{"id":329742,"date":"2024-09-05T16:54:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T21:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=329742"},"modified":"2024-09-06T09:45:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T14:45:30","slug":"video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Bill Murray Rocks, Shocks Westgate Las Vegas Blues Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Big Blues Bender festival in Las Vegas has hosted some pretty big names since it was founded 10 years ago. Included on that list are none other than Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Taj Mahal. The biggest name this year was supposed to be Beth Hart until a surprise guest joined Chicago\u2019s Blood Brothers for this year\u2019s opening night on Wednesday.<\/p>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_329744\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-329744\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-329744 size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/murray-858x618.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"858\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/murray-858x618.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/murray-430x310.jpg 430w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/murray.jpg 1174w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-329744\"class=\"text-description\">Bill Murray makes an unannounced, unintroduced appearance at the Westgate Las Vegas casino resort&#8217;s annual Big Blues Bender festival on Wednesday night. (Image: YouTube\/@RUJCFD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>It was fellow Chicagoan and beloved matinee idol Bill Murray. Though never a Blues Brother, and known primarily in the music world for poking fun at lounge singers on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d the 73-year-old delivered an impassioned, thoroughly serviceable performance on the stage where Elvis once sang.<\/p>\r\n<p>The \u201dGroundhog Day\u201d star wasn&#8217;t announced beforehand, or even introduced, to the International Theater crowd, whose excitement level slowly grew as it realized what was happening.<\/p>\r\n<p>Murray began with a rollicking rendition of \u201cSlow Down,\u201d the 1957 Larry Williams song made more famous by the Beatles seven years later. He then flubbed the lyrics to his follow-up choice, Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cLike a Rolling Stone,\u201d while trying to read them from an iPad. But the audience was more than forgiving, loudly assisting the 2004 Oscar nominee by shouting the chorus.<\/p>\r\n<p>Check it out for yourself&#8230;<\/p>\r\n<p><div class=\"arve\" data-mode=\"normal\" data-oembed=\"1\" data-provider=\"youtube\" id=\"arve-youtube-ij3a0ucnazi66ecc9d0379c9494408100\" style=\"max-width:900px;\">\n<span class=\"arve-inner\">\n<span class=\"arve-embed arve-embed--has-aspect-ratio\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 500 \/ 281\">\n<span class=\"arve-ar\" style=\"padding-top:56.200000%\"><\/span><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen class=\"arve-iframe fitvidsignore\" data-arve=\"arve-youtube-ij3a0ucnazi66ecc9d0379c9494408100\" data-src-no-ap=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/IJ3a0UCNAzI?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"505.8\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/IJ3a0UCNAzI?feature=oembed&#038;iv_load_policy=3&#038;modestbranding=1&#038;rel=0&#038;autohide=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autoplay=0\" width=\"900\"><\/iframe>\n\n<\/span>\n\n<\/span>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"http:\\\/\\\/schema.org\\\/\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.casino.org\\\/news\\\/video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest\\\/#arve-youtube-ij3a0ucnazi66ecc9d0379c9494408100\",\"type\":\"VideoObject\",\"embedURL\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\\\/embed\\\/IJ3a0UCNAzI?feature=oembed&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&autohide=1&playsinline=0&autoplay=0\"}<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\r\n<p>As usual with the famously reclusive legend, if he shows up anywhere, there&#8217;s a good reason. And, on Wednesday, it was to help raise money and awareness for the Blues Foundation\u2019s Handy Artists Relief Trust (HART) Fund, which helps pay the medical, dental, and funeral costs of blues musicians.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>This year\u2019s performance and auction raised $107K.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Big Blues Bender, which runs through Sunday, began at the Riviera in 2014, then switched to the Westgate when the Riv shuttered in 2015. The HART party, its annual kickoff event, has been a staple of the festival since 2016.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Big Blues Bender festival in Las Vegas has hosted some pretty big names since it was founded 10 years ago. Included on that list are none other than Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Taj Mahal. The biggest name this year was supposed to be Beth Hart until a surprise guest joined Chicago\u2019s Blood Brothers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":329744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3313,81886],"tags":[92240,92239,92238,23,86780,82875,84506],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>VIDEO: Bill Murray Rocks, Shocks Westgate Las Vegas Blues Fest - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Big Blues Bender festival in Las Vegas has hosted some pretty big names since it was founded 10 years ago. Included on that list are none other than\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VIDEO: Bill Murray Rocks, Shocks Westgate Las Vegas Blues Fest - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Big Blues Bender festival in Las Vegas has hosted some pretty big names since it was founded 10 years ago. Included on that list are none other than\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-05T21:54:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-06T14:45:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/murray.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1174\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"846\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest\/\",\"name\":\"VIDEO: Bill Murray Rocks, Shocks Westgate Las Vegas Blues Fest - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/video-bill-murray-shocks-and-rocks-westgate-las-vegas-blues-fest\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/murray.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-05T21:54:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-06T14:45:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\"},\"description\":\"The Big Blues Bender festival in Las Vegas has hosted some pretty big names since it was founded 10 years ago. 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