Editor's pick: Outdoor blues

Down on the farm soul and blues in Bethel

Sun., June 19, 1:00 p.m. $15. Cobalt Studios, Royce and Walt Bishop roads, Bethel, NY. No glass. 845/583-7025. www.cobaltblues.com.

Rachel Keebler, the owner of Cobalt Studios, will once again open her home and heart to everybody who enjoys listening to live blues under blue skies in Bethel. The third annual Cobalt Blues Concert will feature performances by singer Alexis P. Suter, harmonica master Steve Guyger and rockabilly artists The Rocketmen.

Philadelphia is home to one of the finest blues harp players in the world, much to the surprise of people not familiar with the “inside” of the blues scene. Over the past 20-plus years, Guyger has been dishing out some of the finest blues to be heard worldwide. He has played with many of the great Chicago bluesmen, yet he remains one of the best kept secrets in blues.

Born in Brooklyn, NY to a musical family, Suter is the real deal. Her mother was a music teacher at Public School 44 as well as an accomplished singer who would have the young Alexis sing in recitals and gospel plays. But an idyllic life was not meant to be for this emotional and headstrong young lady. She became a mother at a very young age, lost a family member to AIDS, and violence continued to push her to the edge. While overcoming her addiction to drugs at a treatment center in upstate New York, Suter continued with the one thing that brought her peace: music and sharing it with others. Suter’s solos with New York’s acclaimed Total Praise Gospel Choir brought her sold-out performances and gave her confidence to go back to where she started: soul and blues.

From performances at BB King’s legendary club in New York City and Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble to nationally syndicated shows such as “The Jane Pauley Show” (NBC), Suter connects instantly with the heart and soul of the true urban everyman. Her larger-than-life stage presence radiates with the power of a white-hot super nova to the farthest niche of the performance space. Her debut full-length CD, “Shuga Fix,” is available on Hipbone Records.