Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel head back to the Buskirk-Chumley for Winter Blues Fest

The Kokomo blues trio returns to Kirkwood on Saturday, February 6, 2027, for the third annual Bloomington Winter Blues Fest.

For the third February running, the blues comes to Kirkwood Avenue — and once again Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel are on the bill.

Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel play the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Saturday, February 6, 2027, with the show starting at 6:30 p.m. The date was announced October 30 as part of the third annual Bloomington Winter Blues Fest. Tickets are on sale through OpenDate. The theater holds about 600.

The band has been part of this event from the start. When the Buskirk-Chumley presented the Bloomington Winter Blues Fest on February 15, 2025, the lineup paired them with King Bee and The Stingers and Gordon Bonham, according to listings from WFHB and OpenDate. They were back for the second edition on February 21, 2026, again alongside King Bee & The Stingers, per the 2026 event page. Three years in, they're as close as this festival has to a house band.

If you haven't seen them, Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel are a Kokomo trio formed in 1993: brothers Mike Milligan on guitar and vocals and Shaun Milligan on bass, with Robert "Tiny" Cook on drums and vocals. Mike Milligan is also the organizer behind a separate Indy Winter Blues Fest in Indianapolis, held at Birdy's, as Towne Post has covered — so this is a band that knows how to put on a winter blues night from both sides of the stage. They've been featured performing "Kokomo Honey" and "Doing It Right" on WISH-TV.

The room matters here. The Buskirk-Chumley opened in 1922 as the Indiana Theater, the old name still visible on the sign above Kirkwood, and its Spanish mission revival building originally seated 616, per Wikipedia and the Monroe County History Center archive. A century-old downtown theater in the middle of February is a fine place to hear a three-piece blues band turn it up.

The full 2027 lineup beyond the anchor act hasn't been detailed in what we've seen so far; we'll update our show page as more names are confirmed. The 6:30 start suggests a multi-act evening, so plan to arrive early rather than late.

The previous two editions have made this a fixture on Bloomington's winter calendar. It's early February, it'll be cold, and there are 600 seats. Get yours before the holidays eat your attention.

Sources: Bloomington Winter Blues Fest 2025 — OpenDate (app.opendate.io); BCT presents Bloomington Winter Blues Fest 2025 — WFHB (wfhb.org); Bloomington Winter Blues Festival, February 21, 2026 — OpenDate (app.opendate.io); 3rd Annual Bloomington Winter Blues Fest 2027 — OpenDate (app.opendate.io); Indy Winter Blues Festival — Towne Post (townepost.com); Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel perform 'Kokomo Honey,' 'Doing it Right' — WISH-TV (wishtv.com); Kokomo blues artist celebrates decades of music with free concert (aol.com); Buskirk-Chumley Theater — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Buskirk-Chumley Theatre photo record — Monroe County History Center (monroehistory.pastperfectonline.com); JamBase: Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel at Buskirk-Chumley Theater (jambase.com)