Ahead of Mahindra Blues Festival 2026, Top Acts Share What’s In Store
The annual blues festival in Mumbai takes place on Feb. 14 and 15, 2026, bringing Eric Gales, Shemekia Copeland, Matt Schofield and more
Eric Gales will perform at Mahindra Blues Festival 2026 in Mumbai. Photo: Courtesy of Mahindra Blues
The Mahindra Blues Festival, which made its India debut in 2011, is now rolling into its 2026 edition at Mehboob Studios in Mumbai on Feb. 14 and 15, 2026.
Shemekia Copeland, who has performed at this festival on two earlier occasions, will appear again as will the bands of D.K. Harrell, Matt Schofield, Altered Five Blues Band, Eric Gales and the homegrown Blackstratblues.
In the highly individualistic style of the blues, a fair amount of improvisation is inherent in performances. To a large degree, the nature of the musician represents the music performed. Getting to know a bit about the performers is certainly a step in the direction of understanding their music and we were able to interact with the bandleaders at a festival press conference held by the organizers.
If these musicians, who had traveled halfway across the world, had any fatigue from being jet lagged, they were certainly not showing it. Perhaps the excitement of performing in India – such an outpost of their music – has kept them going.
In the event, we found a very affable bunch of artists willing and keen to share their enthusiasm about playing for an Indian audience. It never ceases to amaze us how excited musicians, especially those from the United States, are to perform in India; we have experienced this sentiment from blues and jazz musicians over the years. It may be the novelty of playing for audiences vastly different from the ones in the U.S., or perhaps it is the joy of being invited to a faraway ‘exotic’ venue to play that stands out for the artists. Either way, we in Mumbai are the beneficiaries of getting to listen to musicians high on adrenaline.
Shemekia Copeland returns to perform at the MBF ‘26. She was first heard in the first edition of this festival in 2011 as part of the Buddy Guy band and returned to Mumbai in 2017, making her a veteran of this festival. Her evolution as a performer should have been augmented by the transition of the social and political conditions. And of course, her maturing as a performer over the past 15 years would add to her musical expression.
D.K. Harrell, from Louisiana will be playing at the MBF for the first time. His message to Indian listeners is to “open their hearts and soak in the love and happiness I bring in my music.” He comes from a state with a rich tradition of the blues and of jazz from the city of New Orleans.
The Altered Five Blues Band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the Midwest of the U.S. has had some roots in jazz music; they have a brass section, a trumpet and a saxophone in the band – very rare for a blues band and the keyboards playing in the style of jazz organist Jimmy Smith. Asked how the blues from Milwaukee are different from those played in Chicago – barely a hundred miles away – we were told that the Milwaukee style was more eclectic. They introduce new elements to their music, while the Chicagoans are much more traditional in their approach. However, the Altered Five Blues Band now has regular gigs in Chicago at Buddy Guy’s Blues Club. They have also featured in the popular Chicago Blues Festival. This band has been performing together for about 15 years and has a definite ‘sound’ of their own. This will be their first appearance at the MBF.
Matt Schofield, originally from the United Kingdom, now lives in the U.S. He points out that the journey of the blues from its native America to Britain has come via the various British rock bands – the Rolling Stones, for one, that incorporated the blues form into their rock ‘n roll sound in the decade of the 1960s. Schofield’s own journey into the blues was not via these British rock bands but directly from listening to and being taken up by the American blues greats like Muddy Waters and a few of the modern blues pioneers.
He now operates from America, and has played once at the MBF, also at its inaugural edition in 2011.
Eric Gales has put plenty of thought into the blues. His approach is both cultural and philosophical. Gales spoke of the huge contribution of the American black community to the culture of the land and the positive effect it is having on closing the racial divide.
He also feels that everybody has got the blues all over the world and that festivals like the MBF work wonders in “alleviating the pain.”
That is good enough reason to head out to Mehboob Studios this weekend.
