Reno-Tahoe Blues Fest announces 2008 lineup

Bobby Rush, Jonny Lang, Mavis Staples and Gladys Knight headline this summer’s Reno-Tahoe Blues Fest. Tickets went on sale last week at www.RenoTahoeBluesFest.com and Ticketmaster.com

Also performing Aug. 16-17 at Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno will be Bobby Rush, the Whispers, Mel Waiters, Benny Latimore, E.C. Scott, Betty Wright and Ernie Johnson.

The concerts begin at noon Saturday and Sunday, and continue until dusk. About 5,000 attend each day. It is the fourth year of the event.

One-day tickets start at at $58, and two-day value tickets at $106. VIP passes, valid for both days of the festival, are $210 and include premium seating. Ticket purchases before June 15 qualify for a 10 percent early bird discount. Group pricing, and Platinum and Blues Cabana ticket packages are also available.

Rush won three awards at the recent Blues Music Awards in Tunica, Miss. His album “Raw” was best Acoustic Album, and Rush won best Acoustic Artis and best Soul Blues Male Artist.

The Whispers and Lang perform at the Saturday show. The Whispers have the R& B hits “Rock Steady,” “Lady,” “Let’s Go All the Way” and “And the Beat Goes On.” Since releasing the album “Lie to Me” when he was just 15, Lang has been one of the top-selling players in the blues genre. He now has five albums and a Grammy nomination.

Knight has more than four decades of chart-topping hits and is a six-time Grammy winner. Critics applaud her smooth vocals and emotion, which lend to a variety of musical styles from rhythm and blues to soul, gospel to Motown, and beyond.

Originally singing with her brother and cousins as Gladys Knight and the Pips, the singer earned a level of superstardom with the smash hit “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Recent album releases highlight her diversity, with ballads, jazz standards and gospel songs in albums including “At Last” and “Before Me.”