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In this Aug. 22, 2012 photograph, ever a showman, an 86-year-old B.B. King thrills a crowd of several hundred people at the 32nd annual B.B. King Homecoming, a concert on the grounds of an old cotton gin where he worked as a teenager many years ago, in Indianola, Miss. Now the place – the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center – is a monument to him and the blues.Rogelio V. Solis/The Associated Press

The 2013 edition of the Ottawa Bluesfest has been announced, and the annual multi-week event is rolling out its usual eclectic mix of musicians.

The festival runs July 4 to 14. And as usual, based on the artists unveiled thus far, the kids will scratch their heads at B.B. King, Bluesfest traditionalist will ask Wu-Tang Clan to turn it down (though the hip-hop crew has played the Montreux Jazz Festival previously), and the modern pretentious music omnivore's head will explode at having to decide between Skrillex and Grand Funk Railroad.

An entirely random selection of bold-face names include: Dixie Chicks, Wu-Tang Clan, Solange, B.B. King, Justin Townes Earle, Belle and Sebastian and, somewhere in smaller type on the website's splash page, Great Big Sea.

Among other Canadian talent expected to perform are Tragically Hip, Tegan and Sara, Cold Specks and Matthew Good.

Tickets go on sale Thurs., Feb. 28.

An incomplete list of confirmed artists so far:

  • B.B. King
  • Bjork
  • Dixie Chicks
  • Wu-Tang Clan
  • RUSH
  • Fun.
  • Zac Brown Band
  • The Tragically Hip
  • Skrillex Full Flex Express Tour
  • Kenny Wayne Shepherd
  • Tegan and Sara
  • Great Big Sea
  • Weezer
  • Belle & Sebastian
  • Grand Funk Railroad
  • Baauer
  • Animal Collective
  • Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
  • Passion Pit
  • Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
  • She & Him
  • Alex Clare
  • Fitz & The Tantrums
  • Neko Case
  • Adventure Club
  • Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters
  • Marianas Trench
  • Solange
  • LP
  • Killer Mike
  • El-P
  • Sharon Van Etten
  • Stars
  • Eric Burdon
  • Matthew Good
  • Flogging Molly
  • A Tribe Called Red
  • The Cat Empire
  • Balkan Beat Box
  • Alejandro Escovedo
  • Los Lonely Boys
  • Mother Mother
  • Atlas Genius
  • Mississippi Heat
  • Zeds Dead
  • The Joy Formidable
  • Amadou & Mariam
  • Blue King Brown
  • Femi Kuti
  • Hunter Hayes
  • Tommy Trash
  • Garland Jeffreys
  • Blues Broads
  • Dawes
  • The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer
  • Los Lobos
  • Ra Ra Riot
  • Sonny Rhodes
  • Frank Turner
  • Justin Townes Earle
  • Cactus
  • Camera Obscura
  • Benjamin Francis Leftwich
  • Diamond Rings
  • Eddie Shaw
  • Mitch Ryder
  • The Dunwells
  • The Knocks
  • Bahamas
  • Jon Cleary
  • Cold Specks
  • John Smith
  • Joe Robinson
  • W.C. Clark
  • Balkan Beat Box

With files from The Canadian Press

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