Janiva Magness headlines Bradenton Blues Festival

For the fourth time in its four-year history, the Bradenton Blues Festival will have a solo female performer as its headliner.

The festival, scheduled for Dec. 5 on Bradenton's Riverwalk, announced its 2015 lineup Wednesday. The headliner will be stellar blues-soul singer Janiva Magness.

She follows Ruthie Foster (2012), Shemekia Copeland (2013) and Marcia Ball (2014).

It's just worked out that way, according to festival officials.

"In the fifth year, if there's another female headliner, it will be by design," said Johnette Isham, executive director of Realize Bradenton, the organization that puts on the festival every year. "I don't influence Paul Benjamin. He always pulls together the talent and he gets the best people available."

For this year, Benjamin, a Maine-based producer of blues festivals who has worked with the Bradenton

Blues Festival since the beginning, has again arranged a mix of established artists and exciting up-and-comers in a variety of blues and R&B styles.

Here's the entire lineup in order:

Girls With Guitars, Super Chikan and the Fighting Cocks, Larry Garner, Mike Zito and the Wheel, Joanna Connor, Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, Janiva Magness.

The music gets going at 11 a.m., Magness is scheduled take to the stage at 6:20 p.m.

Between acts, a young brother-sister duo called In Layman Terms will perform on a side stage. Isham said she looks forward to working with Cole Layman, 17, and his sister, Logan, 14.

"Personally, I'm most excited about In Layman Terms," she said. "They're the ones who will inspire the next generation of musicians."

The Layman siblings will be part of Realize Bradenton's Blues in the Schools program, in which artists from the blues festival perform for and chat with students at Manatee High School the day before the festival.

More people will turn out to the festival to see and hear Magness, who won the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award, one of the most prestigious honors in blues, at the annual Blues Music Awards in 2009.

James "Super Chikan" has been nominated for that award too, and he's regarded as one of the best traditional blues artists around.

Rick Estrin is among the top tier of blues harpist. He fronted Little Charlie & the Nightcats for 30 years until band leader Charlie Baty retired and Estrin and other members formed the current band in 2008.

Chicago blues singer-guitarist Joanna Connor has been making great albums since 1989. Besides playing in his own band, Mike Zito plays in Royal Southern Brotherhood with Cyril Neville and Devon Allman.

Girls With Guitars is the latest edition of a rotating lineup of young women blues players featured in the annual Ruf Records Blues Caravan Tour.

Tickets prices for the Bradenton Blues Festival have stayed the same for three years -- $30 in advance. They're available online at bradentonbluesfestival.org and Keeton's Office & Art Supply, 817 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.

Details: 11-8 p.m. Dec. 5, Bradenton Riverwalk. Tickets: $30 in advance, $40 at the gate, $25 per person for groups of 10 or more, $20 for students, $10 for children ages 5-12 and children 4-under free. Reserved front-of-stage seats, $75. Information: bradentonbluesfestival.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-70919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published March 19, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Janiva Magness headlines Bradenton Blues Festival ."