# Billy Gibbons and Supersonic Blues Machine return to Notodden 2018: Photos, Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/12/28/billy-gibbons-and-supersonic-blues-machine-return-to-notodden-2018-photos-video/
- Published: 2018-12-28T20:40:36+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Notodden Blues Festival has released several exciting headlines for the second
year’s festival. It is clear that always requested Billy Gibbons will return in 
August. As in 2016, he is one of several guitar heroes being backed by the blues
rock band Supersonic Blues Machine.**

It was a great success for the festival in 2016 when the Supersonic Blues Machine
together with star guitarists Billy Gibbons, Walter Trout, Robben Ford and Steve
Lukather filled Hovig’s Hangar to the brink. This time the Supersonic Blues Machine
comes to Notodden – not just the ZZ Top singer Gibbons, but also Joe Louis Walker
and the new big blues rock star, Eric Gales.

Joe Louis Walker has not visited the festival since 1990. Then he played a Sunday
concert at Myrens Dam. It has been a long time since he was last in Norway, and 
many have wanted him back.
 Eric Gales is one of the “hottest” artists in the blues
sky in the US at the moment. Everyone wants to play with Eric Gales. Gales has performed
with names such as Santana and Gary Clark, Jr. who were on Gales’ album “Middle 
of the Road” in 2017. Eric Gales brings a new album in February 2019. Joe Bonamassa
has featured Eric Gales as “One of the best , if not the best guitar player in the
world ”.

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.bluesnews.no/images/Artister18/supersonic18.jpg?w=640&
ssl=1)

Supersonic Blues Machine: Kenny Aronoff, Fabrizio Grossi and Chris Barras.

 * It is both amazing and unexpected for us to be able to launch ZZ Tops frontman
   Billy F. Gibbons for this year’s festival. ZZ Top has set aside all 2019 for 
   its 50th anniversary and what has been announced as the band’s most recent tour.
   When it appeared that ZZ Top was to pause the tour during the period of the Notodden
   Blues Festival, Gibbons stated: “I don’t want to pause. Get me to Notodden! It’s
   nice to have such a position in Billy Gibbons heart. The audience can expect 
   songs from Billy Gibbons new solo album as well as a bunch of ZZ Top classics.
   The tickets to ZZ Top’s announced concert in Hamar in June were torn away. Now,
   people can experience the Texas band’s front man and riffmaster at Notodden, 
   says festival manager Jostein Forsberg in a press release.

The festival also presents two other names for next year’s festival this week. Bjørn
Berge returns for the first time in seven years. Berge made several concerts at 
the festival in his successful period as a one-man band. He has made himself known
through countless recordings, received two Spellman’s awards and toured intensely
in Europe for the past 12 years. He has visited a myriad of jazz / blues and rock
festivals and clubs in countries such as Belgium, Denmark, England, France, the 
Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Ukraine, Canada and the United States.
For the past couple of years he has been a member of the folk rock band Vamp. He
has also established his own project, Bjørn Berge Electric Band, which is now in
place in the Notodden program.

The rock band Dum Dum Boys is also ready for Notodden.
 – Dumdum Boys has been our
first choice in relation to having previously announced the festival’s more open
music profile. We have said that we will do so without losing our identity as a 
blues festival, says the festival manager.

Previously, the festival has also announced the new American favorites Larkin Poe,
Swedish Lisa Lystam Family Band and a 40-year anniversary concert with the city’s
own Notodden Bluesband.

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.bluesnews.no/images/Artister18/ericgales18.jpg?w=640&ssl
=1)

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