Why the blues? « It is a music which talks to many people because the way it is built is easy. But in the same time it also is extremely rich with feelings, very human. »

Tia & The Patient Wolves just spent two days at the Coopérative de Mai, in Clermont-Ferrand, preparing their show for the Cognac Blues Passions festival on Saturday, July 6, 2013. They will be opening for Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite. On a stage where Tia remembers having seen Ray Charles, B.B. King…

Here is the report on France 3 (in French).

• Tia Gouttebel: vocals, guitar
• Philippe Monange: keys, percussions
• Jean-Marc Despeignes: bass
• Marc Glomeau: percussions, background vocals
• Alain Baudry: drums, background vocals
• Didier Lamaze and Nico Blanc: sound

It is done. The Cognac Blues Passions festival won’t be able to say it any more. What? That a womand has never won their prestigious Award. Tia, last year, dazzled everybody. The resultat? The Clermont-Ferrand native, who has been living in Lille for the past five years, will perform on July 6 on the big stage, opening for… Ben Harper. It is « awesome! » A « gift from heaven », she says ina big smile.

Julien Dodon, for La Montagne, followed Tia & The Patient Wolves’ two day residence at the Coopérative de Mai, in Clermont-Ferrand, as they were preparing the show for the Cognac Blues Passions festival, after Tia won the Blues Passions Award last year.

Photo David Baerst

Two days after this interview, Tia won the 2012 Cognac Blues Passions Award. An award which will allow her to open for an international star on the big stage, next year, in 2013, in front of 6,000 festival goers. A long overdue award which will, I hope, bring this guitarist and singer to the stages she belongs, along with the major French blues musicians.

This is what David Baerst writes before the transcript of the interview he conducted with Tia for his radio show Route 66 – La voix du blues, on July 5, 2012, in Cognac, during the Cognac Blues Passions festival. An interview during which he goes back to Tia’s musical history, her first tours, her first two albums, and her very special link to the Cognac festival, where she will perform, on the big stage, the Blues Paradise, next year, in 2013.

Read the full interview (in French) on Route 66. 

July, 2012. Tia is the first woman ever to win the Cognac Blues Passions Award.

Catherine Le Page, for the BNIC (National Interprofession Cognac Bureau), Michel Rolland, Director and promoter of the Cognac Blues Passions festival, and Daniel Mourguet, the President of the festival, gave her the prize during the 2012 edition of the festival on the Blues Paradise, the name of the main stage. The same main stage on which Tia will be performing next year, in July, 2013, with her Patient Wolves, for the 20th edition of the festival.