28th annual Blues Fest leans on local acts

Good news for blues-loving out-of-towners flocking to Chicago this summer: The city's 28th Annual Chicago Blues Festival will be serving up our best local talent, all in a handful of nights.

Bad news for local blues lovers: Said acclaimed local acts can mostly be found grooving throughout the city week after week, year round.

For Chicagoans whose favorite haunts already include Kingston Mines, this budget-cuts-induced lineup may not wow as much as years past.

Still, entrenched in the local blues scene or not, the music is bound to be impressive (and, despite declining revenues and an unpopular merger, will remain free). The fest will feature a 100th birthday tribute to late blues legend Robert Johnson. David "Honeyboy" Edwards, pictured above, a legendary blues muscian old enough to have been a close personal friend of Johnson, will pay his respects, along with Rick Sherry, Rocky Lawrence, Hubert Sumlin and the Duwayne Burnside Band.

Austinite and boogie-woogie pianist extraordinaire Pinetop Perkins, who passed away early last week, will be honored by his long-time friend Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on Saturday, June 11. The two recently collaborated on the Grammy-nominated Joined at the Hip, released shortly before Pinetop's 97th birthday.

Things will wrap up with a Lonnie Brooks–led 40th birthday celebration for the premiere independent blues label, Alligator Records. Fittingly, Alligator Records is home to a swell of born-and-raised Chicago musicians, and, like most of the line up, will only have to traverse a few neighborhoods from its home to get to Grant Park.

See the full lineup here.