neal and Big Jack Johnson.

"Closing the Orange stage, and vying for band of the day are Aaron Buchanan and the Cult Classics. The former Heaven's Basement front man has created his own band although the set contained a number of Heaven's Basement tracks. No complaints from me, I love Heaven's Basement. But this is a new animal. Aaron's sister Laurie wields a mean Fender Telecaster whilst Tom McCarthy assists with a stunning Gordon Smith Les Paul style white guitar. The short set includes a number of tracks from their delightfully named 'The Man With Stars On His Knees' album sprinkled with the aforementioned Heaven's Basement tracks - including a firm favourite, 'Fire Fire'. Aaron is known as a huge Freddie Mercury fan and the album includes a number of tracks with Queen like harmonies. Today saw a rawer approach with hard guitars and hard singing. After handing out a couple of freebie beers to members of the audience (I was lucky enough to receive one - it has in no way influenced this review.....) Aaron proceeds to draw the crowd closer into a compact mass to enable to surf his way onto their shoulders before finishing the song with a headstand whilst still perched precariously on the crowds shoulders. The rakishly thin warbler, all boots and braces, has never been known to be shy." Today read Mother's Stone Free Festival Day 1 review here plus check out our initial SFF Photo Gallery here and our Day 2 Richie Kotzen Video Of The Day.

Following yesterday's explosive start to this year's Stone Free Festival at London's O2 Arena, we now look forward to today's mouthwatering line-up including Godsticks, Vambo, Ginger Wildheart, Tyketto, The Bad Flowers, Richie Kotzen, Anathema, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Roger Hodgson and Yes featuring ARW. Some of the many highlight's from yesterday's O2 Arena, Indigo and Orange Amps stages included Nitroville, KilliT, The Picturebooks, Triggerfinger (pictured), Dirty Thrills, Stone Broken, Aaron Buchanan & The Cult Classics (Video Of The Day), Orange Goblin, Buckcherry, Megadeth and Scorpions. Anyway, watch out shortly for both our photo gallery and our review of this weekend's events.

Following our recent well deserved break, we recommence our usual coverage today as we play catch up with some outstanding podcasts. Anyway, today's Blues On The Radio Track Of The Day is an hour populated with music from 11 new releases and 1 from ten years ago including Victoria Ginty, The Cinelli Brothers, Big River, Dustin Douglas & The Electric Gentlemen, Oli Brown and more.

"It took until the fourth track on his set list and embarking on one of his own new slow Bluesy songs, ‘Self Inflicted Wounds’, another from his forthcoming September studio album, for Joe at last to find solace in his performance. Finally you could see the Blues wash away any anxiety and concern in him as he poured himself, along with the saxophonist and the rest of his entourage, into the entrancing, haunting guitar riffs and soulful structure of this song. From here on, touched by this and at one with their favoured Blues performer, the audience was led towards accepting the unrestricted freedom of their musical pleasure by embracing the concert with a more passionate approach." Today read Dianne Charlton's Joe Bonamassa gig review from last Tuesday at London's Hampton Court Festival here (picture courtesy of Laurence Harvey).

Well the big weekend is finally here as the O2 Arena Stone Free Festival kicks off at midday today with Nitroville on the Orange Amps Stage followed by Killit at 12.45pm. In fact we interviewed Rock/Metal band Killit (Video Of The Day) at Ramblin' Man Fair in July last year after their awesome opening set on The Rising Stage. Indeed, we managed to catch more than a few words from the guys/gal in probably one of our best interviews ever, if not the most mental, as we discussed how this multi-national band got together plus their plans for a new album/gigs, as they battled to get their voices heard over the RM PA system in the background!

"Seeing ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ live should be on everyone’s bucket list and before we knew it the guys were off and back on again for that special Jeff Beck encore – which brought back memories of the first time I saw that space age vid of ‘Rough Boy’ on TV." Just under three years ago we witnessed a blistering Wembley Arena set from Houston Rockers ZZ Top that not only ended with a (hi ho) silver lining but also literally icing on the cake as Jeff Beck guested on his 71st birthday (Video Of The Day)! Anyway, Beck returns to London tonight at Royal Hospital Chelsea supported by Imelda May.

We caught Slim Chance (Video Of The Day) at London's Borderline in January 2014 - a fantastic set which actually won them our 'Best Acoustic' 2014 WRC Award! Turn the clock back a further 38 years (ouch) and we also saw them of course with the late Ronnie Lane at Olympia's Great British Music Festival along with the esteemed company of The Pretty Things, Nazareth, Charlie, Be Bop Deluxe and some band called Bad Company! Impressive eh? Well we also took in Slim Chance at Twickenham's famous Eel Pie Club in August 2016 - the line-up now featuring original members, Charlie Hart (who we interviewed before the gig), Steve Simpson and Steve Bingham - and the guys return to The Patch, 67 London Road, Twickenham TW1 3SZ, tonight Doors open at 8.15pm with music from 9-11pm. WRC members are reminded that they can use their cards to get discounted admission.​

Celebrating their 50th Anniversary with two additional UK shows in Newcastle last night and York tonight, the legendary YES (Video Of The Day), featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman, will be headlining this year’s Stone Free Festival at The O2 in London, this Sunday at 8.15pm.

Celebrated Blues-Rock guitarist and singer-songwriter Joe Bonamassa (Video Of The Day) plays the Hampton Court Palace Festival tonight. Following his successful tour, including two sold out concerts at London’'s Royal Albert Hall in April 2017, Joe returned to the UK this March to perform seven concerts which featured a hand-picked group of world-class musicians playing material from 'Blues of Desperation', plus classic Bonamassa fan favourites. Watch out shortly for our review of tonight's gig.

Award winning guitarist Ryan McGarvey returns to London tonight and in particular The Borderline supported by Mark Pontin Group plus Sugerman Sam & The Voodoo Men. McGarvey's reputation as a guitarist, songwriter and performer continues to grow. He has played with Eric Clapton at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago and also joined Joe Bonamassa on a recent Blues Cruise. Ryan loves to work and has conducted a number of very successful European tours - his debut CD release 'Forward In Reverse' reached the top 20 on CDBaby.com the World’s largest online independent distributor! Ryan McGarvey is heading for the top – catch him whilst you can.

"We then headed towards the media area for the first of our six - yes six - interviews during the afternoon. Step forward former Heaven's Basement vocalist and the nattily dressed Aaron Buchanan with his equally stylish sister Laurie who was also a guitarist in Aaron Buchanan And The Cult Classics who were playing the Rising Stage in ninety minutes. We had seen Aaron and Heaven's Basement supporting Aerosmith at Clapham's Calling Festival just over three year's ago and in a really frank discussion Aaron talked about life after Heaven's Basement how ABATCC got together and their new album 'The Man With Stars On His Knees'." That was part of our Ramblin' Man Fair review from Saturday last year - the bad news being that after our interview we actually managed to miss Aaron's set! The good news is that we will rectify that on the Orange Amps Stage at the Stone Free Festival this Saturday as his band, who are today's Video Of The Day, headline at 4.45pm.