The public is warmly invited to attend the Maynard Public Library’s free annual summer concert, this year featuring the Blues Music Awards 2026 B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Ronnie Baker Brooks and his band. The concert will take place on Saturday, Aug. 8 at 2 p.m., at Veterans Memorial Park, Summer Street. (The rain location is Maynard High School.)

Chicago guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and multiple Blues Music Award-winner Ronnie Baker Brooks is one of the city’s—and the world’s—most undeniably talented and electrifying bluesmen. Brooks was born into Chicago blues royalty as the son of legendary multiple Grammy Award nominee and Blues Hall of Famer Lonnie Brooks. He is among the few contemporary blues artists who learned his craft directly from many of the genre’s icons, including Albert Collins, B.B. King, Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor and, most significantly, his father.

“I’m blessed to have played with and learned from the best. I’m carrying them within me,” he says of all the legends he knew growing up and the journey he’s been on.

With his new Blues Music Award-winning Alligator Records debut, “Blues In My DNA,” Brooks delivers an up-to-the-minute, organic masterpiece. The album, the fifth of his career, is firmly rooted in the blues with Brooks incorporating his own brand of rock, funk and soul to the mix.

“I just play what I feel,” he says. “It’s all from the heart.”

Produced by famed studio wizard Jim Gaines (who has produced Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison, and many others), “Blues In My DNA” is a career-defining statement from Brooks, with each of the 11 original songs its own chapter in his ever-evolving story.

The concert is generously sponsored by the Maynard Cultural Council, Friends of the Maynard Public Library, Capital Group Properties and Middlesex Savings Bank.

No tickets required. Details at maynardpubliclibrary.org/calendar.