Can you picture Bobby Rush in 20 different Turkish cities performing his signature chitlin-circuit show? For 20 years, Pozitif Productions has been promoting a blues tour called the Efes Pilsen Blues Festival, which runs for over 30 days with more than 20 shows throughout Turkey, and sometimes overseas in countries such as Russia, Serbia, Romania, and even Kazakhstan, with the support of Turkish beer company Efes Pilsen. Based in Istanbul, Pozitif is dedicated to developing music audiences through its festivals, live music venue, artists, albums, and concerts spanning a broad spectrum of music encompassing all world styles. When Ahmet Uluð, the blues festival director and co-founder of Pozitif, books American blues acts, he does it so that he can bring international blues musicians together with local artists. This year Shemekia Copeland, Terry Evans, and Ray Schinnery spent six weeks as the featured performers, but the 20-year roster includes Shemekia’s dad Johnny Copeland, Kenny Neal, Honeyboy Edwards, Magic Slim, Nappy Brown, Buckwheat Zydeco, Gatemouth Brown, and many others. Every musician who has experienced Turkish hospitality raves about the first-class treatment during the weeks abroad.
