The Black Dog Cafe in St Paul is holding a benefit CD sale with live music on Sunday, December 6th from noon until 6 p.m. Twin Cities guitarist, composer, arranger, and producer Dean Magraw is an artist of extraordinary ability. Dean is recovering from a bone marrow transplant and has had to cancel all of his performances for the foreseeable future. This is the latest in a number of benefits that have been organized to help raise money for Dean’s living expenses. There are nearly a thousand brand new CD’s. Many are hard to find, some have never been available in the U.S before and they represent many different musical genres. You can name your price above the minimum $3 (per CD) donation. The music line-up includes Gabriel Hilmar, Michael Ziegahn Flamenco guitar with dancers (Dean was Michaels first guitar teacher), Jeff Ray on Slide/blues guitar, Raymond Yates and more to be announced.

Records for Dean: Fundraising CD Sale at the Black Dog Cafe in St Paul, 12/6/09

This particular event has a French connection, Dean Magraw toured all over France several times with the group Next, created by François Corneloup with Dean, JT Bates, Chico Huff and Dominique Pifarély. He made many connections and got many fans and friends over there. His many friends over there worked with the French independent record label association Les Allumés du Jazz to collect a good selection of 600 CD’s from France and had them delivered to the Twin Cities to ofer them for this benefit. Local record labels and musicians have also donated hundreds of CD’s for this sale.

This is a great way to show your support for Dean and pick up a few holiday gifts and stocking-stuffers at the same time! The Black Dog will also donate 10% of all food and drink purchases to the cause.

The Black Dog is located at 308 Prince Street, near the farmer’s Market in Lowertown, St Paul. For more information visit www.blackdogstpaul.com or call (651) 228-9274. Also visit www.dothedean.com for information on more upcoming benefits.