Shake Your Hips - CG & The Hammer

CG & The Hammer has been Israel’s leading Blues-Rock band for more than a decade.

In 1999 Dov (“The Hammer”) Hammer and Sagi (CG) Shorer formed the band, influenced by the Blues music and lifestyle that they shared from their years of growing up in the USA. Accompanied by a powerhouse rhythm section, they have created a unique, authentic sound, combining the influences of Texas and Chicago Blues.

Members of the band are:

Dov Hammer – Harmonica and vocals

Sagi Shorer – Guitar and vocals

Oren Avisar – Drums

Nir Elbaz – Bass guitar.

Over the years the band has played on countless stages in Israel and in the USA, in clubs, concert halls and festivals, including the ”International Blues Challenge” and the “Kings of Beale street” in Memphis TN, the “River city Blues challenge” in Ohio, and they have shared stages with the best Israeli and American artists – Willie Kent, “King” Earnest Baker”., Zora Young, Arkadi Duchin, Moshe Levi and Yahli Sobol, to name just a few.

The band has also released 3 acclaimed albums: Their debut , in 2002 was “Feels like home”, followed by “Blues Heaven” in 2008, which was chosen as one of the top 12 independent Blues albums by the “Blues Foundation” in Memphis TN, and “Live in Tel Aviv” in 2010.

The band is currently working on their next album , which was recorded at the historic “Sun “ studio in Memphis TN, the birthplace of Rock’n’roll, where artists such as Elvis Presley, BB King, Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf , Roy Orbison and Little Milton recorded.

A “CG & The Hammer” show is a live and kicking celebration, sexy and full of soul and fun, with a groove that can’t be ignored, combining original songs by the band with innovative renditions of Blues classics by BB King, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan and more.


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Wilson T. King

Wilson T. King is the alias of multi-instrumentalist/songwriter and producer Tim Wilson.

He is the main exponent of the musical form he mentioned in his Blues Matters interview in May 2010, as "future blues." His debut album, Follow Your First Mind, has received world-wide critical acclaim in such publications as Classic Rock, Guitar Player, Total Guitar and Blues Matters. Wilson has caused debate amongst some in the blues/guitar community due to his comments about the state of modern blues; especially what he calls "karaoke blues" artists.

In an interview with Alternative Magazine Online and a BBC Radio interview, Wilson adopted an aggressive stance against "karaoke blues" artists, considering them nothing more than merchants of parody and pastiche.
His main guitar influences stylistically are Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, while his voice takes a more modern laid-back approach eschewing the typical blues sound.

His compositions tend to vary from the very simplistic to near avant-garde while maintaining a modern feel with the bass lines tending to be crucial to the minimalist approach.

Lyrically, he has mentioned in frequent interviews, the influence of the poet Charles Bukowski.
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WNTI 91.5 Rock-it Science with Greg Lewis - Playlist-links for Mar 29, 2012

Playlist Songs---SONG---ARTIST---ALBUM---

	Mesmerized, Studebaker John, Old School Rockin' Start: 20:01:00 End: 20:06:00 Duration : 5:00
	Let Me Love You Baby, Jess Roden & The Humans, Live At The Robin Start: 20:07:00 End: 20:15:00 Duration : 8:00
	Neon New York, Elliot Randall, Rock And Roll City Start: 20:15:00 End: 20:19:00 Duration : 4:00
	Vu Cumpra, Rudy Rotta, So Di Blues Start: 20:19:00 End: 20:23:00 Duration : 4:00
	We're Gonna' Make It, Peter Karp & Sue Foley, Beyond The Crossroads Start: 20:29:00 End: 20:32:00 Duration : 3:00
	More and More, Little Milton, Best of... Start: 20:32:00 End: 20:35:00 Duration : 3:00
	Trouble Man, Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers, Trouble Man Start: 20:35:00 End: 20:39:00 Duration : 4:00
	I Got No Answer, Ian Parker, Lost And Found Start: 20:42:00 End: 20:48:00 Duration : 6:00
	Wang Dang Doodle, Willie Dixon, The Original Wang Dang Doodle Start: 20:48:00 End: 20:51:00 Duration : 3:00
	The Thrill Is Gone, Chicken Shack, Poor Boy; The Deram Years Start: 20:51:00 End: 20:56:00 Duration : 5:00
	Walkin' Downtown, Fred & The Healers, Electerrified Start: 20:56:00 End: 21:00:00 Duration : 4:00
	Lotus, Tommy Bolin, Teaser Deluxe Start: 21:00:00 End: 21:11:00 Duration : 11:00
	Homeward Strut, Tommy Bolin & Friends, Great Gypsy Soul [with Steve Lukather] Start: 21:11:00 End: 21:15:00 Duration : 4:00
	Hey Joe, Spirit, The Mercury Years Start: 21:16:00 End: 21:22:30 Duration : 6:30
	Crest of A Wave, Rory Gallagher, Crest of a Wave Start: 21:29:30 End: 21:35:30 Duration : 6:00
	Roosevelt & Ira Lee, Rob Tognoni, Shakin' the Devil's Hand Start: 21:35:30 End: 21:40:30 Duration : 5:00
	Mailbox, Frankie Miller, Out Of The Blue Start: 21:44:30 End: 21:47:30 Duration : 3:00
	Dusty Marshmallow, Tony Joe White, Swamp Music Start: 21:47:30 End: 21:51:30 Duration : 4:00
	24/7, Savoy Brown, Voodoo Moon Start: 21:51:30 End: 21:55:30 Duration : 4:00
	Our Good Thing Is Through, Chris Youlden, Matico Start: 21:55:30 End: 22:00:00 Duration : 4:30

Help Me - Paul Orta

Paul Orta has fronted his band The Kingpins (a.k.a. The International Playboys) and various other groups around the world. He has played in the U.S.A., Spain, England, Ireland, France, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Russia, Portugal, Poland, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark & The Netherlands. He has opened for B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Van Morrison, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Junior Walker, James Cotton, Buckwheat Zydeco, Dennis Quaid band with Huey Lewis to name a few. Paul Orta is also on: see discography.

Paul Orta born in Port Arthur, Texas (hometown of Janice Joplin) was first influenced by Louis Armstrong at the age of 7. After 9 years of playing the coronet in the school band, Paul Orta quit because the band never played blues or Jazz. Within a half a year he picked up the Harmonica and in three months, he was in his first professional band (The Bayou Boogie Band) when he was 16. They played in Golden Triangle (southeast Texas) and Louisiana for three years.

In 1979 Paul Orta moved to Austin, Texas and he won Kerrville Folk Festival in 1980. Later he formed The Backdoor Men with Port Arthur native Bill Jones (guitar) and with help of Eddie Stout (bass) evolved into The Kingpins. Afterwards he entered the “Antones the University of the Blues”. Playing with blues greats as Jimmy Rogers, Snooky Pryor, Eddie Taylor, Sunnyland Slim, Hubert Sumlin, Luther Tucker, Ted Harvey, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Pinetop Perkins, Wayne Benett, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Henry Grey and Robert Lockwood Jr. Everytime Snooky played at Antones annual festival he invited Paul Orta to play with him . Jimmy Roger also employed him as harp player for the festivals. One his favorite memories is was playing a weekly gig for 3 months with Sumlin (Howlin Wolf’s guitar player).

Paul Orta has also toured and recorded with Texas Guitar Tornado U.P. Wilson (U.S.A. and Europe). He can be heard on over a dozen albums and be heard on over 3 dozen different compilations and various albums in North & South America, Europe, Japan, Africa and Australia. In addition he has performed with second generation bluesmen like Kim Wilson, Derek O’Brian, Tommy Shannon and many others.

Past members of Paul Orta’s band have included Uncle John Turner (Johhny Winter), Keith Ferguson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds), Mike Kindred (Stevie Vaughn), Wesley Starr (Delbert McClinton), Jimmy Carl Black (Frank Zappa) and Freddie Waldon (Anson Funderburg and the Rockets).
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Steamboat Gwine Round Da Bend - John Fahey

John Fahey (February 28, 1939 – February 22, 2001) was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of the music and its minimalist style. Fahey borrowed from the folk and blues traditions in American roots music, having compiled many forgotten early recordings in these genres. He would later incorporate classical, Portuguese, Brazilian, and Indian music into his œuvre. Fahey wrote a largely apocryphal autobiography and was known for his coarseness, aloof demeanor, and dry humour. He spent many of his latter years in poverty and poor health, but also enjoyed a minor career resurgence with a turn towards the more explicitly avant-garde. He died in 2001 due to complications from heart surgery. In 2003, he was ranked 35th in the Rolling Stone "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list.
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Chris Smither's 'Hundred Dollar Valentine' due June 19

CHRIS SMITHER COSMIC BLUES COMES FULL CIRCLE
ON 12th ALBUM, HUNDRED DOLLAR VALENTINE OUT JUNE 19

First long-player by fingerpicker/singer/songwriter to feature all original songs features session support
from Morphine, Groovasaurus, The Lemonheads players

BOSTON, Mass. — There are such things as the cosmic blues. Janis Joplin once recorded a song by that name — she spelled it kosmik. But Chris Smither lives them.

Smither’s cosmic blues are on full display in Hundred Dollar Valentine, a brilliant amalgam made of equal parts past, present and future. It is music that traces its roots back deep into tradition, anchors its rhythms and textures in today, and reaches forward into the future, asking the Big Questions — why am I here? Is there purpose to all of this or is it just a spinning cascade of random moments?

And he does it all with six strings, an insistent, understated groove and a sly wink — letting you know that we may all enter and leave this world alone, but that don’t mean we can’t have a good time while we’re here.

Hundred Dollar Valentine, Smither’s 12th studio disc, due out June 19, 2012 on Signature Sounds, sports the unmistakable sound he’s made his trademark: fingerpicked acoustic guitar and evocative sonic textures meshed with spare, brilliant songs, delivered in a bone-wise, hard-won voice.

From his early days as the hot New Orleans transplant in the Boston folk scene, through his wilderness years, to his reemergence in the 1990s as one of America’s most distinctive acoustic performers, Chris Smither has always been his own man. He has zigged when others have zagged, eschewing sophisticated studio tricks and staying true to his musical vision, surrounding himself with sympathetic musicians ranging from Bonnie Raitt and the late Stephen Bruton to the next-generation kindred spirits with whom he works today.

It’s easy to see that Smither’s primary touchstone is acoustic blues, once describing his guitar style as “one third Lightnin’ Hopkins, one-third Mississippi John Hurt and one-third me.” While “blues” can evoke images of beer-sodden bar bands cranking out three sets a night wondering why one’s baby left them, Smither reaches back to the primordial longing and infinite loneliness held within the form.

Sure, the album kicks off with the deceptively jaunty title track, whose good-time, ricky-tick shuffle masks the singer’s walking the creaky floorboards of doubt. But the cosmic blues come to the fore on the next cut: “On the Edge” is part conversation, part confessional and part affirmation. This is when you start to realize what extraordinary artistry — what seamless meshing of sound, subject and delivery — is going on here.

Producer David “Goody” Goodrich (credits: Peter Mulvey, Jeffrey Foucault, Rose Polenzani, The Amity Front), a true musician’s musician, is a natural partner for Smither. “He knows me and my music so well that I trust his ideas implicitly and he keeps coming back with new ones,” says Smither. “This is my fifth project with Goody and each time he raises the bar.”

The recording sessions came together during early 2012 at Signature Studios in Pomfret, Connecticut. Stopping by were the nexus of two of Boston’s most distinctive and influential acts of the recent era — Treat Her Right’s (later Morphine) drummer Billy Conway and Jimmy Fitting on harmonica, and Goodrich’s ex-Groovasaurus bandmates Anita Suhanin (vocals) and violinist Ian Kennedy (Page/Plant, Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield, Peter Wolf, Susan Tedeschi).

“I've either worked with or been around all the musicians on this record over the years so it was a very comfortable and personable situation,” says Smither. “All these folks are the best at what they do. It makes my job easy.”

While this is Smither’s twelfth studio album, this is his first-ever outing comprised entirely of self-penned songs. He’s always favored the cream of songwriters, such as Dylan, Mark Knopfler and Chuck Berry, mixed with classics from the blues canon, but this time, the credits read all-Smither. “Actually,” he laughs, “there are two covers on the record; but it’s me covering myself.”

“My producer and manager made the argument — a strong one — that songs from my earlier catalog were written by a young man. I'm not a young man any longer but they thought it would be interesting to interpret work from my youth from the perspective of having been on the planet as long as I've been now.”

While it is no surprise that several of his songs have become virtual standards, it is ironic that the assuredly masculine Smither has found favor almost exclusively with female singers: “Love You (Me) Like a Man” has been recorded countless times, with the best known versions by Bonnie Raitt and Diana Krall, “Slow Surprise” by Emmylou Harris and “I Feel the Same” by Raitt, Candi Staton and Esther Phillips among others.

“We chose ‘I Feel the Same’ because of its conciseness. I’ve been told it’s a good example of less is more,” says Smither. Indeed, in three spare verses, “I Feel the Same” is one of the most hauntingly evocative modern blues ever written. “All that nothin’ causes all that pain,” marvels the singer, as he surveys the desolate landscape of heartbreak before him.

Equally unflinching is “Every Mother’s Son.” Tracing a direct line from Cain to Billy the Kid to David Koresh and Timothy McVeigh, “Every Mother’s Son” is an indelible portrait of nihilism:

“I speak to you. I think you'll understand/You know you’ve made your son Joseph a dangerous man/He's gone to town, he's bought himself a gun . . .” “It’s a song I wish would become irrelevant,” says Smither, “But I don’t think it ever will.”

On Hundred Dollar Valentine, Chris Smither makes music that simultaneously breaks and fortifies one’s heart. It’s music that acknowledges that even as we are together, we are alone. This is music that stares into that absolute abyss and does not lie. This is music that locks its gaze with life and death and does not look away.

On Hundred Dollar Valentine, Chris Smither sings the cosmic blues.

Americana Made - The Mighty Cash Cats - New Release Review

I just got the chance to listen to Americana Made by The Mighty Cash Cats - Michael J. & Leticia. This is an unusual recording covering Johnny Cash's career from Sun Records to the Rick Ruben American Recordings. Decked out in black and using Cash's vocal inflections, Michael J. and Leticia plus the addition to a few tunes by Hank Williams, Tim Hardin and Carl Perkins as well as two original numbers. The band, in addition to Michael J. Smith on vocal, guitar, Hammond and bass; Leticia Blumette on vocal, bass and guitar and strongly supported by Jarold Davis on lead guitars and vocals; and Justin Young on drums. The tunes included are Jackson, Tennessee Flattop Box, Ghost Riders in The Sky, No More Lonely Days and Empty Nights, Long Legged Guitar Picking Man, If I Were A Carpenter, Jambalaya, Wildwood Flower and The Dancer. The tribute is well throughout and performed. Leticia's vocals are particularly clear and interesting on Jambalaya.

Need some Cash... here you go!
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Jupiter 2 Records Artist: Geoff Achison and the Soul Diggers -Little Big Men - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Little Big Men by Geoff Achison and the Soul Diggers. This recording was earlier released in Australia but recently remixed with the addition of 3 tracks for US release. Australian based Achison has been touring internationally since the 90's. An outstanding guitarist, Achison has been an instructor at Jorma's Fur Peace Fanch for 15 years.
Crazy Horse, the opening track, is a cool blues/jazz number with a pop flair and tasty guitar work reminiscent of Mark Knopfler in attack. Achison has a totally different style and finesse but a similar approach to his touch. News, another jazzy tune, shows a lot of polish and articulate guitar riffs. Happening sees a little more bottom and funk wrapped in. Rule The World is a cool funky blues tune with really pretty cool rhythm and guitar riffs. Little Big Man continues with the jazzy touch and a lot of back beat. Very tasty guitar riffs. Waggin' The Dog has a very cool sound with electric keys and guitar compliments to Achison's gritty voice. Fake Identity takes a totally different rhythm pattern and some interesting guitar effects. I particularly like the bass on this track. The guitar solo shows some experimental flare adding to the texture of the music. Living In Fear brings the music to a more rock but still jazz/soul.funk infused basis. This tune has a particularly interesting guitar solo. Never Give It Up is a reggae style track demonstrating Achison's keen ability to paint the song with his guitar with dabs rather than on long flaring stroke. Reach For The Sky sees Achison and key player Mal Logan stretching out on an instrumental for a pretty decent jam! Boy, the original closing tune for the release is a bluesy ballad with some interesting volume swells and guitar accents. Kerry Lou, the first of the bonus tracks on the cd gets more of a blues swing cooking with cool piano lead and displaying some of Achison's best vocals on the cd. Chasing My Tail, a funky rocker has an interesting bottom line and is definitely a mover. Chance closes the recording with a catchy off beat tune with piano and horn. Achison breaks loose with what may be the best guitar riffs on the release.

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ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN - LEON RUSSELL

Claude Russell Bridges (born April 2, 1942), known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music.

Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, he began playing piano at the age of four. Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At this time he was already performing at Tulsa nightclubs. After moving to Los Angeles, he became a session musician, working as a pianist on the recordings of many notable musical artists since the 1960s. By the late 1960s, Russell diversified, becoming successful as an arranger and wrote/co-wrote songs. As a musician, he worked his way from gigs as a sideman to well known performers. By 1970 he had graduated to solo recording artist, although he never ended all his previous roles within the music industry.

Russell was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, March 14, 2011, at a black-tie dinner at The Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan.
Russell began his musical career at the age of 14 in the nightclubs of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He and his group The Starlighters, which included J.J. Cale, Leo Feathers, Chuck Blackwell and Johnny Williams,[5] were instrumental in creating the style of music known as the Tulsa Sound. After settling in Los Angeles, he studied guitar with James Burton. Known mostly as a session musician early in his career, as a solo artist he has crossed genres to include rock and roll, blues, and gospel music, playing with artists as varied as Gary Lewis, George Harrison, Delaney Bramlett, Ringo Starr, Doris Day, Elton John, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, Badfinger, Tijuana Brass, Frank Sinatra, The Band, Bob Dylan, Glen Campbell, and The Rolling Stones.
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Blue Monk - Larry Coryell

Larry Coryell (born April 2, 1943) is an American jazz fusion guitarist.
Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby Yakima, Washington. He then moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. He played in a number of popular Northwest bands, including The Dynamics, while living in Seattle.

In 1965, Coryell moved to New York City where he became part of Chico Hamilton's quintet, replacing Gabor Szabo. In 1967 and 1968, he recorded with Gary Burton. Also during the mid-1960s he played with The Free Spirits. His music during the late-1960s and early-1970s combined the influences of rock, jazz and eastern music. He formed his own group, The Eleventh House, in 1973. The album sold well in college towns and the ensemble toured widely to support that. Following the break-up of this band, Coryell played mainly acoustic guitar, but returned to electric guitar later in the 1980s. In 1979, Coryell formed "The Guitar Trio" with jazz fusion guitarist John McLaughlin and flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. The group toured Europe briefly, eventually releasing a video recorded at Royal Albert Hall in London entitled "Meeting of Spirits". In early 1980, Coryell's drug addiction led to him being replaced by Al Di Meola.

In 2007, Coryell published an autobiography titled Improvising: My Life in Music. Larry's two sons, Julian Coryell and Murali Coryell are also actively involved in the music business.
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Black Jack Blues - J.T. Brown and Original Fleetwood Mac

Blues Jam at Chess/Fleetwood Mac In Chicago/Blues Jam In Chicago Vols. 1 & 2 was the result of a recording session in early 1969, at Chess Records in Chicago (home to Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, et al.) with Fleetwood Mac, then a young British blues band, and some of their Chicago blues mentors.

Fleetwood Mac: Jeremy Spencer (vocals, guitar, slide guitar); Danny Kirwan (vocals, guitar); Peter Green (vocals, guitar); John McVie (bass guitar); Mick Fleetwood (drums).

Mentors: Otis Spann (vocals, piano); David Honeyboy Edwards (guitar); Buddy Guy (guitar); Walter "Shakey" Horton (harmonica); J. T. Brown (tenor saxophone); Willie Dixon (acoustic bass); S.P. Leary (drums).
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Little Wing - The Jarekus Singleton Band

Blues guitarist Jarekus Singleton will blow you away with his alternating soulful and blazing guitar licks. He and his two cousins, Chancellor Cain on keyboard and Ben Sterling on bass have been playing Gospel together for years in their grandfather’s Jarekus Singletonchurch in Jackson, Mississippi. Adding Frank White on drums, the band is tight and plays like seasoned blues musicians steeped in Mississippi Blues. The surprise in hearing them comes when you realize they are all under the age of 30!

Andre Russell, the senior member of the group and background vocalist, rounds out the high energy blues show that makes people get on their feet and dance. Jarekus has acquired an ardent fan base made up of old and young fans alike who follow him and rave about his awesome guitar talent and unique style.

Jarekus and his band perform regularly around the Central Mississippi area. He performed at the Chicago Blues Festival in 2009, 2010, & 2011. He and his band competed in the 2010 International Blues Challenge in Memphis and came away with rave reviews and a new set of national and international fans. He was nominated as Blues Artist of the Year for the 2010 Jackson Music Awards.

Jarekus has already performed with well known musicians such as Omar Cunningham, Grady Champion and others. Jarekus “plays what he feels” and that feeling is what he wants to come out of his guitar, his music and his band.
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Magic Slim and the Teardrops w/ Alabama Pettis

Magic Slim (born Morris Holt, August 7, 1937, Grenada, Mississippi) is an American blues singer and guitaristMagic Slim (vocal & guitar) and The Teardrops Alabama Junior Pettis (guitar) Nick Holt (bass) and Nate Appelwhite (drums).
Magic Slim was forced to give up playing the piano when he lost his little finger in a cotton gin mishap. He moved first to nearby Grenada. He first came to Chicago in 1955 with his friend and mentor Magic Sam. The elder Magic (Sam) let the younger Magic (Slim) play bass with his band, and gave him his nickname.
Coleman ("Alabama Junior") Pettis (d. April 1, 1988)played rhythm guitar with Slim. Pettis and Slim seemed to be perfectly made for each other playing off of each others fillers.
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Lets Get It On - Marvin Gaye

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range.

Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.

His work in the early and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death. Gaye was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
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Hard Time Killing Floor Blues - Chris Thomas King

King was born on October 14, 1964, in Baton Rouge. His father, Tabby Thomas, is a locally prominent bluesman who owned a club called Tabby's Blues Box, which opened in 1979 and closed in 2004 following Tabby’s retirement. As a result, King, started early toward his musical future; even as a youngster he was well known as Rockin' Tabby's son and a child genius. While frequenting his father's club he performed with the late Silas Hogan, Guitar Kelly and Clarence Edwards, three masters of swamp blues. By sixth grade, King was learning to play the trumpet and later traveling as a rhythm guitar player of famous musicians like Lowell Folsom and Joe Tex. As he matured in the musical setting of New Orleans area blues culture, King was encouraged to experiment and develop his own style. Because each blues musician had a unique playing and singing style, he was discouraged from singing others' songs or even playing the way they did. He told Lisa Simeone on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, "They would never sit me down and say, 'Well, this is how it goes.' They ... told me don't sing their songs ... 'Find your own song and sing that.'"


At some time around 1980, while King was still in his teens, he toured in Europe with a group of Louisiana artists. After returning to the United States he produced a demo recording playing all the instruments himself, which led to a deal with Arhoolie Records. King's debut album, The Beginning, appeared in 1986 and featured King on vocals, bass, and guitar. Arhoolie reissued the album in 2001 under the title “It's a Cold Ass World.”

King signed a major recording contract with Warner Brothers Records in 1989 and headlined a national tour to support the release of his greatly anticipated follow-up “Cry of the Prophets,” making his national television debut on the David Letterman Show. However, after releasing his first album, which was steeped in tradition, he embarked on bold artistic directions of his own, on following albums. Controversy and debate grew among purists because of the uncharted directions he was taking the blues. He was the first bluesman to embrace the digital music revolution and the first to introduced hip-hop along with sampling and deejay-distorted electronica into genre.


Like Miles Davis and Bob Dylan before him, Chris Thomas King was originally celebrated as the young savior of an aging musical culture when he first arrived on the national scene. Branded as a rebel King was banned form blues festivals across the United States. He fled to Denmark to cool his heels in the more liberal environment that flourished in Europe. While in Denmark he recorded and released the critically acclaimed hip-hop blues album “21st Century Blues from da hood.” The French embraced him as a major artist with vision and the rest of Europe followed. He toured with his Danish band extensively across Europe playing major festivals and theaters but longed to return to New Orleans. Upon returning to the United States in 1995, he started his own independent production company and record label, 21st Century Blues. Soon after he found success as a film composer and actor. Winning three Grammy Awards by 2003 and several Country music CMA awards.
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Paul Lamb & The King Snakes

It didn’t happen suddenly. It took years of hard work and application, unfashionable words that signify little in these days of instant fame. As Paul can tell you, he and his band have done their individual time, made their mistakes, applied what they’ve learned, focused on their musicianship and the results are passed on to audiences that flock to their gigs. They in turn are guaranteed to enjoy genuine music performed with skill and mutual encouragement. It’s a simple but sure formula.

Right now, the King Snakes are a refreshing mixture of (relative) youth and experience.

The experience starting at the top, for Paul Lamb has spent the last thirty-some years whoopin’ and hollerin’ in clubs in his native North-East plus a later move to London, in concert and on festival stages, creating a personal synthesis of his harmonica heroes and his own unique and innate talent. His history includes representing Britain in the World Harmonica Championships, working with his particular mentor, Sonny Terry, and with any number of other blues artists who’ve visited these shores Over the years Paul Lamb & the King Snakes have won countless awards , sold record breaking quantities of albums and been inducted into the British Blues Awards Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Peter Green & John Mayall. If you like what I’m doing, Like Bman’s Blues Report Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Tony O'Malley, Neil Hubbard, Adam Phillips, John Michael Mckenzie, Andy Treacey,Frank Collins & Jo Harman

Lovers of old school blues/groove should check out this line up. Seriously deep! It will sell out so get in quick. Some of these guys really are UK groove legends. It'll be a masterclass in ensemble playing, be there! You'll learn more in 30 minutes watching these guys than spending 30 years in music school.

Friday, April 13th, 2012
606 Jazz Club
21.00
90 Lots Road
London SW10 0QD
UK +44 207 352 5953
Neil Hubbard is a British guitarist who performed with Juicy Lucy (band), The Grease Band, Bluesology, Joe Cocker, Roxy Music, Kokomo, B.B. King, Kevin Rowland, and Tony O'Malley; and played on the original 1970 concept album, Jesus Christ Superstar.

Hubbard was educated at King's School, Peterborough, where he was a boarder. He and another pupil were budding guitarists who built their own amplifiers using plans designed by a fellow boarder and electronics wizzard named Wright. The duo would entertain their chums with renditions of songs such as Tommy Roe's "Sheila" and Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue".

Hubbard's association with Bryan Ferry began during the sessions that formed the Let's Stick Together album, where Hubbard played guitar on a re-recording of Roxy Music's "Casanova". Hubbard's guitar playing can also be heard on Roxy Music's Flesh + Blood and Avalon albums. He played with the band during the 1980 and 1982 tours. The 1982 tour can be heard on the live album Heart Still Beating (and also the live DVD The High Road). Hubbard also played in Ferry's band at Live Aid, the 1988 tour (available on the DVD, Bryan Ferry The Bete Noire Tour) and on the 1994-5 tour.

His guitar work can be heard on Ferry's Boys And Girls, Bête Noire, Taxi and Mamouna albums. The guitar solo at the end of Ferry's hit single, "Slave to Love", featured Hubbard.

In May 2008, the 1970s jazz funk band Kokomo was temporarily reformed. With Hubbard were O'Malley, Mel Collins, Mark Smith, Adam Phillips, Andy Hamilton, Bernie Holland, Glen Le Fleur, Paddy McHugh, Dyan Birch, and Frank Collins. Franke Pharoah and Eddy Armani also performed.

Hubbard was interviewed about his times in the music industry by Keef Trouble at Hamish Stuart's pub at Oare, Faversham in June 2008, during playing with O'Malley.

Adam Phillips is a British jazz and blues guitarist and singer.
Phillips has performed and recorded with Tina Turner, Dave Lewis, Ricky Martin, Steps, Britney Spears, Ronan Keating, Laura Pausini, Celine Dion, Maxi Priest, The Corrs, Shayne Ward, Boyzone, Hamish Stuart, Lionel Richie, Renato Zero, Tom Robinson, Whitney Houston, and Tony O'Malley.

He has worked on most of Cher's latest recordings. As a guitarist on Hamish Stuart's European tours, he was introduced to Cher by Stuart. Phillips was employed by Cher as a guitarist on her Believe album. He later went on to play guitar on her "All or Nothing" single (1999), and her Living Proof album (2001).

In 1998 Phillips was the guitarist on Peter Blegvad's Hangman's Hill album. Enrique Iglesias used Phillips as a guitarist on 2003's album, 7. Further work as a guitarist included The Herbaliser's Take London (2005); Just Jack's Overtones (2007); James Morrison's Songs for You, Truths for Me (2008); and in 2009 Destroy Destroy Destroy's Battle Sluts.

In July 2007, as a regular guitarist with the Tom Robinson Band, he was featured in a Tom Robinson performance at the Cancer Research Benefit in London, also including T. V. Smith. Phillips is also a frequent performer at Chelsea's (London) 606 Club, particularly with jazz musicians Dave Lewis and Tony O'Malley.

In May 2008 he was a guitarist with the temporarily reformed 1970s jazz funk band, Kokomo, with Tony O'Malley, Frank Collins, Paddy McHugh, Dyan Birch, Mel Collins, Neil Hubbard, Mark Smith, Andy Hamilton, Bernie Holland, and Glen Le Fleur. O'Malley's own band, regularly features Phillips, along with Mel Collins, Hubbard, Smith, Jeremy Stacey, and Ash Soan.

Phillips has performed and recorded as a drummer and percussionist, and has frequently been used as a backing vocalist. On occasion his work has been used in film soundtracks, including What a Girl Wants (2003).

Frank Collins (born 25 October 1947, Liverpool) is a British composer, singer and arranger who was a leading light with the bands The Excels, Arrival, and Kokomo. He wrote Arrival's 1970s Top 10 hit record, "I Will Survive" (not the Gloria Gaynor song); a band that included keyboard/vocalist Tony O'Malley, vocalists Dyan Birch and Paddy McHugh, saxophonist Mel Collins, guitarist Neil Hubbard, guitarist Jim Mullen, bass player Alan Spenner, percussionist Jody Linscott, and drummer Terry Stannard.

Collins has worked as session singer and backing singer for Bryan Ferry, Terence Trent D'Arby, Marianne Faithful, Ian Dury, Alvin Lee, Gloria Gaynor, Alison Moyet, Marc Bolan, B.B. King, and Bob Dylan.

In May 2008, Collins was part of the temporarily reformed 1970s jazz funk band, Kokomo, with Tony O'Malley, Paddy McHugh, Dyan Birch, Mel Collins, Neil Hubbard, Adam Phillips, Mark Smith, Andy Hamilton, Bernie Holland, and Glen Le Fleur.
Born in London, raised in Devon, Jo pursued her love of classical music – playing bassoon to grade 8 standard in a number of prestigious youth orchestras. After gaining a degree in performing arts, she subsequently travelled the world before coming to Brighton, her current home town, to study at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music.

Jo’s evocative voice, a truly powerfully soulful and bluesy instrument, attracted the attention of the infamous London/Brighton Soul Reality Collective where she was invited to take centre stage with some of the best around, including musicians who have worked with the likes of Massive Attack, Jools Holland, Tom Jones, Iggy Pop, Paul Weller and many, many other A-list greats. Quickly encouraged by these guys to form her own band comprising the best of their number, her fast growing reputation secured prestigious bookings – gigs at the world famous 606 club, a couple of BBC introducing sessions and a guest slot with the legendary Average White Band, included. These early gigs instantly showcased a natural stagecraft and a deeply expressive voice that drew instant, if sometimes unhelpful!, comparisons with any manner of other singers as diverse as Janis Joplin and Dusty Springfield and the classic Memphis performers.
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Prayer I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord - Reverend Louis Overstreet

Born in 1947 near Lakeland, LA, Louis Overstreet began singing in gospel quartets at an early age. He was working in a turpentine plant in Dequincy, LA, in 1958, however, when he felt the call to become a full-time minister. Blessed with a ferocious, deep singing voice and accompanying himself on electric guitar and bass drum (playing both at once), the Rev. Louis Overstreet, along with a gospel quartet made up of his four sons, took his own brand of street evangelism around Louisiana and to Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arizona, Nevada, and California before settling in as the pastor of St. Luke's Powerhouse Church of God in Christ in Phoenix, AZ, in 1961. It was there that Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records recorded Overstreet and his congregation and sons for the 1962 LP Rev. Louis Overstreet. The album was reissued on CD in 1995 with additional tracks recorded at Overstreet's home and a track from a 1963 appearance at the Cabale Coffee House in Berkeley, CA. Overstreet passed away in 1980.
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One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer- Amos Milburn

Amos Milburn (April 1, 1927 – January 3, 1980) was an African American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, popular during the 1940s and 1950s. He was born and died in Houston, Texas.

One commentator noted, "Milburn excelled at good-natured, upbeat romps about booze and partying, imbued with a vibrant sense of humour and double entendre, as well as vivid, down-home imagery in his lyrics."
Born in Houston, one of thirteen children, by the age of five years Milburn was playing tunes by piano. He enlisted in the United States Navy when he was fifteen and earned thirteen battle stars in the Philippines, before returning to Houston and organizing a sixteen-piece band playing in Houston clubs, and participating with the Houston jazz and blues musicians. He was a polished pianist and performer and during 1946 attracted the attention of a woman who arranged a recording session with Aladdin Records in Los Angeles, California. Milburn's relationship with Aladdin lasted eight years during which he produced more than seventy-five sides. His cover version of "Down the Road a Piece" (1946) was a blues song with a Texas boogie beat that was similar in many respects to rock music. However, none became popular until 1949 when seven of his singles got the attention of the R&B audience. "Hold Me Baby" and "Chicken Shack Boogie" landed numbers eight and nine on Billboard's survey of 1949's R&B Bestsellers. He became one of the main performers associated with Central Avenue of Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood. He was also a popular touring artist, and won awards from both Down Beat magazine (Best Blues and Jazz Star) and Billboard magazine (Top R&B Artist). Among his best known songs was "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer". During 1950 Milburn's "Bad, Bad, Whiskey" scored the top of the R&B record chart and began a series of drinking songs (none written by Milburn, but several composed by Rudy Toombs). However, there is not any evidence that Milburn had an alcohol problem.

Milburn continued his successful drinking songs through 1952 {"Thinking and Drinking", "Trouble in Mind"} and was by now touring the country playing clubs. While touring the Midwest that summer, he announced that he would disband his combo team and continue as a solo act and that autumn he joined Charles Brown for a Southern concert tour. For the next few years each of his tours was composed of a series of one-nighters. After three years of solo performing he returned to Houston during 1956 to reform his band. During 1957 Milburn's releases with Aladdin Records did not sell well, and the record label, having its own problems, terminated. He tried to regain commercial success with a few more releases with Ace Records but his time had passed. Radio airplay was emphasizing on the teenage market.

Milburn contributed to the R&B Yuletide canon during 1960 with his swinging "Christmas (Comes but Once a Year)" for King. The song appeared as the b-side of Brown's holiday classic "Please Come Home for Christmas". Berry Gordy gave him a comeback forum during 1962, issuing an album on Motown predominated by remakes of his old successes that is difficult to find today (Little Stevie Wonder played harmonica for the sessions).

Milburn's final recording was for an album by Johnny Otis. This was during 1972 after he had been incapacitated by a stroke, so much so that Otis had to play the left-hand piano parts for his enfeebled old friend. His second stroke resulted in amputation of a leg because of circulatory problems. He died soon after at the age of 52 years from a third stroke.
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Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out - Alberta Hunter

Alberta Hunter (April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and nurse. Her career had started back in the early 1920s, and from there on, she became a successful jazz and blues recording artist, being critically acclaimed to the ranks of Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith. In the 1950s, she retired from performing and entered the medical field, only to successfully resume her singing career in her 1980s.
Born in Memphis, she left home while still in her early teens and settled in Chicago, Illinois. There, she peeled potatoes by day and hounded club owners by night, determined to land a singing job. Her persistence paid off, and Hunter began a climb through some of the city's lowest dives to a headlining job at its most prestigious venue for black entertainers, the Dreamland ballroom. She had a five-year association with the Dreamland, beginning in 1917, and her salary rose to $35 a week.

She first toured Europe in 1917, performing in Paris and London. The Europeans treated her as an artist, showing her respect and even reverence, which made a great impression on her.
Hunter finally got her break when she moved to New York City. She performed with Bricktop and Louis Armstrong. She continued to perform until shortly before her death in October 1984.
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Shave 'em Dry - Lucille Bogan

Lucille Bogan (April 1, 1897 – August 10, 1948) was an American blues singer, among the first to be recorded. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson. The sexologist and music critic, Ernest Borneman, stated that Bogan along with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, was in "the big three of the blues".
She was born Lucille Anderson in Amory, Mississippi, United States, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1916, she married Nazareth Lee Bogan, a railwayman, and gave birth to a son.

She first recorded vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in New York in 1923, with pianist Henry Callens. Later that year she recorded "Pawn Shop Blues" in Atlanta, Georgia, which was the first time a black blues singer had been recorded outside New York or Chicago. In 1927 she began recording for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin, where she recorded her first big success, "Sweet Petunia", which was covered by Blind Blake. She also recorded for Brunswick Records, backed by Tampa Red and Cow Cow Davenport.

By 1930 her recordings had begun to concentrate on drinking and sex, with songs such as "Sloppy Drunk Blues" (covered by Leroy Carr and others) and "Tricks Ain't Walkin' No More" (later recorded by Memphis Minnie). She also recorded the original version of "Black Angel Blues", which (as "Sweet Little Angel") was covered by B.B. King and many others. Trained in the rowdier juke joints of the 1920s, many of Bogan's songs, most of which she wrote herself, have thinly-veiled humorous sexual references. The theme of prostitution, in particular, featured prominently in several of her recordings.

In 1933 she returned to New York, and, apparently to conceal her identity, began recording as Bessie Jackson for the Banner (ARC) label. She was usually accompanied on piano by Walter Roland, with whom she recorded over 100 songs between 1933 and 1935, including some of her biggest commercial successes including "Seaboard Blues", "Troubled Mind", and "Superstitious Blues".

Her other songs included "Stew Meat Blues", "Coffee Grindin' Blues", "My Georgia Grind", "Honeycomb Man", "Mr. Screw Worm In Trouble", and "Bo Hog Blues". Her final recordings with Roland and Josh White included two takes of "Shave 'Em Dry", recorded in New York on Tuesday March 5, 1935. The unexpurgated alternate take is notorious for its explicit sexual references, a unique record of the lyrics sung in after-hours adult clubs. Another of her songs, "B.D. Woman's Blues", takes the position of a "bull dyke" ("B.D."), with the line "Comin' a time, B.D. women, they ain't gonna need no men" "They got a head like a sweet angel and they walk just like a natural man." "They can lay their jive just like a natural man."

She appears not to have recorded after 1935, and spent some time managing her son's jazz group, Bogan's Birmingham Busters, before moving to Los Angeles shortly before her death from coronary sclerosis in 1948
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Careless Love, Bucket Has A Hole, andHigh Society - Sweet Emma Barrett

"Sweet Emma" Barrett (March 25, 1897, New Orleans, Louisiana – January 28, 1983) was a self-taught jazz pianist and singer who worked with the Original Tuxedo Orchestra between 1923 and 1936, first under Papa Celestin, then William Ridgely. Also active with Armand Piron, John Robichaux, and Sidney Desvigne, Sweet Emma Barrett was at her most powerful in the early 1960s and became an iconic figure with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
In 1947, she accepted a steady job at a local club, Happy Landing, but it was her 1961 recording debut, with her own album in the Riverside Records New Orleans: The Living Legends series, that brought her recognition from beyond the Crescent City. According to the liner notes of this album, these were her first recording performances as a vocalist, most of the songs on the album were instrumentals.

She was nicknamed Bell Gal because she wore a red skull cap and garters with Christmas bells that jingled in time with her music. She was featured on the cover of Glamour magazine and written up in publications on both sides of the Atlantic. When the Preservation Hall Jazz Band began to "hit the road", she took it on international tours. Barrett toured in the United States as well, including a stint at Disneyland in 1963.

Despite the popular exposure she received at concerts and overseas appearances, Barrett continued to feel most comfortable in her native New Orleans, especially the French Quarter. In 1963, on her album The Bell Gal And Her Dixieland Boys Music, Barrett sings on four of the eight songs and heads two overlapping groups. While she is joined throughout by banjoist Emanuel Sayles, bassist Placide Adams, and drummer Paul Barbarin, four songs feature trumpeter Alvin Alcorn, trombonist Jim Robinson and clarinetist Louis Cottrell, Jr.; the remaining four numbers have trumpeter Don Albert, trombonist Frog Joseph and clarinetist Raymond Burke. Overall, this set gives listeners a good sampling of the sound of New Orleans jazz circa 1963 and is one of the few recordings of Barrett mostly without the regular members of what would become the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Robinson and Sayles excepted). The ensemble-oriented renditions of such numbers as "Big Butter and Egg Man", "Bogalusa Strut", and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"' are rendered with fun and joy.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band made a brief appearance in the 1965 film, The Cincinnati Kid, which featured Barrett as vocalist and pianist for the band and included a close-up of her.

In 1967, she suffered a stroke that paralyzed her left side, but she continued to work and occasionally, to record, until her death in 1983.
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Rocket 88 - James Cotton

James Cotton (born July 1, 1935, Tunica, Mississippi, United States) is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.
Cotton became interested in music when he first heard Sonny Boy Williamson II on the radio. He left home with his uncle and moved to West Helena, Arkansas, finding Williamson there. For many years Cotton claimed that he told Williamson that he was an orphan, and that Williamson took him in and raised him; a story he admitted in recent years is not true. Williamson did however mentor Cotton during his early years. When Williamson left the south to live with his estranged wife in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he left his band in Cotton's hands. Cotton was quoted as saying, "He just gave it to me. But I couldn't hold it together 'cause I was too young and crazy in those days an' everybody in the band was grown men, so much older than me."
Cotton performing in 2008

Although he played drums early in his career, Cotton is famous for his work on the harmonica.
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Hammerhead - T.A. James

Born in Syracuse NY at a relatively young age, T.A. James is
a blues guitarist/bassist with a 20+ year career. In ’90, he
joined premier Salt City blues outfit, The Kingsnakes as
guitarist, which traveled the East Coast and as far west as
Mississippi. In ’95, James got the call to do a weekend of
Canadian dates on bass with the late great Chicago blues
harp legend Carey Bell, which turned into an 8 year
association. This version of Carey’s band toured much of the
US, Europe and Japan. In addition, he was a successful
freelance guitarist/bassist in the Syracuse blues scene and
elsewhere between ’92 and ’04.

Durham NC became James' home in ’05. Since ’07, he has been performing primarily as bassist with
the red hot Zydeco-Cajun flavored blues quartet Mel Melton & The Wicked Mojos. When not
performing with the ‘Mojos, James does freelance work with other NC blues standouts such as Tad
Walters and Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen, as well as performing as a solo. As a solo, he recently
competed in the ‘012 International Blues Challenge and the ‘011 Piedmont Blues Preservation
Society Solo/Duo Blues Challenge (having won the latter).
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A Fool For Your Stockings - Max Drake

Uncle Grub handles the vocals with Max Drake and Rusty Barkley on Guitar. MAX DRAKE has been playing in and recording with blues/R&B bands such as Arhoolie, The Excellos and the Ministers of Sinister since the '60s. More recently, he has lent his fiery fretwork to the late Skeeter Brandon and Big Bill Morganfield before joining forces with The Wicked Mojos in 2005. Max also performs with a stripped-down nasty blues/roots band known as The Buzzkillz Photo is used with permission of Doug Mokaren

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Juke Joints and Honkytonks - Mel Melton and The Wicked Mojos

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Mel Melton & The Wicked Mojos, a smokin' Zydeco/Cajun flavored blues band out of North Carolina. For those not in the know, let's meet the guys up close and...



MEL MELTON, on what was intended to be a brief visit to Lafayette LA in the early '70s turned out to be a life-changing experience. There he met, played with and forged lasting relationships with Sonny Landreth and Cheniers Clifton, Cleveland and CJ. After a long stint with Bayou Rhythm, Mel took time off from the music rat-race to concentrate on a chef career (another facet developed and sharpened from the early Lafayette days). 1990 found him back in NC and back at music, having formed the first edition of The Wicked Mojos.
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I Believe - Larry Johnson & Nat Riddles

Blues musicians Larry Johnson (b. May 15, 1938 in Atlanta, Georgia) and Nat Riddles made a couple of records in the 80’s; Johnson (guitar, vocals) with Riddles (bluesharp, vocals).
Nat Riddles (4 February 1952 — 11 August 1991) was a blues harmonica player who played an important role in the New York blues scene during the late 1970s to mid 1980s. Born in Bronxville, a Westchester County suburb of New York, he was educated at Brooklyn College and the Pratt Institute. In the early 1980s, he became known in New York blues circles for his street performances with guitarist Charlie Hilbert as part of a free-form duo that he labeled 'El Cafe Street.'

Riddles performed with Larry Johnson and Odetta as well as Hilbert. He recorded several albums with Johnson (one produced by Len Kunstadt for Spivey Records, one produced by Horst Lippmann) and a solo album on Spivey entitled The Artistry of Nat Riddles. He also contributed several cuts to a Spivey series of LPs entitled New York Really has The Blues.

Riddles died of leukemia in August 1991 in Richmond, Virginia at the age of 39
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26th Annual Carolina Blues Festival

P.O Box 9737 Greensboro, NC 27429
www.piedmontblues.org

Contact: John Amberg
336-580-8153

jamberg@mindspring.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

YES! WEEKLY PRESENTS THE 26TH ANNUAL CAROLINA BLUES FESTIVAL
26TH Year Brings Major National, Regional and Local Blues Artists to Greensboro

The Piedmont Blues Preservation Society has secured an all-star line-up of three national, one regional and
two local blues acts to perform at the 26th Annual Carolina Blues Festival, presented by YES! Weekly, under
the big tent at Festival Park in Downtown Greensboro, May 19.

Headlining the festival is Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King, two raucous, high–energy Texas roadhouse
bluesmen that perform blistering solos, irresistible shuffles and subtle ballads. Also appearing is Eric Gales, a
guitar phenom and dazzling soulful technician. Even though you might have seen him playing at the Hendrix
Experience held recently at the War Memorial Auditorium in March this left-handed virtuoso with the upsidedown
guitar is certainly no Hendrix clone. Our third national act is “The Georgia Songbird,” EG Kight, who has
been on tour opening for BB King. She’s a brassy, gutsy, blues singer and guitar player that can really belt out
the blues.

Joining our national acts is Mel Melton & the Wicked Mojos, a smoking’ hot Zydeco-Cajun band out of
Durham. They can really get the house up on its feet after they start cooking those Zydeco rhythms touched
with roadhouse blues. House of Dues is the PBPS Blues Challenge Band category winner performing New
Orleans Funk, Blues and R&B. Rounding out the line up is the Piedmont Blues Preservation Society’s Blues
Challenge Solo/Duo category winner, T.A. James, providing his blues guitar virtuosity with a modern take on
life and love.

Tickets are on sale now at www.piedmontblues.org, and can be purchased at the Carolina Theatre Box Office,
310 South Greene Street, (Mon-Fri hours are 12p to 5p), charged by phone, (336-333-2605), or online at
www.carolinatheatre.com. Tickets are also available at all five locations of Bank of Oak Ridge , 2102 N. Elm
St., 1597 New Garden Road, 400 Pisgah Church Road, Greensboro, 4423 Highway 220 North, Summerfield,
and 2211 Oak Ridge Road, Oak Ridge (Mon-Fri hours are 8:30a to 6p and Sat 8:30a to 1p)
www.bankofoakridge.com, as well as Stonefield Cellars Winery, (8220 NC Highway 68 North, Stokesdale.)
www.stonefieldcellars.com

Advance tickets are $20 each, $30 day of show. Special corporate rates are available, 12 tickets for $150. To
get this deal your ticket request must be submitted on your company letterhead with check or money order
payable to the Piedmont Blues Preservation Society. Please include your business card with request. Mail your
corporate request to: Festival Ticket Deal, C/O PBPS, PO Box 9737, Greensboro, NC 27429. Group ticket
discounts are available through May 11.

About the Piedmont Blues Preservation Society

PBPS is a registered 501(c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to keeping the blues music genre alive and
growing. The Society’s goals are to support live performances of blues music in the Piedmont Triad, introduce
young and old to the historical significance of this music genre and promote blues music for generations to
come.

Louisiana Red remembered with new photo page! - Bob Corritore

We remember and celebrate the life of the recently deceased Louisiana Red with a beautiful photo page. Red was a gloriously talented down-home blues artist and his musical contributions will live through eternity. Thanks to all the folks who sent in photos of Red upon the news of his passing. Some of those are included on this page, which you can see by clicking here.
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