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XX050 We Are Rogue - 15 March 2025
Digital Blues -- Ashwyn Smyth 21:00--22:00 Tuesday Each week, Digital Blues brings you an eclectic hour of tracks from new and recent releases from across the blues spectrum and beyond and from around the world plus, periodically, something a little bit different, often more retrospective and often pushing the boundaries even more than usual. The award winning and multi award nominated Digital Blues enters its twenty-fifth year of broadcasting this […]
Digital Blues Week — Ashwyn Smyth
21:00–22:00 Tuesday
The award winning and multi-award nominated Digital Blues has been broadcasting since April 2001 and is aired on a number of stations on FM, DAB and online. Currently it is available on FM in Essex, UK and New Zealand, and online via stations based in the UK, USA, France, Germany, Gozo, New Zealand and Spain.
Presenter Ashwyn Smyth now lives in France where he moved in 2008 after he retired after working for forty years in the City of London.
His broadcasting history goes back to the late ’80s when he became a regular presenter on Orsett Hospital Radio in Essex presenting and producing a variety of programmes, including a classical music show. He also served as the station’s public relations officer.
However, it was the start of the new millennium that saw Ashwyn rediscover his love of the blues and the birth of Digital Blues, once described as the voice of the Blues for Essex, both for the radio shows and for its presence on the Essex and UK blues scene.
During the first decade of the 21st century, out on the live music scene, Ashwyn organised a number of very successful festivals which raised substantial funds for the Helen Rollason Cancer Care Centre charity as well as promoting gigs at venues such as the famous Essex Arms in Brentwood.
Ashwyn was a regular compere at blues weekends around the UK and was, for many years, the resident MC at what was then possibly the premier blues venue in Essex, the New Crawdaddy Blues Club in Billericay. After his retirement and move to France, he was still closely involved with the Club running their mailing list and producing a weekly newsletter. He also occasionally MCed there when he was in the UK.
He was also invited to MC the final of the New Brunswick Battle of the Blues in London for the three years it ran and in 2013 he was invited to be a judge at the heat held at the Brunswick in Hove. In 2019 Ashwyn was a member of the jury at the European Blues Challenge in the Azores.
For many years, he was a contributor to Blues Matters!, Blues in Britain in the UK and Blues & Co in France as well as being invited to write CD sleeve notes for acts such as Bad Town Blues, the Shakey Vick Band and Ramon Goose.
He also wrote the sleeve notes for, and co-produced, with the late Ray Bartrip, two Essex Delta Blues CDs which sought to promote Essex blues acts and which were sent to promoters and radio shows around the UK and Europe.
For a number of years Ashwyn also produced and presented podcasts for Blues Matters! featuring their own label artists. These were available via the Blues Matters! website and were the forerunner of what became Blues Matters! Radio.
Digital Blues has been a finalist in the British Blues Broadcast/Independent Blues Broadcast category of the British Blues Awards every year since their inception and in the UK Blues Awards since their inception through until 2022 when a rule change meant that the show was no longer eligible. It has also been a finalist in the Best Blues Radio Show category in the Blues Matters! Writers’ Poll every year since its inception.
Digital Blues was also a finalist in the European Blues Awards in the Best Radio Show category 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. In 2023, Ashwyn/Digital Blues was honoured to be the recipient of the European Blues Union’s Blues Behind the Scenes Award -– Media, the Award being presented at that year’s European Blues Challenge in Poland.
Ashwyn is based in the Limousin region of France where he records his shows in a compact home studio in his house in a small hamlet in the midst of a rural, agricultural region. Digital Blues is a long-time media partner of the Le Buis Blues Festival which is held annually near to his home. He is still actively involved with the UK and Essex blues scene, albeit, at a distance and is constantly scouring the world trying to find new artists. In 2015 he founded the UK Blues Federation, of which he was Chair until 2022, with the aim of creating a focal point for the blues in the UK.
Digital Blues shows seek to offer maximum variety in every respect and have a regular listenership around the world, both via scheduled airings and podcasts, and are listened to in more than 100 countries!
Playlists for Digital Blues radio shows are reported weekly to the Roots Music Report, and monthly to the UK’s Independent Blues Broadcasters Association Airplay chart, the Living Blues chart and the Big Blues Chart. Digital Blues is very excited to be part of the schedule at TopCat Radio.
The show is also available as a podcast at Digital Blues Podcast.
To be reminded of Ashywn’s schedule please subscribe to his calendar in your calendar app of choice.
