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George Tyrogalas
Editing by:
Ken Kingsbury
2008 Poster:
2005 PERFORMERS
Celebrate the blues this year down by the San Francisco Bay at the world's oldest blues festival, September 24-25. Held on the green at Fort Mason's Great Meadow and framed by the stunning backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay, the Festival will celebrate its 33rd year with an all-star lineup of some of the best blues performers in the world.
Huey Lewis & the News
Huey Lewis & the News, on the eve of their 25th anniversary, have been defying the rock oddsmakers for over two decades. Formed from two rival Bay Area bands in 1979, their contagious brand of straight-ahead rock 'n' roll has outlasted countless trends, selling over 20 million albums worldwide in the process. Huey Lewis & the News have carried the banner as the quintessential American rock band, endearing them to millions of fans and earning them the right to mark their place on the pop history map. These Grammy Award winners have written and performed such classic Top Ten Hits as "Heart of Rock & Roll," "Stuck With You," "I Want a New Drug," "If This Is It," "Hip To Be Square" and "Workin' For a Living." The group also wrote and performed "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time" for the hit film Back to the Future. "The Power of Love," which was nominated for an Academy Award, went all the way to #1 on Billboard's singles chart. In all, Huey Lewis & the News have compiled over 13 Top Ten it records and 10 albums, including their just-released "Live At 25" on Rhino. The group has also released a DVD of the same title.
As great a recording career as the band has had, it's their live performances that remain the stuff of legend. Huey Lewis & the News have incorporated a variety of musical influences, including R&B and soul, to create their own unique sound. One highlight of their show is their a cappella rendition of early rock 'n' roll classics such as "Sixty Minute Man," "Under the Boardwalk" and "It's Alright."Lewis is a superb blues harmonica player who has been influenced by such greats as Little Walter, Jr. Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson and James Cotton.
Huey Lewis & the News are: Huey Lewis (vocals and harmonica), Johnny Colla (saxophone, guitar and vocals), Bill Gibson (drums, percussion and vocals), Sean Hopper (keyboards and vocals), Stef Burns (guitars and vocals) and John Pierce (bass). Their live show features a horn section of San Francisco Bay Area luminaries: Marvin McFadden (trumpet), Ron Stallings (tenor saxophone) and Rob Sudduth (baritone saxophone). They are one of the most popular bands to emerge from the Bay Area.
Mavis Staples
As the most well-known member of the most successful crossover Gospel group of all time, Chicago-raised Mavis Staples will forever be known for her gutsy, spirit-chilling, heart-full-of-soul-and-conviction delivery on the Staple Singers' 1972 Stax classic, "I'll Take You There." Along with her remarkable father, Mississippi born and raised Roebuck "Pop" Staples, and siblings Yvonne and Cleotha, the Staples have long been known as the "First Family of Gospel." "I'll Take You There" reached the number one spot on both the soul and pop music charts. Follow-up hits such as "Respect Yourself," "If You're Ready," "Come Go With Me," and "Let's Do It Again," helped transcend the Staples' popularity as a primary gospel roots group and took them beyond the non-secular congregations to appreciative audiences of pop music fans worldwide. Mavis has been a standout performer since childhood, when she traveled across the country in gospel tent shows and revivals. Her utterly gorgeous and deeply affecting voice has touched the souls of listeners on almost every continent since the late '40s. Mavis has fronted her own band and even recorded two solo records under "The Artist" for his Paisley Park label, even appearing in Prince's film Graffiti Bridge as Melody Cool. Her work on Pop Staples' 1992 solo album, "Peace to the Neighborhood," helped that recording earn a Grammy. She appeared in a duet format with guitar and organ wizard Lucky Peterson, and a solo release, on Verve Records, titled "A Tribute to Mahalia Jackson." Her newest release, "Have A Little Faith," on Alligator Records, is a blues-tinged gospel album by "..one of the greatest soul singers of the last half-century." Prince called Mavis "...the epitome of soul," And Dusty Springfield idolized her. She is also on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Women of Rock'n' Roll," and one of roots music's most stirring vocalists. She has toured with Tom Petty and recorded with Bob Dylan, The Band, Ray Charles, George Jones, Los Lobos and
Nona Hendryx.
The Legends of Chicago Blues
James Cotton has been playing the blues nearly all his life. Born in Tunica, Mississippi in 1935, he was fooling around with the harmonica by the time he was five. His mother played the harmonica a little, making train noises, or hen noises, and James learned how to play essentially mimicking these sounds. That was all he thought the harmonica was supposed to do until he heard Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) on KFFA's King Biscuit Time, out of Helena, Arkansas. Four years later at the age of nine, Cotton would not only meet Sonny Boy, but would travel with him for the next six years, learning the harp and living the life of a traveling bluesman. By the time he was 15, Cotton decided to leave Sonny Boy, and he headed for West Memphis, Arkansas, forming his own band, James Cotton & His Rhythm Playmates. A radio spot caught the attention of Sam Phillips of Sun Records, and Cotton recorded two sides for Sun, "Straighten Up Baby" and "Cotton Crop Blues." Cotton became friends with Ike Turner, a talent scout for Sun at the time, and together they wrote "Rocket 88," which was later credited to Jackie Brenston. Cotton played with the legendary Howlin' Wolf before joining the Muddy Waters Band, a move which resulted in a 12-year stint in that band. Cotton's raw, powerful, Delta-based blues was the perfect complement to Muddy Waters' sound, adding an aggressive and emotional intensity to the band. He is featured on some of Muddy's best Chess sides, such as "Mojo," "19 Years Old," "Walking Through he Park," and others. His solos on "Mojo," recorded live with the Muddy Waters Band at the Newport Folk Festival in 1960, are among the best ever recorded.
He left to form his own band in 1966. Cotton's influence was pervasive throughout the '60s and '70s, expanding beyond the blues circuit. He taught Paul Butterfield and Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band, and influenced Mike Bloomfield, Steve Miller and Bonnie Raitt. James Cotton is a living master and legend of contemporary harmonica blues who has recorded over 27 albums, including his "35th Anniversary Jam" album that scored a W.C. Handy Award for Traditional Blues Album of the Year in 2003, and last year's "Baby, Don't Tear My Clothes," both on Telarc. James Cotton is a masterful harmonica instrumentalist who commands a huge following.
Guitarist Hubert Sumlin was a member of Howlin' Wolf's band for 25 years. During that span of years he appeared on many of Wolf's greatest Chess recordings, such as "Killing Floor," "Spoonful," "I Ain't Superstitious," "Smokestack Lightning," "Hidden Charms," and so on. Born in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1931, his first professional job was replacing guitarist Pat Hare in the James Cotton Band in Arkansas. Meeting Howlin' Wolf in Memphis, Sumlin was summoned to Chicago in 1954 to become the guitarist in the Wolf band and proceded to energize the Wolf sound for over two decades. His guitar solo on "Hidden Charms," for example, is considered some of his greatest work and would serve as an example to emerging numerous blues and rock guitarists. Rolling Stone Magazine included Sumlin in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. Incidentally, Sumlin also served a stint in the Muddy Waters Band. Veneration and respect follows Sumlin. He has influenced some of the greatest guitarists in the history of rock music, including Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page. Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Bob Weir and Frank Zappa, to name a few. Sumlin helped create rock 'n'roll! He is also one of the most modest and unassuming guitar stars in history! Levon Helm of The Band says of Sumlin, "He's one of the players, one of those people who made the records that made us all want to play. He's one of those people that you want to play with if the opportunity ever arrives." Sumlin, since Wolf's death in 1976, has continued to perform and tour and has recorded nearly a dozen solo albums including this year's standout release, "About Them Shoes," a rock solid tribute album to Muddy Waters that includes performances by Eric Clapton and Keith Richards and others, on the Artemis-Tone Cool label. Sumlin is also the subject of a recent book, "Incurable Blues," by Will Romano, and the Martin Scorsese/Antoine Fuqua blues performance film, "Lightning in a Bottle." Sumlin can also be seen in the current Rhino DVD of Clapton's Crossroads Festival.
Drummer Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith was the backbone of the Muddy Waters band for over 20 years. Born in West Helena, Arkansas in 1936, Smith moved to Chicago in 1953 where he began his career as a harmonica player with Big Boy Spires. This led to a series of session recordings at Chess Records, where Smith played harmonica on a number of Bo Diddley records including the hit, "Who Do You Love." By the late 1950s, Smith began playing drums, often sitting in with MuddyWaters at the famed club, Smitty's Corner. In 1959 he appeared on his first Muddy Waters record. In 1961 he replaced drummer Francis Clay in Muddy's band, only to be replaced by S.P. Leary in 1964. Smith returned to Waters' band in 1968 and toured and recorded with the famed group until 1980. Willie Smith's drumming can be heard on many of Muddy's finest records of the period including "Bird Nest on the Ground," "Goin'Down Slow," "Trouble Trouble," "One More Mile," "Come Back Baby," and many others. Smith also appeared on such Chess albums as "They Call Me Muddy Waters" and "Unk in Funk." He was also featured on several landmark albums produced by Johnny Winter, "Hard Again" and "I'm Ready," both on Blue Sky Records. In 1980, along with the entire Muddy Waters Band, including Calvin Jones and Pinetop Perkins, he formed the Legendary Blues Band. They subsequently recorded a number of outstanding albums for Ichiban Records. Smith has recorded a series of solo albums, "Bag Full of Blues," featuring Kim Wilson and Pinetop Perkins,; "Blues From the Heart" and "Bluesin' It, on Electro-Fi.
Henry Gray was among the Chicago blues piano hierarchy of the 1950s, an era that included Otis Spann, Johnnie Walker, Johnny Jones, Roosevelt Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery and others. Born in Kenner, Louisiana, Gray settled in Chicago in 1946 and fell under the influence of Big Maceo Merriweather the then-reigning king of early Chicago blues piano. His earliest performances were as a member of Little Hudson's Red Devils, and also Dusty Brown and Morris Pejoe. Gray's hard-driving piano approach quickly became popular and he was hired to work numerous recording sessions in the 1950s. He recorded with some of the finest musicians of the times, including Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers and Billy Boy Arnold. In 1956 Howlin' Wolf hired Gray to be his pianist in the band and Gray stayed with the Wolf until 1968. After leaving Chicago, he moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he resides to this day. Gray has recorded a number of solid albums including the outstanding "Lucky Man" for Blind Pig, which featured an all-Chicago backup team which included guitarist Steve Freund, who produced it.
Bassist Bob Stroger has been backing Chicago blues performers since the mid 1950s. His motto is,"...have bass will travel." Just about every blues ensemble or Southside club has had Stroger as a guest and he has backed such performers as Otis Rush, Eddie C. Campbell, Big Wheeler, Snooky Pryor, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie King, Koko Taylor and Morris Pejoe, to name a few. He has also worked as a session man appearing on many Chicago blues recordings. Stroger was a member of the Eddie King Band for over 15 years. and more recently, Mississippi Heat, with Deitra Farr.
Elvin Bishop made blues history as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, one of the most dynamic blues ensembles to ever come out of Chicago. With their emergence in the early to mid 1960s, blues was never the same. They alone were responsible for bringing thousands of new fans to the blues, as well as forging a new style that would reverberate not only in the southern rock-blues of the Allman Brothers, but all of rock-blues in the late '60s and early '70s. Their influence on rock 'n' roll was invaluable.
Living on a Tulsa, Oklahoma farm, Bishop won a National Merit Scholarship in 1959 to the University of Chicago, which in turn led him to the blues, which he had already been familiar with from listening to Jimmy Reed and Howlin' Wolf records being played on WLAC out of Nashville. Meeting Paul Butterfield led to a guitar-harmonica duo, which in return would lead to the formation of the Butterfield Blues Band in 1963. Chicago in the early '60s was alive with blues musicians and clubs featuring the music seven nights a week. Bishop seriously took up guitar upon meeting Howlin' Wolf's guitarist, Little Smokey Smothers, who taught him the dynamics of Chicago blues guitar. Elvin often sat in with Hound Dog Taylor in the small, rough joints on the Southside, or with Jr. Wells and J.T. Brown; but it was at Big John's on Wells in 1963 that the seeds of the Butterfield era were planted. Joined by guitarist Mike Bloomfield and organist Mark Naftalin, along with Howlin' Wolf sidemen Jerome Arnold and Sammy Lay, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band honed their skills six nights a week, playing six sets a night and seven on Saturday until the club closed at 5 a.m. Co-founder Bishop recorded three albums with the Butterfield band, including the landmark "Paul Butterfield Blues Band" and "East-West," on Electra. The 1968 release, "In My Own Dream," was his last, although a stunning, unissued session from 1963 was released a few years ago.
Moving to the Bay Area in the late '60s, Bishop became a regular feature at the Fillmore and frequently jammed with Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and B.B. King. He subsequently recorded for Fillmore Records, but hit it big upon signing with Capricorn Records, the landmark southern rock-blues label based in Macon, Georgia, that featured the Allman Brothers and the Marshall Tucker Band. A handful of albums produced some sizable hits, including "Travelin' Shoes," "Sure Feels Good," " Spend Some Time," and "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," which featured a former gospel singer, Mickey Thomas. The song reached #3 on the charts and made Elvin a star. Thomas went on to sing for the Jefferson Starship. After his stint at Capricorn, Bishop recorded four albums for Epic. In 1988 he signed with Alligator Records and released five albums for the Chicago-based blues label. He has since signed with the San Francisco label Blind Pig Records, and his newest CD, "Getting My Groove Back," has just been released.
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds have been the quintessential American band ever since they came roaring out of Austin, Texas in the late '70s. Their distinctive, powerful sound draws from the many roots of American music, mixing blues, rock 'n' roll, R&B, Cajun and more to form the rocking hybrid that has spawned more than a dozen records, produced such mega-hits as "Tuff Enuff" and "Wrap It Up," and won countless awards and die-hard fans around the globe. Original co-founder Kim Wilson spearheads the Fabulous Thunderbirds in their current hard-hitting lineup, which features Wilson's signature vocals and harmonica, rising stars Kirk Fletcher and Nick Curran on guitars, and veteran T-Birds Jimi Bott on drums, Ronnie James Weber on bass, and Gene Taylor on keyboards.
The T-Birds recently signed with Tone-Cool/Artemis Records, and have just released their much-anticipated new CD, "Painted On." Armed with a seasoned T-Bird rhythm section and two of the hottest young guitarists on the scene today, the T-Birds rolled in recording studios in Austin, Texas and Los Angeles, California to record the album. "This is by far the best band we've ever had, and the best album we're ever made," Wilson states proudly. Produced by Steve Berlin (of Los Logos) and Kim Wilson, "Painted On" holds a few surprises, including eight brand-new compositions, a reworked Waylon Jennings song, a pure soul ballad, and vocal duets with guitarist Nick Curran and special guest Rachel Nagy of the Detroit Cobras. "We started as a straight blues band," Wilson says. "Now we incorporate a mixture of a lot of different styles." Born in Detroit,
Wilson grew up in California where he fell under the sway of blues, honing his chops under the tutelage of legendary players like George Smith, Luther Tucker and Peewee Crayton. After a brief time leading a band of his own around the Minneapolis area, he moved to Austin, Texas in 1974 and formed the Fabulous Thunderbirds with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan. While ensconced as the house band at Clifford Antone's famous Austin blues club, they played with virtually all their heroes - Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Eddy Taylor, Big Walter Horton, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and many others, and the word soon spread that there was a band down in Austin that laying down some of the toughest music ever heard. Muddy Waters called Kim "the greatest harmonica player to come along since Little Walter." "Muddy Waters was very good to me," Wilson says, "He almost adopted me. I'll never forget him."
As the T-Birds' reputation spread, they began to record and tour around the country to ever-increasing crowds. The band developed a reputation as a compelling live act and subsequently signed a record deal with CBS/Epic Records. The Fabulous Thunderbirds' self-titled first album brought the Texas roadhouse feel of their live shows to a mass audience. In subsequent releases, the band started to incorporate more Cajun, rock 'n' roll and soul influences. The 1982 album, "T-Bird Rhythm," marked a creative turning point for the group as it collaborated with noted producer Nick Lowe. In 1986 the Fabulous Thunderbirds worked with producer Dave Edmunds and reached a commercial peak with the album "Tuff Enuff," which became a major crossover success. The title track was released as a single and its accompanying video received heavy play on MTV, which helped the song reach the American Top Ten. "Wrap It Up," the second single from the album, also resonated with a large audience and became a Top Ten album rock track. Later that year, the T-Birds won the W.C. Handy Award for best blues band.
Jimmie Vaughan left the group in 1989 but Wilson kept the T-Birds going, bringing in new players and incorporating keyboards into the guitar-driven sound. Acclaimed and respected for their peerless musicianship, the band are favorites of fellow musicians around the world; they have opened shows for the likes of the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. Wilson has also lent his talents to the recordings of other artists, including Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Carlos Santana and many others.
North Mississippi Allstars
The Mississippi spirit that inspires so much great music in the delta also thrives further east in the hill country where the North Mississippi Allstars live. For five years and four studio albums the band has channeled this spirit's power and mysticism and given it new life. Before forming the North Mississippi Allstars, brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson were something like your average Black Flag-loving teenagers (distinguished by a certain respect for Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica"). Luther was just out of his teens and Cody was still having trouble getting drinks in bars when the spirit possessed them, granting them insight into the world that was all around them. Their dad, Jim Dickinson, is a musician (among his many accomplishments he played piano on the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses," produced the Replacements "Pleased to Meet Me,"and co-wrote "Across the Borderline," sung by the likes of Willie Nelson, Freddy Fender, Bob Dylan and others) who, along with mother Mary, raised the boys outside Memphis in rural Mississippi swampland. There, after listening to what their MTV peers around the globe made popular, these brothers got turned on to the sound of their own street, or to be more precise, the sound of their dirt road. It was blues, yeah, but it was more than that - there were smatterings of soul, of hip-hop, of the modern chitlin circuit and of the ancient African paeans to Pan. The brothers were changed, their souls gripped by the Mississippi Spirit, their instruments the medium.
"When I got turned onto the hill country scene," remembers Luther, "it blew my mind. I couldn't believe that not only was there this great primitive funky modern country blues coming out of Mississippi, but it was right under my nose and I didn't even know about it! "Immersing themselves in the world all around them, the Dickinsons absorbed Otha Turner's fife and drum picnics, R.L. Burnside's juke joints, Junior Kimbrough's Sunday throw downs with homemade fruit beer, and they branded their souls with all manner of white lightning whiskey. Luther and Cody began sitting in where this music was being made. In addition to the Dickinson brothers, the group includes Chris Chew, who was a football hero bass player they had gone to high school with. Chew had come up singing and playing in church, and his groove just fit. The North Mississippi Allstars have recorded five albums since forming in 1996. Their Mississippi modal juke-joint blues is inspired, raucous, energetic, earthly, primitive and down right funky modern blues. There is also a rock edge to their playing and one can find traces of the Allman Brothers, southern psychedelic jam band modals, ZZ Top and Fred McDowell for good measure. Their newest release, "Hill Country Review," ATO Records, features over two dozen performers recorded live with the NMA at the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.
Howard Tate
For many, soul singer Howard Tate ranks right up there with the best. He's been compared to such legends as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd and Joe Tex. Born in Macon, Georgia, Tate grew up in Philadelphia, where he started out as a vocalist in the doo-wop group The Gainers, and later as a singer in the Bill Doggett band. Signed to Verve Records in the late 1960s, Tate hit the charts with "Ain't Nobody Home," "Look at Granny Run, Run," "Baby I Love You," and "Stop." Produced by Jerry Ragovoy, Tate's sobbing, impassioned soul style quickly made him one of the greatest voices in the annals of soul history. His famous piercing falsetto and tenor style equal anything ever recorded in Muscle Shoals or Memphis. Tate's album release of that period, "Get It While You Can," on Verve, has been called one of the most emotionally powerful and impeccably arranged soul albums of the era. His songs were subsequently covered by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Ry Cooder and B.B. King. Tate followed up his success at Verve with several more hit records for Lloyd Price's Turntable label. In the 1970s he moved to Atlantic Records with the release of "Ain't Got Nobody to Give It To." Then he drifted out of the soul world, never to be seen again in public until recently.
When Polygram/Mercury released "The Legendary Recordings: Get It While You Can," a few years ago, the search for Howard Tate was on. Some thought he had drifted into complete obscurity or had died, forgotten. However, airplay of the re-released CD sides on WNJC in New Jersey in 2000 led to Tate's rediscovery. Tate, for better than 20 years, had sold insurance in Philadelphia and then became a preacher in Mount Holly, New Jersey. After 30 years out of the business. Tate was contacted by his former producer, Jerry Ragovoy, and convinced to attempt a comeback. His voice, it turned out, was as remarkable as it ever was and an album was planned. The album," Rediscovered," on Private Records, was released in 2003, and was critically acclaimed as the return of a soul master. A second CD is due for release this summer.
Everyone was had heard the soul master perform has been overwhelmed! A youthful appearance that easily allows Tate to pass for a man 20 years younger, coupled with his soaring patent falsetto intact - Tate the soul legend is back!
Jimmy Dawkins
Guitarist Jimmy Dawkins is one of the last of the great Westside Chicago blues guitarists of the 1950s and early '60s. This school of guitar players consisted of Otis Rush, Luther Allison, Magic Sam, Mighty Joe Young and Freddie King. While the Southside was notable for Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers and James Cotton, the Westside guitarists were modernists both in their magnificent guitar work and originality. Dawkins was born in Tchula, Mississippi in 1936. Located on Highway 49 between Greenwood and Yazoo City, Dawkins learned guitar at a very early age. He moved to Chicago in 1955, forming a band with Left Hand Frank. Working mostly on the Westside in clubs along Ogden Avenue, West Madison and Roosevelt Road with such names as the Big Squeeze, the Pink Poodle and the Copa Cabana, Dawkins mastered the technique of the solid body guitar from Otis Rush, Freddie King and Magic Sam. He toured with Jimmy Rogers for several years and worked with many of the Chicago blues greats of the time: Earl Hooker, Luther Allison, Johnny Young, Eddie Taylor, Wild Child Butler and numerous others including Voice Odom. In 1969 he recorded his first album, "Fast Fingers," on Delmark Records. The record received incredible notices and the next year he won Downbeat Magazine's Best Blues Guitarist Award. He also became one of the very few blues guitarists to win the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque de Jazz from the Hot Club of France. He also performed at the famed Ann Arbor Blues Festival, one of the first blues festivals in the country. Dawkins has continued to carry on the tradition of Westside blues guitar and has recorded over 16 albums. His latest CD, "Tell Me Baby," was released last year on the Fedora label. His deep, complex, innovative solos have made him one of the most distinctive guitarists in blues history.
Nora Jean Bruso
Nora Jean Bruso was voted one of the top 10 women blues singers in Chicago and the heir apparent to the legendary Koko Taylor. Born in Greenwood, Mississippi and raised in Clarksdale, Bruso grew up in an all-encompassing blues music environment. Her father was a blues singer and her mother sang church songs. Blues music culture was an extension of her life and she started singing at a very young age, oftentimes emulating the radio hits of Howlin' Wolf and Betty Wright. She moved to Chicago in 1976 and soon found work as a singer on the Westside with Scottie and the Oasis. She also worked with guitarist Jimmy Dawkins for the next several decades. She recorded with the Dawkins Band and toured Europe extensively, culminating in a major appearance at the 2002 Chicago Blues Festival, followed by the release of her first solo album, "Nora Jean Bruso Sings the Blues," which featured Dawkins, Eddie Shaw, Willie Kent and Billy Flynn. The album got her great notices, especially comparisons to Koko Taylor. Some critics started referring to her as the heir apparent to the title of the "Next Queen of the Blues." Koko Taylor is a huge fan! Last year's major release on Severn Records, "Going Back to Mississippi," has put her over the top as she has become one of the most sought after acts on the blues circuit.
Campbell Brothers
In the Pentecostal House of God Church in Rush, New York, the steel guitar is the instrument of choice and has been since the 1930s when African-American Pentecostals began using it to simulate the sound of the human voice. Today the Campbell Brothers are among the vanguard of the new steel guitar sound in the churches. Chuck Campbell was instrumental in introducing the pedal steel guitar, long the domination within country-western music. Brother Darick Campbell plays the lap steel and the tandem effect of the two steel instruments is mesmerizing. The lap steel guitar has been the domain of Hawaiian music for nearly a century and its influences have gradually crept into other American music forms, including country, blues, and now gospel. The Campbells' music is also indebted to soul and down-home blues influences. Charles Campbell has been called "the Jimi Hendrix and Django Reinhardt of the steel guitar," and the sacred steel performances have until only recently been heard in the churches. Today the music has expanded beyond the congregations and to the festival stages. Their Arhoolie Records release was critically acclaimed as the best gospel album at the Indie Awards in 2002. Chuck Campbell, who began performing steel guitar at age 12, was also the recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the NEA in 2004. Previous honorees have included Cowboy Poet Wally McRae, Shirley Caesar, Doc Watson, Bill Monroe and Irish step dancer Michael Flatley. The Campbells have developed a unique tuning for their steel guitar instruments and the consequence has been an other-wordly sound that has enraptured audiences everywhere they perform. Other members of the group include Phillip Campbell on bass and Carlton Campbell on drums.
Sonny Landreth
Eric Clapton called guitarist Sonny Landreth "the most underestimated musician on the planet." A former member of the John Hiatt Band, Landreth recently performed at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. Landreth has been called the "New King of he Bottleneck Guitar." A master guitarist who performs on the Stratocaster guitar, he is a songwriter on an equal stature and his songs have been referred to as tales in the realm between William Faulkner and Robbie Robertson. Born in Canton, Mississippi, he was seven years old when his family moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, where he grew up absorbing the sounds of zydeco, cajun and blues. He eventually became a full-time member of Clifton Chenier's band, touring through Texas and the west coast performing at dances. His musical repertoire consists of blues, zydeco, mambo, cajun and New Orleans R&B. Landreth also performed with the King of the Margaritas, Jimmy Buffet. His newest CD, "Grant Street,"on Sugarhill Records has been critically acclaimed for its blazing fret work which includes a 10-minute version of his Louisiana anthem, "Congo Square." The album was recorded live at the Grant Street dance hall in Lafayette. Landreth makes every note count. He is all passion and rocks with such deep conviction that the effects can be literally startling.
Angela Strehli
Vocalist Angela Strehli is as pure Texas as the bluebonnets that brighten the hills and the scrub oak flats in the spring. Texas produces great singers and great guitar players and Strehli, who sings and writes songs, is one of the best. Born in Lubbock, home to Buddy Holly, Joe Ely, Waylon Jennings and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, among others, Strehli grew up around music both at home and the blues, R&B and country that could be heard on the radio in the 1950s and early '60s. She learned to play harmonica and bass but after moving to Austin, Texas in the late '60s, she focused exclusively on singing. With the opening of Antone's, a club exclusively dedicated to blues, Strehli played an intricate role in establishing both Antone's and Austin as one of the new centers for blues in Texas. In Austin she met the Vaughan brothers, Jimmie and Stevie, and became closely associated with both their careers. When the Fabulous Thunderbirds were formed by Kim Wilson and Jimmie Vaughan, she joined them in supporting many visiting blues musicians who flocked to Antone's to work. Among them were Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins and Pinetop Perkins. Angela was voted Austin's best female vocalist six times. She recorded duets with Doug Sahm, Don Covay, Marsha Ball and Lou Ann Barton. In 1984 she performed with Stevie Ray Vaughan at Carnegie Hall. Along the way, she has recorded a handful of impressive albums including "Stranger Blues," "Soul Shake," "Blonde and Blue," and "Live From the Rancho Nicasio," where she is a regular. Her newest CD, just released this summer, "Blues Highway," features a stirring tribute to SRV, Ernie K-Doe, and guest appearances by Marcia Ball and Maria Muldaur. Angela also composed and performed a tribute for the documentary film Antone's: Austin's Home of the Blues. It is also featured on the new CD.
Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King
Smokin Joe Kubek and Bnois King have been called the best guitar tandem on the blues scene today. Their performances are pure Texas blues. Kubek hails from Dallas, Texas and has worked with Albert King, Freddie King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bnois King is from Monroe, Louisiana and both have been on the road steady for the past 15 years. They made their recording debut in 1991 and have recorded seven albums for Bullseye and several for Blind Pig Records, including this year's release, "Show Me the Money." The two met in Monroe, Louisiana, in 1989 and immediately began performing regularly in Dallas in what has since become known as one well-traveled band performing one-nighters across the land. They are one of the hardest-working bands in the blues today! Kubek played rhythm guitar in Freddie King's band until King's death in 1976. Bnois has been the perfect accompanist to Kubek's hard-driving Texas guitar attack with his whisper to a growl vocal style and his Louisiana blues and jazz guitar technique. Kubek has been performing since age 14, by the way. They perform with passion and precision and have fun doing so and their guitar duels are always a highlight! They are a tight group who put on killer shows and have remained faithful to the tradition of contemporary Texas blues along the way. They are captivating and yet never mainstream and they have continued to blend a cool blues guitar savvy that simply defines their approach to blues as 'smokin.' And they have a great time doing it, too.
James Harman
James Harman hails from Anniston, Alabama. He is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. It's no wonder because his very original full southern gospel-inflected vocals and his gritty, greasy harmonica licks performed with deep feeling and conviction, make him one of the great keepers of the flame of postwar urban blues. The Harman sound is westcoast jump blues of the late 1940s and 1950s, blended with the harmonica-influenced reach of Little Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson and Shakey Horton. Harman blows harmonica blues with the best of the best. His chops are second to no one and he is a proud disciple of the Los Angeles school of George Harmonica Smith, which has given the blues world besides Harman, such luminaries as Rod Piazza, Al Blake, Kim Wilson, William Clarke, Juke Logan and Johnny Dyer. Harman, who recorded over a dozen superb albums, has a unique talent for songwriting and a flair for original material that lies somewhere between the world of Charles Bukowski and T-Bone Walker. After recording in Atlanta and stints in Chicago, New York and New Orleans in the mid '60s, Harman, at the urging of the blues group Canned Heat, moved to Los Angeles in 1970 and began a period where he opened for many of the ruling monarchs of the Los Angeles blues scene such as Big Joe Turner, Lowell Fulson, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Albert Collins, Lloyd Glenn and even Freddie, Albert and B.B. King. One of Harman's trademarks has been consistently great bands and he has had the good fortune of being a jumping off point for such players as Phil Elvin and Bill Bateman, who after leaving the Harman Band, formed the Blasters. Hollywood Fats was a former alumnus as well, as was Kid Ramos, Jr. Watson, Joel Foy and Richard Innes, and so many others too numerous to mention. After four decades of touring and recording, Harman remains a musician who consistently stretched the boundaries of the blues in new and inventive ways of storytelling. For example, he has received 15 W.C. Handy Blues Award nominations for his songs - no small feat! He performs over 250 shows a year and has recently worked on and off with ZZ Top. His latest CD is "Lonesome Moon Trance," on Pacific blues.
Delmark Blues Revue
Dave Specter was born in Chicago and was drawn to the Westside guitar tradition of Magic Sam at an early age. His earliest teacher was Steve Freund and his first professional performances were as a member of the Son Seals Band. Specter was deeply influenced by T-Bone Walker and Pee Wee Crayton, both Texas-west coast stylists, as well as Magic Sam and Otis Rush, exponents of the Westside Chicago guitar blues school. He has also been indebted to guitarist Kenny Burrell and has explored jazz guitar in much of his playing, which has included recording with Hammond B-3 legend Jack McDuff and vocalist Barkin' Bill Smith, a veteran of the Chicago swing and jazz vocal school. Specter has toured Europe extensively with his group, The Bluebirds. He has recorded over seven solo albums for Delmark Records, and has appeared on over 30 albums to date. He has worked with Buddy Guy, Otis Clay, Hubert Sumlin, Otis Rush, Robben Ford, Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl and Tad Robinson, to name a few. He and Steve Freund are featured on their recent Delmark release "Is What It Is,"to much critical acclaim.
Steve Freund performed in Chicago for over 20 years; 15 of those years were spent as the guitarist in the Sunnyland Slim Band. He performed every Sunday night at the famed Northside Chicago club B.L.U.E.S. from 1978-1993, and recorded with Koko Taylor, Louis Myers, Snooky Pryor, Magic Slim, Henry Gray and many others. He also worked regularly with Walter Horton, Lee Jackson, Luther Allison, Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, Homesick James, B.B. Odum and Floyd Jones, to name a few. His guitar playing shows the strong, unmistakable Chicago blues influences of Eddie Taylor and Otis Rush. Freund has been called a "guitar wiz"and a highly inventive soloist who has appeared on over 20 albums, including Koko Taylor's Grammy Award winner, "Blues Explosion." Known as a player's player, and a faultless blues guitarist, Freund's abilities have resulted in two solo CD releases on the legendary Chicago blues label, Delmark Records "'C' for Chicago," featuring guest Boz Scaggs, and "I'll Be Your Mule." Both albums have been critically acclaimed for their authentic adherence to the post-war Chicago blues style. His newest release, "Is What It Is,"is a duo effort with Dave Specter on Delmark.
Ken Saydak is one of Chicago's best blues pianists. He is also a master of the boogie woogie piano style popularized by such legends as Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and others. Influenced by Otis Spann, Saydak has appeared on over 52 recording sessions, mostly with Chicago blues musicians. He has also recorded two solo CDs for Delmark Records,"Love Without Trust,"and "Foolish Man."Saydak was a member of the Mighty Joe Young Band from 1974-79, the Lonnie Brooks Band from 1984-86, and the Johnny Winter Band from 1984-86.
Shirley Johnson has been working the Chicago blues club circuit since the early 1980s. Her deep alto vocal style has been fronting ensembles with such Chicago blues veterans as Johnny B. Moore, Little Johnny Christian, Artie White, the late Eddie Lusk and Buster Benton. She has appeared on several Chicago women blues compilations, "Mojo Mamas," and the "Women of Blue Chicago." Her solo CD, "Killer Diller," on Delmark, features Robert Ward, John Primer and Maurice John Vaughn, among others. She has toured in over 19 countries and has performed with Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler and soul chanteuse Millie Jackson. She has also appeared in films with Kathleen Turner and Robert De Niro.
Cafe R&B
There hardly has been a group to come along that has gotten as much attention and downright headlines as Cafe R&B, a five-piece ensemble from Los Angeles. With two independent CDs to their credit, "Black and White," and "Blues and All the Rest," Cafe R&B has steamrolled across the landscape of small and large nightclubs, leaving audiences simply stunned with their ferocious soul stew and killer blues. Their shows are standing room only affairs. The tone is all Chess Records circa Howlin' Wolf 1956. Cafe R&B is performance art that leaves you stunned, transfixed, and enthralled. Among their hard-core fans are Buddy Guy and Ike Turner, who commented about singer Roach by saying, "I ain't seen shit like that since me and you-know-who..." Roach, "one critic stated, "could make a can of Raid sweat..." Another said she is "intense, sensual, pouting and explosive." Cafe R&B consists of Roach on vocals, Byl Carrithers on guitar, Chris Rhyme keyboards, Ken Dooley bass, and Steve Klong, drums. "In the blues, it's not so much what you say, as how you say it,"wrote a reviewer for the Chicago Reader, "and Roach says it very well," Another wrote, "Roach is fearless. Her voice sounds as if a couple of seasoned entertainers owned it in a previous lifetime and polished it, before passing it on." Cafe R&B do a few covers, but the music they write and perform is inspired by the sound of the Chess era channeled for the 21st Century. They don't play lite; they play ferocious, hard-edge, nu-blues.
Kenny Blue Ray
When it comes to hard-hitting blues guitar, Kenny Blue Ray is the real deal. Every once in a while someone comes along who pleasantly reminds one that there is some uncharted talent ready to explode on the blues scene, and this is the moment for Ray! A Bay Area resident, Ray is considered one of the top guitarists around; certainly one of the most prolific performers on the West Coast, if not the country. He performed in London, England from 1969-'72. He has had over a dozen solo albums released, all of which have received strong reviews - and there have been over 65 reviews of his CDs! Ray's releases,"Fired Up," "Cadillac Tone" "Strat Daddy" "Pull the Strings," "Git It," "Blues My Axe," "Blues Obsession," "Soulful Blues," and his latest, "Got Blues," have all appeared on Tone King Records. The British publication, Blues & Rhythm, has consistently listed his releases among the top 10 selling albums in England. Ray is a guitar instrumentalist of the less is more school, who conveys a control and mastery of each note; a musician who knows no limit to tone. In Mick Rainsford's review of Ray's "Pull the Strings"album in Blues & Rhythm magazine, he wrote "...if you have any interest whatsoever in blues guitar playing of the highest quality, be it that big fat Texas tone of Albert Collins, the slashing chords and swing of T-Bone Walker, Hendrix-inspired distorted aggression, the deep blues tone and feel of all the Kings, or searing licks we associate with SRV, then you have no option other than to discover for yourself what Kenny Blue Ray is all about."
Ray was a long-time fixture in the Marcia Ball Band while living in Texas and teamed with Stevie Ray Vaughan on Ball's "Soulful Dress" album on Rounder. He has also performed with Albert Collins, Ronnie Earl, Earl King, Hollywood Fats, William Clarke, Big Joe Turner and Pee Wee Crayton, to name a few.
Mark St. Mary
Zydeco is an original music form that emerged in Southwest Louisiana by French-speaking blacks. The main instrument in zydeco has been the electrified accordion and the lyrics are sung in Creole French. The music itself has typically been a blend of blues, traditional Cajun accompaniment, R&B, jazz and country idioms. The creators of this sound were Clifton Chenier and Boozoo Chavis, two of the earliest recording artists of what would become known as zydeco in the early 1950s. Chenier of course would go on to become known as the King of Zydeco and his music would deeply influence all zydeco accordionists. Mark St. Mary was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana and has been playing accordion and zydeco since the age of 15. A purveyor of the double pump beat accordion style, St. Mary toured with Chenier while mastering the idioms of traditional Creole-Cajun zydeco as well as Louisiana blues and R&B. He has performed from New Orleans to Houston, and all through California where many Creoles settled during and after World War II. He has recorded for Goldband Records and performed with such notables as Doug Kershaw, Barbara Mandrell, Queen Ida and Big Mama Thornton, to name a few. He is a regular at zydeco dance halls and concerts. Etoile!
West Coast Harp Jump
The San Francisco Blues Festival keeps its tradition of presenting top-notch harmonica blues shows at the Festival's Free Annual Waterfront concert at the Justin Herman Plaza on Friday, September 23 at Noon. This huge concert pulls in numerous blues fans to the first show of the City's big weekend's blues bash to hear contemporary blues harmonica by some of the best players on the West Coast. Featured this year is Lynwood Slim one of Los Angeles' best chromatic harmonica players. Lynwood Slim has worked in Chicago, where he was inspired by the great BigWalter Thornton. An awesome singer, Slim has recorded five CDs and has appeared on numerous others, including those of R.L. Burnside, Kid Ramos, Jr. Watson and upcoming Chicago heavy, Nick Moss. R.J. Mischo has performed extensively throughout Europe and the United States. He has recorded four highly acclaimed CDs for the German blues label, Crosscut Records. He also has recorded three CDs for the blues harmonica label, Mountain Top. Mischo has worked with numerous top names in blues from Mojo Buford to jazz icon Jack McDuff. He is considered one of the best harmonica players in California! Birdlegg, at 58 years of age, is a veteran of the Oakland blues circuit and has toured Europe as a member of the Mississippi Delta Blues Band. His harmonica blues style differs from many of his contemporaries by his more personable style of self-taught phrasing and note bending. Like Sonny Boy Williamson, he wears a derby and presents a less-is-more traditional vision of the post-war blues era. He has performed at the Northsea Jazz Festival in Holland and concert dates in Norway, Belgium and Denmark. John Nemeth is the newest harmonica player on the scene and one of the most talked about for his extraordinary technique and voice, which has garnered him attention from musicians and blues fans alike. He is thought to be one of the major rising stars in blues harmonica, on the verge of nationa2 breakout.
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