The Sky and Ocean Aren’t the Only Way to See Inspiring Blues in Laguna in 2024

The Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center has stepped up to preserve one of America’s most powerful and influential art forms, by providing a memorable OC haven for national touring blues legends.

The LBCAC offers its intimate listening room, stellar acoustics, state-of-the-art sound system and a host town recognized as one of the nation’s leading arts-centric resort destinations.

With three decades of touring and recording under his belt, Boston-based blues guitarist Monster Mike Welch is a seasoned veteran of the international blues scene. Given the nickname “Monster Mike” by actor/Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd at the tender age of 13, Welch has since carved out a niche as a highly accomplished and in-demand guitarist.

To date, Welch has released several albums under his own name and in 2001, he joined the ranks of one of New England’s most beloved blues institutions, Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, where he stayed until 2017, recording five albums and racking up multiple Blues Music Award nominations for the band in that time. In addition, Welch has recorded with Shemekia Copeland, Ronnie Earl, Danielle Nicole, Duke Robillard, Johnny Winter, Victor Wainwright, Nick Moss, the Mannish Boys and Sugaray Rayford, among others.

Welch left the Bluetones in 2017 to focus on his partnership with Mike Ledbetter, which led to seven Blues Music Award nominations and the formation of the Welch Ledbetter Connection within the first year. Welch has received three consecutive Blues Music Award nominations by the Blues Foundation for Instrumentalist-Guitar beginning in 2016, a Boston Music Award for Best Blues Act, and is an inductee of the Rhode Island Music Hall Of Fame. In 2023, Monster Mike Welch embarked on the next phase of his career when he signed with Gulf Coast Records to make new music. 

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The Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center, located at 235 Forest Avenue in Laguna Beach, upstairs. Right next door to The Candy Baron

Check out our calendar at

www.LBCulturalArtsCenter.org

LBCAC has installed a Patriot Air Purification System to ensure

a virus free environment. www.patriotairsystems.com

Grant funding was made possible by the lodging establishments

and the City of Laguna Beach.