After its successful run last March, the festival that pays homage to the music and the message of Jimi Hendrix’s works, Experience Hendrix, will be back on the road and his most loyal followers – professional musicians, music junkies and millions of fans – won’t have to wait for the turn of the new year to relive the power and influence of Seattle’s greatest contribution to the music industry.

Presented by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and in part by Mapex Drums, Dunlop Effects Pedals and Marshall Amplifiers, the 2nd leg of the Experience Hendrix tour will kick off on October 26 in Pittsburgh and will cross the border to perform in three Canadian cities – Toronto, Quebec City and Montreal.  After which they will be heading back to the east coast for the rest of the tour with the last five dates entailing performances in the Midwest, closing on November 20 in Indy’s Murat Theatre.

Joining this leg of the tour are the following: Sacred Steel’s Darick Campbell, The Slide Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s Chris Layton, Living Colour, Ernie Isley, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Steve Vai, Susan Tedeschi, Jonny Lang, Robert Randolph, and David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos.  In the previous years, the tour has also featured other acclaimed musicians like Robby Krieger, Paul Rodgers, Joe Satriani, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and Carlos Santana.

Spearheading the tour is Experience Hendrix veteran and a close friend of the music legend, Billy Cox.  Through Cox and Experience Hendrix, LLC, the tour has also been brought to world renowned music festivals like Isle of Wight and Woodstock.  For Cox, the tour is a perfect medium to celebrate the timelessness of Hendrix’s music through the incorporation of contemporary and updated music styles to Hendrix’s musical material without destroying the artist’s legacy.  Cox is amazed with the “infusion of new, very enthusiastic artists to participate and are able to offer the most wide-ranging Jimi Hendrix-related repertoire possible.”

The eagerness of other artists to participate in the tour is no surprise especially to the CEO of Experience Hendrix, LLC, Jamie Hendrix. “Every day we see how Jimi’s musical legacy continues to transcend generational and cultural boundaries…The fact that the tour is going out for the second time in six months underscores the demand and appreciation there is from those who want to be part of this live concert experience that reflects the genius and unifying spirit of my brother”, says Jamie Hendrix.

Indeed, Jimi Hendrix had a profound effect not only with his fans who, by the way, are of varying age brackets, but also among his fellow musicians like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, “Jimi Hendrix’s music has really inspired me to push the limits of my own music. He didn’t observe any boundaries musically. He was an amazing player and a tremendous showman so I incorporated some of his showmanship in what I do.”  And just like many of the participants in the tour, Shepherd is also an “Experience” veteran.

To further prove that Hendrix’s legacy is far from being dead, Sony Music and Experience Hendrix will be working together, as agreed upon early of this year, to make all of Hendrix’s material – released and unreleased recordings, anthology sets and full length concert footages  – accessible by the public (for a price of course) in various formats.  In fact, Sony is preparing to release “West Coast Seattle Boy”, a five-disc set containing an archive of the artist’s most acclaimed work, some never-before-heard hits and a video presentation.  The set will be released after the October-November leg of the Experience Hendrix tour.

“We want our sound to go into the soul of the audience, and see if it can awaken some little thing in their minds… ’cause there are so many sleeping people…” – Jimi Hendrix

2010 Experience Hendrix Concert Tour
October 2010
26 – Pittsburgh, PA – Benedum Theater
28 – Toronto, Ontario – Sony Center
29 – Quebec City, Quebec – Grand Theatre
30 – Montreal, Quebec – Place des Arts

November 2010
2 – Buffalo, NY – Center for the Arts
3 – Morristown, NJ – Community Theatre
4 – Mashantucket, CT – MGM Grand @ Foxwoods
6 – Albany, NY – Palace Theater
7 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theater
9 – Hershey, PA – Hershey Theatre
10 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
11 – Baltimore, MD – Hippodrome
12 – Richmond, VA – Landmark Theater
13 – Atlantic City, NJ – Caesars Casino
16 – Columbus, OH – Palace Theater
17 – Cincinnati, OH – Taft Theater
18 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theater
19 – Merrillville, IN – Star Plaza Theater
20 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre

Further Reading: