The 17th Annual Lehigh River Blues Jam is back on Saturday at Days Hotel By Wyndham, 3400 Airport Road, Hanover Township, near Lehigh Valley International Airport.

The concert lineup includes: Slam Allen, Kevin Burt, Dave Keller Band, Bobby Kyle Band with Dave Keyes, and BC Blue featuring Bev Conklin with guest Dave Tilghman.

The Lehigh River Blues Jam returned in 2025 after it was last held in 2021. After the 2025 sold-out show at the Charles A. Brown Ice House, Bethlehem, it is returning to the Days Hotel.

This is the first appearance at the event by headliner Slam Allen. He has appeared many times in the Lehigh Valley, including at Musikfest and the Blast Furnace Blues Festival in Bethlehem, and Blues, Brews & Barbecue in Allentown.

Allen has performed all over the world, including Australia, Africa, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, France, Spain and Italy. Allen remembers Lehigh Valley audiences as being very receptive.

“I started as early as 5. Both my father and my uncle played,” Allen says.

Allen began by playing drums with the Allen Brothers Band and by the age of 13 he was touring with his father.

“I never thought of myself as a blues artist but as an entertainer. I want to make people happy,” says Allen in a phone interview from his home in Liberty, New York.

In concert, Allen ventures into R&B, soul and rock:

“I can read the room, feel people’s energy, and am able to give it back. I connect to people.”

He describes himself as a spiritual person, not in a religious sense, but in the way he is immersed in music.

He has noticed a change in audiences over the years.

“Younger generations have become interested in different types of music. Some of it over the top. The music I play is where it all came from, what started it all,” he says.

He hopes for music to be “making that loop and coming around back to the source. To me there are two types of music: good and bad.”

Allen was the first blues musician to perform on a cruise ship line in 2010. Since 2021, he has been happily working for Virgin Cruises.

“They allow you to be yourself without telling you what to play. I like to do comedy and be funny, not doing stand-up, but telling stories and joking and kidding around,” he says.

Allen feels lucky that he is able to perform music full-time. From 2001 to 2010, Allen was lead singer and guitarist for legendary harmonica player James Cotton. After he moved to Chicago, Allen was recommended to Cotton. “We had to fly from Chicago to a show in Seattle. I had never been on a plane before. I was scared to death,” he says.

Allen will perform with a bass player and a drummer at the Lehigh River Blues Jam.

“I am very grateful and humble to be able to do this,” he says. He asks people to “come out to see it and feel it. It is the only way you will really understand it.”

Sponsors for the Lehigh River Blues Jam include Godfrey Daniels, WDIY, WMUH and the North Jersey Blues Society. Sound and lights are by City Entertainment Systems.

“17th Lehigh River Blues Jam,” 2-8 p.m. Saturday, Days Hotel By Wyndham, 3400 Airport Road, Hanover Township, Lehigh County; After-party, 8 p.m. with Big Bone Daddy, Jetport Bar. Information: 610-266-1000; Schedule: www.bevconklin.com/lehigh-river-blues-jam