This post is about the blues jam we’ve been talking about ever since we left home in June. People ask us all the time where we’re headed, and on this trip the answer has always been ‘Philadelphia.’ That answer raises a few eyebrows. From our home in Vermont we went first to Maine, then continued east into New Brunswick and spent the rest of the summer touring eastern Canada, right into the fall. Two weeks ago, we turned to the south from Montreal, aimed for the City of (Blues)-Brotherly Love, and at this point the Epic BGU/PHL Blues Jam of 2026 is history.
A few of my posts from past jams explain and describe these BGU member-run events. In 2025 there was one near Denver, 2024 was in Albuquerque, and 2023 in Grand Rapids. Tony, the organizer of this year’s event, has been talking up a jam in Philadelphia at least since I met him for the first time at the Albuquerque gathering. He found for us a great venue in a hotel right near Valley Forge where we could make noise with impunity from 9am to 10pm. Even better, the daily commute was a quick stroll down the hall from our rooms. (By the way, Valley Forge is in King of Prussia, PA, which is on the western edge of metropolitan Philadelphia, and the Official Name of the 2026 jam was BGU Philly/KOP.)
Tony is the front man for a blues power trio called Midnight Dues. He arranged for his band’s rhythm section (Dan on the kit, and Chris R on bass) to back us up on stage. The stage setup was great – perfectly sized for our three-person groups plus the occasional guest (vocalist, harmonica player, tambourine…), and we got to play through the band’s new sound system that had plenty of channels and power for us to fill the room and be heard.
Gallery of 2026 musicians
(Click to enlarge, right-click or long-press to download)
Photos of Mike & Terry, Chris D, and Dan are from us, all the rest are by BraylonJennings (used with permission – thanks!)
Mike and Terry were my bandmates. I first met Mike in Grand Rapids, then Sue and I visited Mike and Connie last summer, and Mike was also in Denver. We three bandmates first got together at Terry’s first BGU meetup, which was in Albany last March. That was a smaller, almost-under-the-radar jam hosted by Marc (photo above). (Sue and I went directly there from our home in an ordinary car, so the Albany jam never made it into this blog.)
Anyway… all three of us play guitar and sing, which was a first for me at one of these jams. Mike, Terry and I had a series of webinar band meetings over the summer to plan our song list, eventually settled on 5 songs from each of us – 15 in all. It was very cool to play with these guys. Our group got up to play 6 or 7 times, each time performing 3 songs with each of us leading one of the 3. Awesome!
Sue and I travel with a little red piano and, as we’ve done at most of the BGU jams we’ve attended, we set it up for Sue and others to play – Frank, Chris D, even Griff took a turn or two. There were a few other drummers in attendance, so Dan got to have a break every now and again, lending his throne and kit to Chris G (the house drummer from last year’s jam in Colorado), also to Gary and to Sue. And it seems there are more bass players among us every year, so Chris R kindly shared the low-end with me, Elio, Chris D, and Bobby, and the five of us traded back and forth frequently.
Other highlights: On Tuesday and Thursday nights the whole gang went out to dinner together, Japanese first, and then Italian. Both were magnificent! Also on Tuesday Griff flew in from his home in Texas to join in the fun. (Griff Hamlin is the Founder of Blues Guitar Unleashed and the creator all of the courses, and it was he who brought all of us together through his BGU online forum. He periodically organizes and runs official BGU-Live events, however these unofficial events are run by forum members, independently from BGU. Nonetheless, Griff is directly responsible for all of us knowing both each other and how to play the blues. It’s always amazing when he shows up at one of the member jams.)
On Wednesday evening, Tony had arranged for our event to be the hotel’s Live Music! Our open-to-the-public show kicked off with Griff playing with Midnight Dues, then each of the groups got up to play a few songs in a festival-style rotation.
My posts from earlier jams have typically featured a few more photos from the event – for example, photos of each group, photos from inside and outside the venue. This post, not so much – and you may have noticed also that the gallery of players is almost all photos from Mike. This jam was so filled with playing opportunities for both Sue and me that we had no time to take pictures. Fortunately, Mike stayed focused and was diligent about it (and kindly let me use his excellent photos), but of course he was always on stage whenever Terry and I were so unless and until somebody else comes forward with some more shots I have only one photo of my group:
Here is a flickr album with some more of our photos from the jam.