THERE will be the chance to see a one-off, all-star group perform at this year's The Elgar Festival.

Blues guitarist and special guest Alex Voysey, will play alongside The Old Blue Gang.

The band will play at the Royal Porcelain Works in Worcester on Saturday, June 1 at 10.15pm, offering a nightclub-style evening of entertainment, the second of the festival’s Club Elgar events.

Entitled Origins of the Blues, the concert will feature music by Son House, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Ledbelley, Howlin Wolf, Willie Dixon, Led Zeppelin as well as McCartney, Kenneth Woods and Elgar.

When not conducting orchestras and directing festivals in the UK and USA, Kenneth Woods is a lifelong guitarist and student of the history of the blues and the African American musical traditions that grew from it.

Guest guitarist Alex Voysey is one of the best young contemporary blues players in the UK and a rising star on the blues scene. 

His own band, formed in 2021, is now in great demand on the UK blues circuit offering up formidable musicianship and virtuosity in their performances and were recently cited as ‘outstanding, energetic and breathtaking’ after their debut at Swanage Blues Festival.

He is a passionate advocate for the benefits of music-making on young people and was recently appointed as a youth ambassador for the UK Blues Federation.

He also works for Rock Steady, inspiring young musicians of the next generation and has developed taster day sessions aimed specifically to help young musicians with speech disfluency.

Since graduating from Leeds College of Music in 2017, Alex also frequently works as a session guitarist with many of the country’s leading symphony orchestras, including the Hallé, CBSO, RLPO, RTE Dublin and Manchester Camerata.

Kenneth Woods, artistic director of The Elgar Festival, said: “In a festival week in which we explore the origins of inspiration, this concert will take listeners on a journey through the history of this most important musical form.

"From the birth of the Delta blues in the poverty-stricken Jim Crow south, through the worldwide triumph of rock and roll, this concert is a celebration of how a generation of self-taught musicians inspired millions and changed the world forever.”

The Old Blue Gang – which is made up of Kenneth Woods, Joe Hoskin and Sean McNicholas – will also be playing a number of Ken’s originals, moving between the varied musical worlds of rock, jazz, fusion, blues, classical and country.

Mr Woods added: “Club Elgar is about two things, having fun and knocking down the walls between musical genres.”

For more information, visit: elgarfestival.org.