Fresh from winning the Connecticut Blues Challenge, New Haven’s Chicago Dawgs has a fundraising gig planned Dec. 28 at Toad’s Place to help pay the freight for a trip to Memphis to compete with 100 worldwide blues bands. Following a release about the gig and the trip: The Chicago Dawgs, winn ers of the 2025 Connecticut Blues Challenge and the Connecticut Blues Society‘s representative in the 2026 International Blues Challenge in Memphis Jan. 13-17, will celebrate their win and the holidays with two big fundraisers Dec. 28 and Jan. 10, beginning with a giant “The Chicago Dawgs Holiday Blues Blowout” on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St. in New Haven. (3 p.m.-7 p.m.) A second “Road to Memphis” tuneup and fundraiser will take place on Saturday, Jan. 10 at The Old Well Tavern, 20 Tariffville Road in Simsbury, CT. (8 p.m.-11 p.m.)  The fundraisers are to raise money to help fund The Chicago Dawgs trip to Memphis, which also is supported by The Connecticut Blues Society. The Dawgs, led by Chicago natives Tom Crivellone on guitar vocals and Mark Zaretsky on harmonica vocals, also have created a GoFundMe campaign at https://bit.ly/TheChicagoDawgs for folks who can’t make it or want to give digitally.  Crivellone said he and the band are looking forward both to their upcoming Memphis adventure and to “one hell of a show” on Dec. 28.  “Blues have always been a combination of people’s roots and their living situations,” Crivellone said. “We come from Chicago and that’s where our original blues experiences were, and we’re living on the East Coast now. That’s our blues experience and it’s different from everybody else’s.”  Going to the IBC “is very much like playing at a great blues festival, where the number (of performers from all over) results in a great blending,” said Crivellone, who toured the world for years with the late Chicago blues icon Eddie “The Chief” Clearwater. “I’m looking forward to taking our brand of blues and seeing how it stacks up with blues from all over the world.”  The Toad’s Place fundraiser “started out as a way to meet with our New Haven friends and fans, and the support that we got from other people in the blues community is going to be a tremendous source of fun” for all, he said. “It’s going to be big fun for us to play with our friends onstage … It’s going to be one hell of a show for any guests that come out.” For the Toad’s Place Holiday Blues Blowout, The Chicago Dawgs will be joined by more than a dozen of Connecticut’s best blues musicians, led by the great Mark Naftalin, the original keyboard player and one of two surviving members of the groundbreaking Paul Butterfield Blues Band (and a member of the Rock Roll Hall of Fame.) Naftalin will sit in with The Chicago Dawgs. Also joining The Dawgs will be world class New Haven blues guitarist Rocky Lawrence, who will play a solo set to get the ball rolling. Other special guests will include Steve “Thumb-Bone” Balkun of The Balkun Brothers (CT Blues Challenge Solo-Duo winner); Ryan Hartt (CT Blues Challenge CD contest winner); CT Blues Hall of Famer two-time Blues Music Awards nominee Paul Gabriel; Carl Ricci (2024 CT Blues Challenge band challenge winner); Jennifer Crivellone; Blues powerhouse Greg Sherrod; Vaughn Collins of Boogie Chillun  Snake Hill Blues Band; George Lesiw of Eight To The Bar; River City Slim, “Magic Mike” Bloomer, LeRoy “Bluesdog” Falconi and members of The Cobalt Rhythm Kings. In addition, the CT Blues Society will hold a raffle to win a guitar donated by Guitar Center.  Zaretsky said the Toad’s lineup, which includes a legendary blues figure in Naftalin — who in addition to his work with Butterfield is a producer and radio DJ for WPKN and others who has recorded with John Lee Hooker, Van Morrison, Otis Rush, Big Joe Turner, Lowell Fulson, James Cotton and Brewer Shipley — is well worth coming out for.  The bill also includes Connecticut icons who have toured nationally and internationally in Lawrence and Gabriel, and some of Connecticut’s best contemporary and traditional bluesmen in Hartt, Balkun, Ricci, Sherrod, Collins and Bloomer, among others.  “We’re so grateful for all the support we’ve received from the Connecticut blues community, as well from Toad’s Place, which stepped up when we needed a venue that could hold all the fun that’s going to emanate from that stage,” Zaretsky said.  About The Chicago Dawgs:  The Chicago Dawgs lay down the blues deep soulful like a real Chicago blues band -– because they ARE a real Chicago blues band, fronted by two native Chicagoans . They just happen to live in Connecticut.  The Chicago Dawgs met years ago at a blues jam in New Haven, but guitarist Tom Crivellone grew up in Chicago and still has one foot there. He spent 11 years touring with Chicago Blues Hall of Famer Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater. In CT, he leads Shufflebone and the monthly blues jam at Bridgeport’s Park City Music Hall. Blues harp player Mark Zaretsky grew up in Chicagoland, saw Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor and Lefty Dizz dozens of times growing up and has led New Haven’s The Cobalt Rhythm Kings for 29 years. He also plays with Mark Naftalin Friends, led by Rock Roll Hall of Famer Mark Naftalin, original keyboard player for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. They’ll be joined in Memphis by badass bassist John DaCruz and rock-solid drummer Tom Nagy. These guys play real-deal blues!  Zaretsky, Crivellone and The Chicago Dawgs are deeply grateful for the support they’ve received so far. Competing in Memphis is a dream come true, offering the chance to play alongside some of the best unsigned blues bands in the world. With your support, The Chicago Dawgs can make the most of this incredible opportunity. A win would open doors to new gigs and greater recognition in New England, Sweet Home Chicago and beyond. Just getting there will help the band make connections and push things to another level. Thanks for helping them along the way!  The post Dawgs Head South appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less