As every year in January, a new edition of The International Blues Challenge runs in Memphis organized by the Blues Foundation, an event that brings together an endless list of musicians coming from all corners in United States as well as from all around the world In 2017 edition there were about two hundred fifty seven participants with more than nine hundred musicians, something impossible for any other challenge except for an organisation like The Blues Foundation The album is the result of the fruitful collaboration between publicist Frank Roszak and The Blues Foundation It gathers fourteen artists who managed to reach the IBC final in the two established categories ‘solo/duo’ and ‘bands’ The cd opens with Down Tyler Watson, winner in band category and the fifth song belongs to Al Hiller, winner in solo/duo category A special mention to the ninth album song, that comes from our Spanish musician Felix Slim, who reached the final too The recording becomes an excellent way to introduce some of the most outstanding participants of the past challenge and lets us discover the impressive quality and high level of all finalists You will find in musicians and groups that probably you are not familiar with, but most of them will surely become popular in the next future Besides the three previously mentioned artists, the names of other finalists included in the album are Johnny Fink & The Intrusion, Randy McQuay, Brody Buster’s One Man Band, Sobo Blues Band, Ruth Wyand & The Tribe Of One, Suliz Band Feat Sugar & Spice, Wes Lee, Sam Joiner, Rae Gordon & The Backseat Drivers, King Bee and, finally, Sugar Brown The recording becomes a good example of the new and good pool of players you will be able to find nowadays playing the style we deeply love