New Haven-based blues band Chicago Dawgs are Memphis-bound. The band, which triumphed at the 2025 Connecticut Blues Challenge this fall, will travel to Tennessee to participate in the International Blues Challenge Jan. 13-17, 2026.
The band is holding a major “Road to Memphis Holiday Blowout” blues bash on Dec. 28 at Toad’s Place in New Haven featuring heavyweight blues and R&B players from around the state to give them a big sendoff and raise funds for the trip.
Special guests at the Toad’s show include Paul Gabriel and Paul Opalach, the guitarist/vocalist and bassist from former well-remembered Blue in the Face band of the 1990s; Mark Naftalin, former keyboardist for the legendary Paul Butterfield Blues Band and WPKN radio DJ; Connecticut Delta blues artist Rocky Lawrence; Steve Balkun of Hartford’s soundshifting siblings The Balkun Brothers; Ryan Hartt of the Chicago/Western blues specialists Ryan Hartt and the Blue Hearts; Carl Ricci who plays out regularly with the band 706 Union Ave.; powerful R&B/blues vocalist Greg Sherrod; Vaughn Collins of Snake Hill Blues and the funk/blues/soul/hop-hop band Boogie Chillun; guitarist George Lesiw of Eight to the Bar; drummer River City Slim; harmonica player Leroy “Bluesdog” Falconi; and guitarist “Magic Mike” Bloomer of Blues Au Go Go.
The show will start with an acoustic set by Lawrence, a regular set of originals and covers from the Chicago Dawgs then a lengthy set featuring all the special guests.
Mark Zaretsky, the harmonica player/vocalist who fronts Chicago Dawgs alongside guitarist/vocalist Tom Crivellone, said the band is the third New Haven-based band to win the statewide competition, which has been held since 1996. Last year it was a Hartford band Carl Ricci and 706 Union Ave.
Zaretsky said he started the band because the members of his other long-running local blues band, Cobalt Rhythm Kings, didn’t want to engage in the challenge anymore after being named Connecticut finalists several times. Some Cobalt Rhythm Kings members will be playing at the Toad’s show.
New Haven’s Chicago Dawgs blues band in action. (Courtesy of Chicago Dawgs)
Zaretsky intends to make the most of his time in Memphis. He plans to stay a week and see every level of the contest. The International Blues Challenge spans five days of judging, starting with around 100 bands playing 25-minute sets spread around 20 club spaces along Beale Street for the quarterfinals, then narrowing to semifinals and finals. The International Blues Challenge, sponsored by the Blues Foundation, also holds a youth blues showcase, master classes, seminars and other events.
The Chicago Dawgs are prepared to play a set of all original songs at the International Blues Challenge competition. If the band does decide to include a cover, Zaretsky insists it will not be the Muddy Waters standard “Hoochie Coochie Man” because “20 other bands will be playing that.”
Zaretsky has lived for decades in Connecticut, where he’s a reporter for the New Haven Register, and Crivellone has also called Connecticut home for years. But both of them hail from Chicago and grew up on the sounds emanating from the city’s famous blues clubs. Both still return to the city regularly.
Zaretsky has strong memories of dozens of shows he saw there growing up. “Chicago is the home of the electric blues. We grew up there. I saw Muddy Waters more than 20 times,” he said.
Crivellone also toured extensively for years with Chicago blues legend Eddie “The Chief” Clearwater. In Connecticut, Crivellone leads the band Shufflebone and hosts a blue jam series at Park City Music Hall. “Tom and I met at Cafe Nine (home of a long-running jazz jam series in New Haven) and formed Chicago Dawgs in 2010,” Zaretsky said. “We have been the core of the band.”
The local blues scene goes through strong and fallow periods. Currently a glut of tribute bands playing in clubs around the state lead to limited opportunities for other musicians, especially from acts that write much of their own material. Zaretsky has high praise for Black-Eyed Sally’s on Asylum Street, which not only provides constant support for the blues community but is also an ideal place to blues bands because it is also a barbecue restaurant. “Black-Eyed Sally’s is a huge resource,” the musician said. “The blues is written into their DNA.”
Zaretsky said Connecticut blues bands don’t get a lot of the respect they deserve, especially when it comes to the upcoming international competition. “We have some great players here, but we don’t acknowledged for it the way other states do.”
The Chicago Dawgs band is holding one other fundraiser for its Memphis trip on Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. at the Old Well Tavern in Simsbury. More information on that show is at oldwelltavern.com. For those who can’t attend the concerts, there is a GoFundMe at bit.ly/TheChicagoDawgs/.
Chicago Dawgs play the “Road to Memphis Holiday Blues Blowout” on Dec. 28 at 3 p.m. at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. Admission is $15, $10 in advance. toadsplace.com.