18th Hot Springs Blues Festival

The 18th Hot Springs Blues Festival continues today and Sunday, and is presented by the Spa City Blues Society downtown at Hill Wheatley Plaza.

Today's schedule

• 12:30-1:30 p.m. -- Manage and Market Your Music Career, a free workshop with Steve Hester at the Mountain Tower-Pageant Room at the Austin Convention Hotel and Spa.

• 1:45-2:45 p.m. -- Blues Songwriting, a free workshop with Tim Williams at the Austin.

• 2:30 p.m. -- Gates open, happy hour at Hill Wheatley Plaza.

• 3:30-4 p.m. -- Blues in the Schools Band.

• 4:15-5 p.m. -- The Beckham Brothers, a Little Rock-based band.

• 5:15-6 p.m. -- Tim Williams, the 2014 International Blues Challenge winner, solo-duo, pays homage to great Delta blues pickers.

• 6:15-7:15 p.m. -- Mr. Sipp, "the Mississippi Blues Child," takes the stage.

• 7:30-8:30 p.m. -- Barbara Blue opens for JP Soars. She has performed alongside top-notch artists such as Taj Mahal and The Phantom Blues Band, Delbert McClinton , Pinetop Perkins, and Tab Benoit.

• 8:45-10 p.m. -- JP Soars & The Red Hots, today's headline performer and the 2008 International Blues Challenge winner. Soars toured the globe and recorded several records with some of the most extreme metal bands in the world before finding his home in the blues.

• 9 p.m. -- After Parties in various venues.