Hall of Fame

2015 Inductees

Bruce Pressley, a 5th Generation Sacramento kid, planned on being a bass player via “Jack Bruce” until his dad made him an amp out of an old TV in his 24th and V Street garage with instructions not to touch “that”… when dad left, Bruce touched “that” and got the shock of his life. That led him to play drums. In the late 70’s Bruce started a successful touring group, the “Bruneau Gold Band” named after his grandfathers Nevada gold mine. Joe Lev was the original bass player. After the BGB, Bruce played with several groups and several styles of music, especially Blues, throughout the western USA, including Hawaii and Alaska. In 1996, Bruce was hired by Bawb Pearce to play drums for the famous BEER DAWGS. After 2 years and almost 600 gigs, Bruce left the BEER DAWGS. Subsequently Mick Martin called Bruce to possibly play drums with MICK MARTIN AND THE BLUES ROCKERS. Bruce set the phone next to his drum set and “popped” a couple of different kinds of shuffles, did a few funk beats and passed the audition over the telephone. Since that day, the BLUES ROCKERS have shared the stage with Joe Bonamassa, Elvin Bishop, Coco Montoya, Eddie Cotton, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Little Feat, Robin Ford and the Ford Brothers Band, Maria Muldaur, Craig Chaquico, Cold Blood, Tommy Castro, Leon Russell, Volker Strifler, Tower Of Power, Terry Hanck, Johnny Winter and most recently, Walter Trout.
Bruce has since become an integral part of the BLUES ROCKERS where he happily plays drums and sings to this day.

Donna Proctor Smith is a lifelong musician. At three years old, she demonstrated a fascination for music that was quickly embraced by her father, Vernon Proctor, a distinguished United States Air Force Band commander and later a Sacramento City College adjunct instructor. At age twelve, she began classical training on flute, then at 18, took up her father’s instrument, the bass.

Since the 1970s, Donna has been in demand. Her competent bass playing gained the attention of many headliners, including Blues legend Charles Brown, who offered her a position in his ensemble, Jimmy McCracklin, Floyd Dixon, BB King, Frankie Lee, John Mayall, Ray Charles and country player, Rodney Crowell. Their encouragement as well as her father’s is the guiding force behind her strive for excellence.

Most of Donna’s career as been with blues ensembles including stints with Blues Hall-of-Famer Mick Martin, Seattle Blues WC Handy winner Duffy Bishop, Gospel great Glenn Lane as well as in over 30 assorted regional bands.

Apart from the blues, Donna has performed with Native Music Grammy winner, Mary Youngblood, Grammy winner, Bob Cheevers, several folk/americana/classic rock bands, sang and played bass and flute in a duo for 10 years, was invited to play gospel in a church service and has recorded with a country band. She was a founding member of the Blues Rockers and played on Smith Martin and Shaw’s hit single, “Oh, the Road.”

Donna continues to vary her musical experiences. In 2015, she debuted as a lead lecturer for the Blues Society BITS program, and kept busy with the Lodi-based Esquires Blues Band along with several Sacramento bands. Eventually, she would like to return to performing classical flute.

Liz Peel was introduced to the blues after moving to Sacramento from Southern California (’73). One of her early memories was seeing the local Sunland Blues Band, whom she befriended. She had already begun messing around with the bass guitar and took a few lessons from their bass player, Jerry Eddleman, and later, Andy Samuels. Soon, Liz joined her first band, Quickshake, with Ray “Catfish” Copeland. Charles Baty later joined the band which eventually became Little Charlie and the Nightcats. Liz learned much about Blues from Charlie and still considers him her mentor.

As the original bass player for Little Charlie and the Nightcats (1976 to ’81), Liz played several Sacramento Blues Festivals, backing Sonny Rhodes, Tiny Powell, Roy Brown, Gatemouth Brown, Big Momma Thornton, and Floyd Dixon. The band toured with Floyd Dixon playing the Eugene, Oregon Blues Festival where (billed as the first female instrumentalist at the festival) she backed Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, and others. She played with the band at other important blues events like the San Francisco Blues Festival. During those years, the band brought the blues into popular Sacramento Clubs like Maurice’s, Harry’s Bar & Grill, and Tootsies in Old Sacramento. Her solid groove helped put Sacramento on the Blues Map, and she had a unique presence as a woman bass player.


Liz missed the opportunity to record with Little Charlie, leaving the band to complete her education and work a day job. But, she continued to play blues and eventually recorded with Catfish & the Crawdaddies, the Midtown Creepers, and Kenny “Blue” Ray. Over the years, Liz has played gigs with many notable local blues bands and artists such as Johnny “Guitar” Knox, the Hucklebucks, and others. Currently, she plays with the Midtown Creepers most frequently at the prized Torch Club.

(?? – 2016)

In 1965, young Sacramento musicians heard the call of the blues. Albums released by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band seem to say “you don’t have to be black to sing and play the blues.” One of the first to heed the call was singer and harp player Michael Andrews, who put together The Parish Hall Blues Band with fellow students from Encina High School. The timing couldn’t have been better, as the group gained management and ended up playing at a number of major rock concerts with the Doors, the Yardbirds, Them (led by Van Morrison), the Grateful Dead, the Youngbloods and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Drummer John Roina remembers being on stage and looking to his right, “There was Jerry Garcia smiling and bopping to the music. He gave me a thumbs up.”.Andrews has been playing the blues ever since. In the 1970s, he played the blues at The Stony Inn in North Sacramento as Andrews & Friends on a regular basis. He was a featured guest artist with Mick Martin & the Blues Rockers in the 1980s at the Sacramento Blues Festival. As with his contemporary, Nate Shiner, he is a true pioneer in Sacramento blues.

Robert Sidwell’s career as a blues musician began in 1993 as a founding member of the Chrome Addicts along with Tommy Young, Ben Thompson and Brad Cross.  In 1995 Robert was a founding member of the Hucklebucks along with Doug Crumpacker. (the band worked 200+ shows a year in nor-cal until 2001). From 2006-08 Robert worked with The Rusty Zinn Band. From 2008-10 found Robert in the popular Sacramento Valley country band Rowdy Kate. Just recently from 2010-14 Robert has been working with well known Bay Area artist Earl Thomas and the Blues Ambassadors.

Some other artist’s of note that Sid is working with currently include Mark Hummel and the Blues Survivors, Red’s Blues, the Kyle Rowland Band and his new project is the Switchblade Trio with Larry Carr and James Pace

Over the years Robert has shared the stage with a number of other prominent blues musicians including Rick Estrin, Charlie Baty, Steve Freund, Junior Watson, Ronnie James Weber, Nick Moss, Andy Santana, Terry Hanck, Johnny Knox, Bob Mora, Jim Monroe, Doug Crumpacker, June Core, Kedar Roy, Aaron Moreno, Mike Morgan, John Lawton and Aki Kumar.

Robert has been one of the best traditional blues guitarists in the northern area for over 20 years. He has also composed some fine instrumental pieces as well.