All six members of the band are currently in the midst of their second semesters of college. Lucas Biespiel, Garren Epley, Wade Hilts, Louie Leager, Jason Morrison and Reuben Unrau attend Berklee College of Music, Portland State University, Tulane University, Michigan State University, Whitman College and University of Oregon, respectively. Samantha Hooper, the lone female member of the band, is finishing up her Senior year at Grant High School.

    The group made their first appearance since separating for college on December 23, 2011 at Mississippi Pizza in Portland, Oregon. The show was great and fan support was stellar. The show featured several guest performances from Mcebo Maziya (Whitman College) and Jillian Looney (Cleveland High School).

    As the boys continue their studies of music at their respective schools, they are also looking towards the future. Next for the group will be a lineup of gigs (to be released soon) for the summer of 2012. There has also been talk about the possible release of a new album this summer...

At long last, the 2011 Waterfront Blues Festival is here! The Backyard Blues Boys play their biggest venue ever, opening on the First Tech Federal Blues Stage on the 4th of July, at noon. The band has already enjoyed the festival, catching many great sets by some amazing blues groups - including the incomparable Buddy Guy (viewed from backstage). The BBBs have a special set cooked up for our fans - with a few surprises planned for your enjoyment.
 
As many of our fans are aware, this performance will likely be our last for quite some time. College awaits six of the members who will be strewn across the country at schools in Massachusettes, Louisianna, Michigain, Washington and Oregon. Keep checking the website and facebook pages for updates though - you never know when the band might be able to get together.

If you have never seen the Waterfront Blues Festival (http://www.waterfrontbluesfest.com/), do yourself a favor and carve a few hours out of your busy day and head on down. Admission to the festival is $10 plus a couple cans of food - this is the primary fund raiser for the Oregon Food Bank ( http://www.oregonfoodbank.org), which distributes emergency food to hungry families across the state .  Every dollar donated enables them to distibute about 5 pounds of food. This is one charity where your donated dollar really stretches a long way.

After a brief hiatus from playing shows, we will be BACK at Mississippi Pizza once again on the 22nd of this month! Don't miss our new set, and timeless BBB classics, come on down!

We are playing at Backspace in less than 2 weeks! Come out and show your support! This will be the first time some of the BBBs new material will be available to all ages, so if you couldn't make it out to Duff's Garage (or aren't old enough) then this is your chance to hear a revamped Blues Boys sound!

A little blog post about our last show: http://www.artscatter.com/general/gotta-dance-movin-it-in-the-backyard/#more-13615

After months of hard work and delays our premier album is finally finished! We received the final master tape today and it sounds great. Come on down to Music Millennium to get your copy first and signed on January 25th!

In case you don't already know, a documentary is being filmed on us by our good friend Sutten Raphael, and will be released on the same day as the album.

We'll be headlining the Hawthorne tonight, so if you need inspiration for the album artwork competition, or just want to hear some good classic blues come one down! Tickets are 8 dollars.

Want to have your artwork on the cover of the BBBs album and win $50 in the process? Contact Lucas at lucas_b@backyardbluesboys.com for more information!

Unfortunately we've had to postpone our album release date due to a variety of things. The album will now be available sometime in January, though the official date is yet to be determined. It will be well worth the wait though, featuring a variety of BBB classics in addition to a new, never before heard track!