About Blind Raccoon

BETSIE BROWN has over twenty-five years of experience in entertainment and music promotion, media relations & marketing communications. Brown established Blind Raccoon in 2008, after a seven-year partnership in Crows Feet Productions. We provide radio promotion and publicity services, social media promotion and marketing consultation in the blues, roots, R&B, soul, and folk music genres. Brown also runs Overton Music, a boutique label for former Blind Raccoon clients.

Professional and community involvement:

Recipient of the 2009 KBA Award “Publicist of the Year” bestowed by The Blues Foundation
Member of the Board of the Memphis Chapter of the Recording Academy 2010-12 and 2007-9
Former Board Member of the Memphis & Shelby County Music Commission
Board Member (2007-10 & 2002-5) and Vice President (2005) of The Blues Foundation
Member of The Blues Foundation
Member of the Americana Music Association
Former Member of the Folk Alliance
2004 and 2005 Chair of the International Blues Challenge, produced by The Blues Foundation
Board Member and Communications Chairperson of the former Blues Music Association

The Team

Penny Richards handles airplay data for Blind Raccoon’s artists, collecting and logging data from radio station playlists and several major reporting services. She brings strong organizational skills and years of experience as an administrative assistant to her work. She is a published author and a Justice of the Peace officiating weddings and memorial services. She is based in Boston, favors the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox but will always applaud the opposition’s great plays.

Jen Taylor (VividPix & Design) has been handling graphic and web design for Blind Raccoon since 2010. Her design portfolio covers just about everything an artist might need, from CD covers, posters, T-shirts, websites, and logos to a wide range of promotional materials, with the occasional non-music project mixed in for good measure.

She worked closely with The Blues Foundation, from 2004 to 2019, providing comprehensive design services, including the commemorative programs for the Blues Music Awards and the International Blues Challenge. Along with her husband and creative partner, Scott Allen, VividPix & Design was honored in 2008 with a Keeping The Blues Alive Award from The Blues Foundation for their long-standing commitment to documenting and preserving blues history through visual media.

Davis Coen is a seasoned news and magazine writer in north Mississippi, and has covered The Black Keys, Maggie Rose, Oxford Blues Festival, Double Decker Music Festival, and North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic. His work appears regularly in The Panolian, Oxford Eagle, Oxford Magazine, Batesville & Beyond, and The Local Voice. He has also written promotional documents for numerous Blind Raccoon clients, including Duwayne Burnside, Garry Burnside, Kent Burnside, Manu Lanvin, HeavyDrunk & Watermelon Slim, and Charlie Barath.

Coen has been a Blind Raccoon client for several of his own album releases – Blues Lights For Your and Mine (2008), These Things Shall Pass (2017), and Live at Proud Larry’s (2025) – which all continue to receive notable blues & roots radio support.

Marco Piazzalonga is Blind Raccoon’s European coordinator.

Marco first set out as a drummer, guitar player, singer, and songwriter. Later he undertook several trips to Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Mississippi, New Orleans, New York, Texas, and California to deepen his understandings of the historical, social, and musical elements, as well as the business side of the blues. As a member of the editorial team of the internet platform www.bluesnews.ch, and Chief Editor Blues’n’Roots Music Secion of the Swiss JAZZ’N’MORE, Marco enjoys writing about local and global blues events. Marco is a member of The Swiss Blues Society since its founding in 2015. He contributes his knowledge and his musical experience presiding over the Swiss Blues Award Committee and the Swiss Blues Challenge judges. He has judged at the IBC in Memphis, and enjoys bringing together artists, media, promoters, agents, and fans worldwide.

Jim White began to absorb music into his young DNA growing up near Pittsburgh, discovering the joys of doo-wop, R&B and blues, injecting a lifelong passion for that music into his teen blue genes. A career in newspaper journalism followed, and Jim managed to convince unsuspecting editors at three different newspapers that articles about blues music would greatly benefit mankind. Most recently, Jim wrote about blues for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he started his first internet blog, BlueNotes. Mankind remained unimpressed, but the blues kept rolling along. After retiring to Florida, Jim launched his current blog, The Blues Roadhouse, where he writes for a worldwide audience, trying to keep America’s classical music alive and well. Jim’s experience includes meeting or interviewing, and enjoying, legendary artists such as Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Albert Collins and John Lee Hooker. Dixon once told Jim, “The blues is the facts of life.” That thought still inspires his work.

Named after Memphis Minnie, MS. MINNIE (R.I.P.) was an essential part of the team listening to ideas and providing input via purrs and meows, lowering blood pressure by allowing strokes, and always there in sickness and in health.

ROCKY is an invaluable member of the team as the symbol of our brand. Found in the attic in Memphis, Rocky never looked back.