Stonehurst hosts annual blues jam to benefit Waltham Land Trust

The blues will rain down like a deluge at Stonehurst next Friday as part of the Waltham Land Trust’s 21st Annual Green Space Blues Jam. 

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines, who perform a blend of American roots and the blues, are the main event at the Jam this year. The duo performed at the event virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year will be in person in front of a crowd at The Robert Treat Paine Estate. 

Proceeds from the event go to support the WLT’s environmental preservation efforts throughout the Watch City. The WLT is still looking for business and individual sponsors for the event as well as items for the event’s online auction. 

Tickets are still available for the May 16 event, which runs, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Robert Treat Paine Estate here in Waltham. Tickets are $75 for WLT members, $85 for nonmembers, and a special tier of $40 per ticket for those younger than 40 . 

Rishell and Raines have spent the last 31 years making their mark in the world of blues. They have recorded six albums together, including the W.C. Handy Award-winning “Moving to the Country” (2000), and have received numerous award nominations from the Blues Foundation. They have performed and recorded with prominent musicians such as John Sebastian, Susan Tedeschi, Pinetop Perkins and Rory Block. They have opened for Ray Charles, Dr. John and Little Feat, and they have performed on international radio and TV shows including Late Night with Conan O’Brien and A Prairie Home Companion. For much of the past decade, Rishell and Raines have been visiting artists for the American Roots Music Program at Berklee College of Music in Boston, teaching Country Blues techniques and history to new generations of aspiring musicians.