Celebrating the Blues in
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
Celebrating the Blues
in Champaign-Urbana
Illinois
ABOUT THE BLUES SOCIETY
I first met B.P. as they called him back in 1978 when I was working as a cook at the White Horse Inn. At the time he was working as an iron worker helping to build the Clinton Nuclear Power Plant. That chance meeting turned into a friendship that lasted 46 years.
Bob told me that he’d come to Champaign-Urbana from Chicago to attend the University of Illinois and major in Electrical Engineering. He would spend many days working at WPGU, the student run radio station. Seemed like he really enjoyed being involved with music.
Fast forward some years and he asked me one day what I thought about starting a Blues Society in Champaign-Urbana. I didn’t think much of it since I was working full time.
In early 2010 he brought up the subject again, so we decided to do some research to see if it would be possible. We attended a meeting of the Blues Blowtorch Society in Bloomington, Illinois and on the way home decided to give it a go.
A meeting was eventually held in June and the Prairie Crossroads Blues Society was created. Bob volunteered to serve on the entertainment committee. His connections to the Blues music community grew after he met fellow air shifter Dave Wright. Bob began to make connections with other blues players at festivals around the country. He would invite them to come down and play live at WEFT.
In 2013, Bob took over as the president of Prairie Crossroads Blues Society. The rest is history as they say.
In 2018, Prairie Crossroads Blues Society held its first Blues festival and has every year since. Bob took it up on himself to make sure that our community was being introduced to Blues music and the musicians who played it.
“If you ever spent any time at a Blues Festival with Bob, he seemed to know just about everybody,” said Dave Adcock of the Painkillers Blues Band. “Everybody knew him! Bob was the sincerest guy you could ever meet… he could move from being a stranger to a good friend in a matter of seconds.”
“Bob’s Blues shows on WEFT were the best!” added Dave Adcock. “He did on-air live interviews or phone calls with big time Blues artists; he had live in-house bands play on the air; and his every-Thursday airing of P.W. Fenton’s 'On this Day in Blues History' was classic. Bob would often follow those episodes up by sharing a few recordings of the musicians highlighted in Fenton’s stories. Bob had a deep knowledge of the Blues.”
The 2025 Prairie Crossroads Blues Festival will always be remembered as the one for Bob. For he is the one who made it all possible for the Blues Society to stand strong today.
Like many others in our community, I will forever be proud of my friend who took a little idea and helped make it what it is today. We will never forget you and what you accomplished.
Discussions have already begun for our 2026 Blues Festival and we know that Bob will be watching to make sure that everything goes according to plan. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
— Rich Cibelli