It’s Debra’s birthday! When it’s your birthday and you run the company, you get to decide who’ll provide the music for your dance party. Nothing gets her dance motor running more than Boogie Woogie piano, Jump Blues, and Rhythm and Blues, and we’ve chosen two of the very best purveyors. Get ready for a night of fun—and birthday cookies, too.

The torch bearers of a great American musical heritage, MITCH WOODS AND HIS ROCKET 88s take their inspiration from the great jump n’ boogie outfits and swingin’ little big bands of the ’40s, breathing fresh life into the music that gave birth to rock n’ roll. Woods styled his group after the jumpin’ n’ jivin’, shoutin’ n’ honkin’, pumpin’ n’ poundin’ bands of Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris, Joe and Jimmy Liggins, Amos Milburn, and Roy Milton. Adding a healthy dose of New Orleans rhythm and blues, pile-drivin’ piano, and some of his own contemporary playful lyrics, Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88s forge their own brand of music they call “rock-a-boogie.” One of our long-time favorites, we are supremely delighted to welcome them back to the stage at the Spanish Ballroom.

International recording artist, author, actor, leader of the band, DARYL DAVIS was born in the Electric Blues Capital of the world, Chicago. He moved to Washington, DC, to earn his Bachelor of Music Degree from Howard University and never left the area. Since then, he has worked with pretty much everyone: Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley’s Jordanaires, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Platters, The Drifters, The Coasters, Bo Diddley, Percy Sledge, and Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave fame)–and that’s only a partial list! He’s also an author of renown and widely-recognized expert and lecturer on race relations and the Ku Klux Klan.