The 92-year-old Bobby Rush is a three-time Grammy® Award winner for “Best Traditional Blues Album” for “Porcupine Meat,” “Rawer than Raw” and 2024’s “All My Love For You.” He is also a 16-time Blues Music Awards winner (with 59 career nominations), and has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame and Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

Beyond the accolades, Rush is celebrated for his electrifying showmanship, sly, witty storytelling, and unmistakable harmonica work, heard on fan favorites like “Chicken Heads,” “Bowlegged Woman, Knockneed Man,” and “I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya.” Rush finally told his inspirational life story in his autobiography I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya: My American Blues Story.

The blues legend is having a major career moment with his involvement in the hit film written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”; the now Grammy Nominated album with multi-platinum artist Kenny Wayne Shepherd titled “Young Fashioned Ways”; his first-ever Grand Ole Opry performance with Shepherd; and a 2025 Austin City Limits performance. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music show on television, airing Saturday nights on PBS.

“Sinners” went on to break Oscar records with 16 nominations including best picture at the 2026 Academy Awards. To celebrate the music, Bobby Rush alongside Buddy Guy, Shaboozey, Brittany Howard, Miles Caton, and Raphael Saadiq among others turned the Oscar stage into a juke joint recreating a key scene in the movie. 

A documentary film about Bobby Rush’s seven-decade career and personal journey titled, ‘King of the Chitlin’ Circuit’ is due to air on Mississippi Public Broadcasting in August 2026 with wider release plans to be announced soon. Directed by Al Warren and produced by Taiwo Gaynor, the doc shot over two years “captures the highs and lows of a bluesman’s life on the road, from performances to late-night reflections and the quiet moments in between”. 

Rush has become one of the most prominent advocates for the blues tradition and says, “It’s the root of all music, it’s the mother of all music. If you don’t like the blues, you probably don’t like your mama.” 
 

Don’t let the word “Blues” fool you, Manzanita Blues is predomently a dance band. Although, no strangers to slow greasy Blues, it’s the faster paced Chicago/SoCal style that most rhythmically pulses from this band.

Manzanita Blues has been bringing their own style of red hot rockin-Blues to the stages of San Diego since
2017. They play a unique blend of tradiƟonal Delta, upbeat Chicago, Southern-Rock and SoCal Blues, both
originals and covers. The deep, sultry lead vocals of Lisa Domkat combined with the incredible Blues guitar &
vocals of Tyler Ray Davidson, soaring Sax of Randy Cosby, perfect keys of Pat Kelley and always in the pocket
rhythm of Gary Orlansky on drums & vocals and Jim Eischen on bass guitar, make Manzanita Blues an
unstopable musical force.

Manzanita Blues has a reputation for compelling high energy live performaces. They have performed hundreds
of shows in dozens of venues in and around the San Diego area including but not limited to: Fast Times,
Humphreys Backstage Live, The Galley, Aquarius Bar & Grille, The Harp, The Loma Club, The Rabbit Hole, The
Dragon Room, Full Circle, Pal Joey’s, Josie’s Hideout, Mr. Peabody’s, Tio Leo’s, Winston’s and The Southwestern
Yacht Club.