Fall Into the Blues: Music fills the Genetti for annual Billtown Blues Association fundraiser

"By the year 2006, the music known today as the blues will exist only in the classical records department in your local public library," goes the sarcastic opening riff to "I Can't Turn You Loose" as performed by the famous "Blues Brothers."

However, 15 years after Jake and Elwood joked the blues would die, two local groups drew out the musical blues of an audience in The Genetti Hotel as part of the "Fall Into the Blues" fundraiser.

A portion of those funds will help send Williamsport's own Cadillac Cats and the Noaker-Combs duo to Memphis, Tennessee, for next year's 37th annual International Blues Challenge.

Both groups performed alongside "Slim and the Perkolators," a visiting band and a semifinalist in last year's International Blues Challenge.

Bryan Noaker and Allan Combs opened the night on stage with their guitars and vocals, leading into the Cadillac Cats that featured Blair Mitcheltree on guitar, Becky Wool singing vocals, Shawn Strickland on the harmonica, Urie Kline on the drums and Garrett Gaetano on bass guitar.

Noaker and Combs have both previously represented Williamsport at the International Blues Challenge; Noaker in 2018 and Combs in 2019.

Additionally, Mitcheltree and Strickland have previously competed separately in the solo/duo category at the International Blues Challenge.

Every year, the Billtown Blues Association sends a solo/duo performance and a band performance to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. Both acts qualified at the audition concert during the 2021 Billtown Blues Festival, and are set to travel to Tennessee.

To support that trip, the association hosted the Fall Into the Blues fundraiser, which featured a silent auction of donations from local businesses.

As the night went on, several attendees took to the floor in front of the stage to dance, sharing in the performers' passion for the blues.

Two of the Cadillac Cats, Blair Mitcheltree and Becky Wool, shared their love for the genre.

"You express so much in so little," Mitcheltree said. "The blues is alive and well. We're one of 10 bands that I believe are keeping the blues alive and well in Williamsport."

"It's the heart and soul and feel of the music. If someone is trying to express something, you feel it," Wool said.

According to its website, the Billtown Blues Association intends to host its 32nd Annual Billtown Blues Festival June 10 through 12 at the Lycoming County Fairgrounds in Hughesville.