Local blues legend Candy Foster has been playing the Midwest blues scene since the late '50s, when you could still hear new blues singles on the jukebox. Coming from a point in time, musically-speaking, when traditional urban post-war blues was losing ground to the lighter, more popular beats of rhythm and blues, Candy Foster and his music reflect the merging of both these genres. Foster and his band, the Shades of Blue, are still solidly blues-oriented, covering the traditional country-based material of masters like Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters, but are equally at home with the rock-and-roll of Chuck Berry or the soul ballads of Otis Redding.
Award writeup (Best Blues Artist), Octopus Reader's Poll, 1999
