The Editor,

Re: "Powder Blues Band still doin' it right, just less often," the Now, Feb. 7.

On behalf of the White Rock Blues Society, I want to express our gratitude to Tom Zillich and the Now for covering our show at the Pacific Inn Resort on Feb. 16.

On the Thursday before the long weekend, as B.C. celebrated its first Family Day, Tom wrote an interesting and informative article after interviewing Tom Lavin of Powder Blues Band fame and his efforts to help the next generation of blues artist, James "Buddy" Rogers.

On the following Tuesday - the first day we could determine what our online ticket sales status was at the Surrey Arts Centre - we found an additional 60 tickets had sold since the previous Friday. Within another two days, we had sold out the show.

As a non-profit organization, our funding is limited to 20 per cent of ticket sales after fixed costs, with 80 per cent going to the artists.

Our mandate is to keep the blues alive. Without your paper's interest and support for the arts, people wouldn't be made aware of the live music events taking place in our community.

Even though we have a weekly newsletter going out to more than 650 blues fans, that hardly scratches the surface of the number of music fans out there.

Tom's article reached many interested readers who bought tickets and made the show a huge success. Many thanks for the work you do in servicing the community.

Rod Dranfield President, White Rock Blues Society