Michael Burks
Michael Burks
Friday May 21st
“Michael Burks is a flamethrower guitarist. He is the complete bluesman: songwriter, singer, riff-master, bandleader, and showman…Savage fury and heartfelt tenderness” –Chicago Sun-Times
“Michael Burks is a guitar slinger with a brawny tone, deeply emotional singing and rompin’, stompin’ blues power.” –GuitarOne
Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Michael “Iron Man” Burks stands tall as a major contemporary blues figure. With a nickname earned by his hours-long, intensely physical performances, fearsome guitar attack, tough, smoky vocals and the thousands of miles logged behind the wheel of his touring van, Burks is a modern blues hero. Nobody in today’s blues world successfully bridges searing electric guitar blues with unbridled rock and roll energy like Burks. The Chicago Sun-Times recently said Burks is “poised on the brink of major stardom.”
Boasting remarkable natural talent and a blue-collar work ethic, Michael Burks is a musician with deep roots in the blues tradition. He performs every song he plays with intensity, conviction and soul. Even though he has been playing music since he was a child, it was the release of Make It Rain, his Alligator Records debut in 2001, that brought Burks well-deserved national recognition and made him one of the blues world’s fastest-rising stars. His 2003 follow-up, I Smell Smoke, continued his upward trajectory, as his fan base increased as quickly as his bookings. With inspiration from Albert King, Freddie King and Albert Collins, Burks’ sound and style are all his own. Blues Revue says, “Burks delivers blazing, explosive solos and outrageous tone…part rock, part soul and filled with plenty of blues sensibility.” According to GuitarOne, “Burks is a legend in waiting.”
The waiting is now over. With the release of his new CD, Iron Man, Burks is set to take his place beside the biggest names in the blues. Produced by Burks and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer and fueled by Burks’ hard-driving road band, Iron Man (featuring seven of twelve songs written or co-written by Burks) is an electrifying slice of emotional, rocked-out blues. His fiery fretwork, gruff, fervent vocals and overwhelming intensity are captured here live in the studio. The album features some of the hottest guitar playing and most soulful singing Burks has ever recorded.
Born in Milwaukee in 1957, Michael quite literally entered the world with blues in his blood. Joe Burks, Michael’s grandfather, played acoustic Delta blues guitar in his hometown of Camden, Arkansas. A multi-talented man, Joe was a barber, carpenter and aviation mechanic in addition to playing in area juke joints. Michael’s father, Frederick, was a bass player. For years, Frederick Burks worked in Milwaukee steel mills and refineries during the day and spent his evenings performing in the city’s smoky, dimly-lit blues clubs, often backing harmonica legend Sonny Boy Williamson II, as well as other touring blues stars and local front men.
Michael first held a guitar when he was two years old, and Frederick immediately began teaching his son how to play. Equipped with a fully functional, child-size guitar, the young Burks began emulating the bass runs of his father. Soon he was learning scales and songs. By the age of five, he was diligently studying his father’s 45s, aided by an effective lesson plan. “I’ll give you a dollar if you learn this song by the time I’m home from work,” Frederick would tell his young prodigy. Sure enough, Michael would learn that tune inside out and sideways by the time his father walked through the front door. Michael had begun to collect a tall stack of dollar bills when the elder Burks realized his teaching tactics were burning an unwanted hole in his wallet. Finally, Frederick told his son, “Here’s another 45. You learn this one, and you’re gonna get a lickin’.” But Michael kept practicing, and by the time he was six, he played his first gig during a trip to his family’s hometown in Arkansas. The fledgling guitarist took the stage with his cousin’s band and thrilled an unsuspecting audience.
In the early 1970s, after a machine accident left his hand injured and his musical career severely hampered, Frederick Burks moved his family back to their southern home. There, Michael and his siblings helped their father build the Bradley Ferry Country Club – a 300-seat juke joint. By this time Michael was fronting his own band as well as backing several of the blues and R&B greats that passed through town. Johnnie Taylor and O.V. Wright were just two of the luminaries to call on Michael’s services. Business at the Bradley Ferry thrived for years, with Michael Burks leading the house band every Thursday through Saturday. Tables near the stage had to be reserved two weeks in advance.
When the Bradley Ferry finally closed in the mid-1980s, Michael needed to find a day job. For over a decade he worked as a mechanical technician for Lockheed-Martin; at one point during his stint with the advanced technology corporation he even built missile components. But Michael’s desire to perform remained strong, and in 1994 he formed a new band and began playing clubs and regional festivals. Despite his not having a record, the diesel-powered energy of Michael’s performances began to earn him festival offers from Florida to California. Fortunately, Michael’s boss was a blues lover. He recognized Michael’s ability and encouraged it, giving Burks the flexibility of long weekends in order to tour. On more than a few occasions, Lockheed even entertained its clients by flying them to Michael’s festival appearances.
Michael released his self-produced debut CD, From The Inside Out, in 1997. The album confidently announced Michael’s intention to take the blues world by storm. His impassioned, string-bending solos, combined with his fiery tone and smoldering vocals, left no doubt that Michael Burks was an emotionally-charged blues powerhouse. Critics and fans loved what they heard. Blues Access proclaimed From The Inside Out to be “the most impressive indie in recent memory,” and Living Blues rated it as one of “the best debut discs of the year.” In 2000, Burks received a Blues Music Award nomination for Best New Artist, even though he was already a hard-working professional.
It had become clear that Burks had to pursue his musical career full-time once again. Fueled by a tank full of positive reviews, Michael began to play more festivals than ever before, appearing at the Chicago Blues Festival, Telluride Blues Festival, Mississippi Valley Blues Fest and Kalamazoo Blues Fest, and making headlining appearances at the Mississippi Muddy Waters Blues Fest, Arkansas River Blues Fest and the Blind Willie Blues Fest, among others.
Burks joined the Alligator family in 2001 and released the critically acclaimed Make It Rain. The Chicago Sun-Times called the album “chilling and heartfelt.” Billboard agreed, declaring, “Burks is a powerhouse blues guitar slinger…he blasts through licks like Clapton used to play–think lightning–just because he can. He is a great guitarist.” Vintage Guitar said, “Gospel-ringed, sweet and nasty. Burks will warm your heart at the same time he puts a chill down your back.” He immediately hit the road in support of the CD, bringing his blistering blues to fans across the country and throughout Europe and Australia as well, with gigs at clubs, concert halls and major festivals everywhere.
His next album, I Smell Smoke, featured songs fueled by Burks’ feral guitar playing and tough, soulful vocals. As raw and passionate as ever, Burks played with the precision and dedication of the seasoned veteran that he is. Living Blues said, “Burks’ fretwork is skin-tight yet emotionally expressive. His voice is dusky and sensual yet shot through with virility. Burks burns his signature onto almost everything he touches with aching passion and the probing intensity of his guitar. He has the ability and the imagination to fuse the best of the old and the new.” Burks received three Blues Music Award nominations for his work on the CD, including Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year and Blues Song Of The Year for the title track.
The unstoppable, heartfelt intensity that Michael brings to the stage lies at the very core of his appeal. Dedicated fans around the country and in Europe, Australia and South America already know and appreciate the sweat, passion and intensity he pours out each night. A constant string of performances at premier festivals and clubs continues to add even more word-of-mouth fuel to the fire. Burks’ deep, soul-infused music and undeniable charisma make him an overwhelming force in the blues. The music on the new CD – forged by his unquestionable talent and fueled by the experience of years on the road – proves that electric guitar blues is alive and well in the skillful hands of the Iron Man, Michael Burks.
Watermelon Slim
Watermelon Slim and the Workers
Wednesday March 17th St Patty’s Day Celebration
At least once in every man’s life everything seems to come together magically. When the road leading to such times is long and grueling, the zenith becomes exponentially more rewarding. Bill Homans a.k.a. Watermelon Slim is the extraordinary wheel man behind this redemption story road trip.
In December 2006 Watermelon Slim garnered a record-tying six 2007 Blues Music Award nominations for Artist, Entertainer, Album, Band, Song, and Traditional Album of the Year. Only the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray have ever landed six. His 2006 self-titled release was ranked #1 in MOJO Magazine’s 2006 Top Blues CDs, won the 2006 Independent Music Award for Blues Album of the Year, hit #1 on the Living Blues Radio Chart, debuted at #13 on the Billboard Blues Radio Chart ahead of both Robert Cray and North Mississippi Allstars, and won the Blues Critic Award for 2006 Album of the Year.
In April, 2007 Watermelon Slim and The Workers released The Wheel Man, his second for NorthernBlues Music and his fourth album in five years. Jerry Wexler, a huge Watermelon Slim fan after hearing Slim’s 2005 self-titled release, eagerly offered to write the liner notes upon listening to early tracks saying Slim “is a one-of-a-kind pickin’ ‘n’n singing Okie dynamo.” The CD hit #1 on the Living Blues Radio Charts, #2 on the Roots Music Blues Charts and debuted in the Top 10 in Billboard’s Blues charts.
The Memphis Flyer led it’s terrific CD review with the question “Does anyone in modern pop music have a more intriguing biography than Bill “Watermelon Slim” Homans?” Slim was born in Boston and raised in North Carolina listening to his maid sing John Lee Hooker and other blues songs around the house. His father was a progressive attorney and ex-freedom rider and his brother is now a classical musician. Slim dropped out of Middlebury College to enlist for Vietnam. While laid up in a Vietnam hospital bed he taught himself upside-down left-handed slide guitar on a $5 balsawood model using a triangle pick cut from a rusty coffee can top and his Army issued Zippo lighter as the slide.
Returning home an fervent anti-war activist, Slim first appeared on the music scene with the release of the only known record by a veteran during the Vietnam War. The project was Merry Airbrakes, a 1973 protest tinged LP with tracks Country Joe McDonald later covered.
In the following 30 plus years Slim has been a truck driver, forklift operator, sawmiller (where he lost part of his finger), firewood salesman, collection agent, and even officiated funerals. At times he got by as a small time criminal. At one point he was forced to flee Boston where he played peace rallies, sit-ins and rabbleroused musically with the likes of Bonnie Raitt.
He ended up farming watermelons in Oklahoma - hence his stage name and current home base. Somewhere in those decades Slim completed two undergrad degrees in history and journalism.
While roommates, buddies and musical partner with the heavy drinking Henry ‘Sunflower’ Vestine of Canned Heat, Slim was able to finish a masters degree and member of Mensa, the social networking group reserved for members with certified genius IQs.
Throughout his storied past, it has always been truck driving that Slim returned to. While trucking and hauling industrial waste for thankless bosses at hourly wages to support himself and his family, his id yearned for release of the musician inside. Many of Slim’s current songs began a cappella in his rig keeping him awake and entertained.
In 2002 Slim suffered a near fatal heart attack. His brush with death gave him a new perspective on mortality, direction and life ambitions. He says, “Everything I do now has a sharper pleasure to it. I’ve lived a fuller life than most people could in two. If I go now, I’ve got a good education, I’ve lived on three continents, and I’ve played music with a bunch of immortal blues players. I’ve fought in a war and against a war. I’ve seen an awful lot and I’ve done an awful lot. If my plane went down tomorrow, I’d go out on top.”
If it’s any indication from raving reviews and features in Guitar One, HARP, Blues Revue, Toronto Star, Chicago Sun-Times, NPR, House of Blues Radio Hour, BBC’s World Service Programme, XM Satellite Radio and others, Watermelon Slim may have finally settled in on his chosen vocation.
www.watermelonslim.com / www.northernblues.com/ www.southernartist.net
For press materials, interview requests, and/or more information on
WATERMELON SLIM, contact Michael McClune Media & Mktg at 310.319.1199 (phone) or 858.342.2626 (cell) or michael@michaelmcclune.net
Copyright 2009 Watermelon Slim - Created by Wells Designs
Johnny A
Johnny A
Saturday April 17th, 9 pm
For Johnny A., the guitar has held a lifelong fascination, her six strings exerting a powerful influence and addictive beauty since the first time he held them. The pursuit of this musical lady with the perfect shape has driven his years - shaping the course of his life – taking him places he never could have imagined. Through inspiring moments of ecstatic improvisation, deep contemplation and inevitable gaps of frustration it has been a stormy affair with a tempestuous hollow-body lover, but the marriage has been nothing less than remarkable.
Johnny A. is widely regarded as one of America’s finest contemporary guitarists. Gibson thinks so – their Custom Shop designed a Signature Edition guitar per his specific requests which, when it was marketed in 2003, placed him in an exclusive club that included legends like BB King, Wes Montgomery, Chet Atkins, Joe Perry, Pat Martino and Les Paul himself. The public thinks so too - Johnny A.’s latest works have sold many thousands of copies as well as being his personal best. The most recent CD’s - 2004’s Get Inside and 1999’s Sometime Tuesday Morning, are the critically acclaimed solo culmination of a lifetime of learning, sharing and bonding in a long parade of bands and players.
As a bright-eyed six-year old in Malden, Massachusetts, Johnny became fascinated with the drums, a habit his father encouraged by buying him a kit. There were lessons and the Jr. High School marching band, but as fun as the skins were, he realized that their melodic capability was quite limited. Rhythm had taken a backseat to melody and since the most melodic instrument in any 60’s beat group was guitar, those six-strings now began their inexorable pull on Johnny A’s life. Once the four “mop-tops” from Liverpool dropped like a bomb from Ed Sullivan’s studio into his living room in 1964, his course was set.
A $49 Lafayette Electronics guitar became Johnny A.’s first girlfriend. A humble beginning for sure, but his mom was no fool and wanted to be safe if this ‘guitar thing’ just turned out to be another passing teenage phase. It wasn’t. Johnny saw the Beatles at Suffolk Downs outside of Boston in 1966 and their magical presence sent the impressionable lad into a blur of activity – sweeping up hair and doing odd jobs at his aunt’s salon to save up the 88 bucks needed to buy a Vox Clubman guitar. Then, of course, he had to have a Gretsch too. No, this was no passing phase.
Fate leaned in and dealt a tough one when the active 13-year old developed a curvature in his spine and suffered massive and painful muscle spasms as a result. Doctors put Johnny in a full body cast for 14 months and eventual body brace for two years to immobilize his back and neck during treatment. As much as this terrible handicap limited the schoolboy in his activities, it didn’t stop him from playing. In fact, the condition actually forced Johnny to improve his skills since he could no longer look down at his fingers while forming chords and picking.
In high school he was freed from the cast, graduated and then went on to a semester and a half at Boston’s Berklee School of Music. Ironically, Johnny had no interest in attending even one of his guitar lessons at the prestigious school - they taught textbook Bebop, while he had moved onto the latest sounds: Progressive Rock and Jazz/Rock Fusion. The instructors preached Lester Young, but Johnny grooved on Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin, King Crimson and Return to Forever featuring Bill Connors and Chick Corea. He bid adieu to Berklee and schooled himself, both at home and in Boston’s hippie-era club scene at places like the Ark and Boston Tea Party.
In amongst going to see Ten Years After, Steppenwolf, Edger Winter’s White Trash, Rhinoceros, Spirit and dozens more, Johnny put together his own group called Squanty Roo. They might not have blazed a trail to Budokan, but they did play the Fusion sounds that the guitarist was digging on. After that it was a short pilgrimage to San Francisco to absorb some counterculture and do a brief stint with percussionist Mingo Lewis.
By 1975 Johnny A. had worked out of his progressive phase and hungered to put together a basic rock outfit with the energy of Aerosmith and the melodic fascinations of the Beatles. It was the pre-punk period and Boston was about to become a hotbed of local talent and a leading city to support the brand new wave of bands and attitude. Johnny formed the group The Streets, a leather-clad unit on the ground floor of hard rock that embraced the sounds of 60’s British Invasion pop. When Boston’s punk scene finally climbed out of a handful of dingy rock and roll basements with its first wave of rock recruits for the brand new era, The Streets were there, scoring a major local radio hit with the song “What Gives.”
Eventually, personnel changes killed The Streets, but the guitarist formed other bands – Johnny A.’s Hidden Secret and Hearts on Fire, a unit featuring his wife Beth on vocals. With a sound that drew from country-western twang but rocked solid, Hearts on Fire preceded Maria McKee’s Lone Justice and pioneered a distinctive place within Boston’s thriving mid-80’s local scene. Competing in the 1986 edition of WBCN-FM’s annual Rock and Roll Rumble spotlighting two dozen of the year’s best up and coming bands, Hearts on Fire blazed a trail all the way into the finals, becoming recognized truly as one of New England’s finest and brightest hopes.
But Johnny broke up the group instead after realizing that their direction had become “calculated” and “not honest.” Disillusioned after reaching so far within the band format, he began playing with other artists like former Derek and the Dominos keyboardist Bobby Whitlock before hooking up with legendary J. Geils Band front man Peter Wolf. Johnny stayed with Wolf for seven years, playing on his albums and co-producing one of them – 1996’s Long Line, as well as supporting the charismatic singer onstage around the world. During this period, in 1994, the Gibson Guitar Company first recognized Johnny’s talents, announcing that the company was officially endorsing his fruitful career.
But once again Johnny A. felt he had taken a direction and pursuit as far as he could. The idea began to take hold that he should return to a solo direction – this time creating an album of melodies and music that swirled about in his head. Even though it didn’t seem as if there was any commercial potential in the move, that wasn’t the point – Johnny needed to bring this project to life and it wouldn’t resemble anything he’d been involved in the past. Peter Wolf and Johnny A. parted ways and the guitarist began recording tracks for his new experiment – an album of music made merely to satisfy his own muse with no commercial constraints whatsoever.
The result was Sometime Tuesday Morning, a solo instrumental guitar album that Johnny A. released on his own label for his own enjoyment plus that of a few intrigued friends and family members. But the warmth of its guitar tones and allure of melody made Sometime Tuesday Morning much more – it made the album a surprise hit. After gigs Johnny began selling dozens, then hundreds, and eventually thousands of copies out of his car trunk. The attention led to a re-release and distribution deal with Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label and an ever-widening circle of high-prestige gigs with the likes of B.B. King, Robert Cray, and Jeff Beck plus an appearance at Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads Guitar Festival” in 2004. That success gave Johnny A. the confidence to assemble his second instrumental tour de force called Get Inside, another critically acclaimed album that traveled even deeper into the richness of guitar texture and melody. The release once again garnered national radio airplay and inspired another round of touring commitments and personal appearances. An instructional guitar DVD has followed plus plans for his newest project – a live CD/DVD featuring special guests and new material. It has been a long way from that first $49 guitar to Gibson’s Johnny A. Signature Edition (Metallica’s Kirke Hammett recently bought one), but it’s been a fruitful journey. Johnny A. is still doing what he loves to do the most - play guitar and create music, and he’s still getting better at it all the time.
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa on Stage
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Erin Podbereski at 626-585-9575 or erin@jensencom.com
Blues Rock Star Joe Bonamassa to Headline Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma On March 26th In Support Of His Upcoming Studio Album Black Rock, To Be Released In Early 2010.
Los Angeles, CA, December 2009: Award-winning blues rock star, guitar hero and singer-songwriter Joe Bonamassa and his ace touring band will perform in concert at the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on March 26th. The one-night-only show is in support of his upcoming album Black Rock, to be released on Bonamassa’s J&R Adventures label in early 2010. The tenth full-length solo release and eighth studio album of his career, the disc will mark Bonamassa’s sixth collaboration with Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Black Crowes, Aerosmith) as producer.
2009 marked a year of milestones for Bonamassa. He kicked it off in February with the release of his ninth solo album, The Ballad of John Henry, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Charts. Nicky Horne from the UK’s Planet Rock Radio called it “a quantum leap from his previous albums, and they were damn good – if he keeps this up, he is destined to walk alongside the truly greats.”
In May 2009, he played a sold out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall, arguably the most prestigious concert venue in the world and had the added honor of being joined on stage by the legendary Eric Clapton. The Times of London cited Joe’s “searing excellence and showmanship,” and Planet Rock said, “The sight of two of the world’s best guitarists trading solos was more than a little thrilling.” Released Oct. 6, 2009 and debuting at #6 on Billboard’s DVD Chart was Joe Bonamassa – Live From The Royal Albert Hall, a 2-disc live DVD capturing the intensity and excitement of that show which Bonamassa calls “a day 20 years in the making.”
This past year also saw Bonamassa’s twentieth year as a professional musician, an extraordinary timeline for a young artist just into his ‘30s. He was named “Best Blues Guitarist” in Guitar Player’s readers’ choice poll for the third consecutive year and graced their April 2009 cover. The magazine said, “He’s an old soul, and that comes through in his bends, vibrato, singing voice, and note choices, which – with each passing year – gets more restrained and refined.”
In November ‘09, he headlined Guitar Center’s annual King of the Blues contest in Los Angeles and was awarded the Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award at the U.K.’s prestigious Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards.
Bonamassa averages 200 shows every year, almost always playing to sold-out and ever-larger houses, and with each gig, he comes more into his own as a virtuoso and a vocalist. The Washington Post’s Mike Joyce cites his, “wicked guitar thrills” and British journalist Pete Feenstra wrote of a BBC Live performance, that, “he is both as eloquent and learned about the music he plays as he is technically brilliant.” Guitar icon Ted Nugent has said, “This kid deserves to be in the same class with Stevie Ray F*&cking Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck.”
A child prodigy, Bonamassa opened shows at age 12 for blues legend B.B. King, who said after first seeing him play, “This kid’s potential is unbelievable…He’s one of a kind.” Bonamassa’s recording career began in the early ’90s with Bloodlines, a rock-blues group also featuring Robby Krieger’s son Waylon and Miles Davis’ son Erin. His solo debut was in 2000 with the Tom Dowd-produced A New Day Yesterday, named for the Jethro Tull hit that Bonamassa delivers with what allmusic.com calls, “a jaw-dropping performance.”
Joe’s appearance at the Civic Center Music Hall on March 26th is the culmination of efforts by local business man turned promoter Jim Moody. Moody and Bonamassa have forged a relationship that began in 2002 in Tulsa Oklahoma. Jim Moody Route 66 Blues Project/79th Street Sound Stage happened to witness this performance and was so moved he began promoting Joe in Oklahoma. In late 2003 Joe’s first Oklahoma City show was at the Will Rogers Theatre. Since then his popularity steadily increased with an appearance in 2008 at Rose State Theatre for the Performing Arts. Jim Moody was quoted saying “I have just witnessed the next guitar legend. I haven’t experienced anything similar to this since I saw Jimmy Page in 1970 and later Stevie Ray Vaughan. Joe Bonamassa is going to influence the next generation of guitar players and change the direction modern popular music is headed. Not just a return to its blues roots but how you experience the live performance. Joe will be the high water mark that other acts will emulate and seek to replicate his ability to connect with his audience, through his emotional expression both instrumentally and vocally. ”
Tickets are $45.00 and available at the Civic Center Box Office 201 N Walker Ave. 405-297-2264 and all outlets. Also online at www.myticketoffice.com or by calling 1-800-364-7111
For more information and updated tour schedule, visit www.jbonamassa.com
Monte Montgomery
Monte Montgomery
Monte Montgomery February, 27th 8 pm
Special Guest: TBA
Named as one of “Guitar Player” magazine’s “Top 50 All-Time Greatest Guitarists” and the only artist to win the “Best Acoustic Guitar Player” at the Austin Music Awards seven years straight, Monte Montgomery is world-renowned for his dizzying fretboard wizardry. Guitar hero status aside, Montgomery is also a multi-dimensional songwriter and storyteller as well as a talented arranger and remarkably soulful vocalist. He is one of the very few living guitar gods able to synergize technical shredding with deep soul connection in his songs and performances. Austin City Limits producer Terry Lickona describes the musician perfectly, “Monte Montgomery blows people away. There is no other way to describe it.”
DumpstaPhunk
Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk
February 2nd @ Oklahoma City Limits
Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk
February 2nd @ Oklahoma City Limits
Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk
“Dumpstaphunk is the best funk band from New Orleans right now.” -New York Times
Formed in 2003, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk was initially put together by keyboardist Ivan Neville on a whim in order to perform a solo gig at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Ivan called in cousin Ian Neville (guitar), the double-bass bottom of both Nick Daniels and Tony Hall, and drummer Raymond Weber to round out the show. Named after a song Ivan had recently written, Dumpstaphunk’s informal performance became that of immediate legend. The project has since grown from chance side-project into what is now widely considered to be New Orleans’ most popular musical export. The band was recently voted 2007’s “New Orleans Best Funk Band” by both Offbeat Magazine and Gambit Weekly, and performs at some of the nation’s largest music festivals such as Bonnaroo, Voodoo Fest, 10,000 Lakes, and High Sierra.
Founders Ivan Neville and Ian Neville (sons of both Aaron Neville and Art Neville respectively), along with Nick Daniels, Tony Hall, and Raymond Weber, were brought up in an atmosphere of sounds that have arguably become the most defining in all of New Orleans music. But don’t let the pedigree of lineage from the Meters and Neville Brothers fool you either. Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk now stands on its own as the legitimate torchbearer of all things funky both in New Orleans and beyond with the release of their debut EP, Listen Hear.
Listen Hear provides at long-last the aural, syncopated nastiness listeners have been denied outside of a Dumpstaphunk live performance. Saxophonic magician, Skerik, also guests on the EP. Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk is not re-writing the book so much as adding a much needed new testament. While fortunate enough to stand upon the shoulders of giants, make no mistake – Listen Hear is not an attempt at world music or feel-good vibrations, like that of some of their counterparts, but rather straight-ahead inner city funk for the masses. Tracks like “Living in a World Gone Mad” and “Turn This Thing Around” describe the troubling times we live in, while songs like “Meanwhile” and “Shake” suggest accepting such times in order to enjoy life.
This release not only marks the band’s official musical debut, but also serves as a group’s formal transformation from popular side-project to full-time occupation. For some that might seem trivial but with Dumpstaphunk’s collective resume it speaks volumes. The members of Dumpstaphunk have recorded and performed with a veritable who’s-who of popular music over the years including the Rolling Stones, Dave Mathews, Bonnie Raitt, John Mayer, Trey Anastasio, Emmylou Harris and, yes, even the Neville Brothers. And while the members of Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk will surely continue to get the calls to do such collaborations, it will become increasingly difficult to find the time as the band forges ahead creating a new identity and standard for New Orleans music.
The Hill Country Review
Hill Country Review
Appearing Dec 4th, at Oklahoma City Limits
BIOGRAPHY
HILL COUNTRY REVUE is THE modern Southern Rock / Blues band for the new generation. Formed by Cody Dickinson from the North Mississippi Allstars in 2008, it features Chris Chew, Kirk Smithhart, Ed “Hot” Cleveland and Daniel Coburn. The band’s debut album, ‘Make a Move’, was released in May 2009. “This is really back to the roots of blues,” says Cody of the record. “It’s funky. Really nasty, that’s the best way to describe it. Gritty, messy, stripped-down.”
As part of the North Mississippi Allstars, Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew have three Grammy nominated albums under their belts. They have shared the stage with artists as diverse as Kid Rock, Dave Matthews Band and Mavis Staples, and toured all over the world steadily since 1996, earning a legion of fans.
The majority of the material on ‘Make A Move’ was written by protégé Garry Burnside, the youngest of R.L. and Alice Mae Burnside’s fourteen children. Garry is a walking encyclopedia of Mississippi hill country blues. He grew up playing with Junior Kimbrough every Sunday night in Junior’s world-famous juke joint (where he met a young Cody Dickinson for the first time).
Kirk Smithhart was awarded The Albert King award for Best Guitarist by the Blues Foundation when he was only 19. Daniel Coburn, born and raised in Flint MI, cut his teeth playing rock and hardcore. He formed Dixie Hustler in 2001 whose debut record was produced by Aaron Julison of Kid Rock and Cody Dickinson. “Hot” Cleveland grew up surrounded by the gospel music of Memphis and has recorded and toured with a number of lauded musicians including Olanda Draper & Howard Hewitt.
The Lee Boys
The Lee Boys
The Lee Boys
blues, jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop, country, and world music genres in a powerfully
jamming mix. When The Lee Boys bring their joyous spiritual sound to the stage,
audiences instantly recognize that this is not “sitting and listening” music - dancing,
shouting out, and having fun are considered essential parts of their tradition. These
guys will funkify your soul and help you see the musical light.
In the late 1930s, two brothers brought a new musical instrument into the worship
experience of the House of God church in Jacksonville, Florida. The Pentecostal
congregation embraced the soulful sound of the electric lap-steel guitar, as played by
a novice named Willie Eason and his brother Truman. Over time this unique sound
became the hallmark of the church. The pedal steel guitar was later added into the
mix in the 1970s. The Lee Boys are part of the fourth generation of this tradition in
the faith.
Over the past year, The Lee Boys have either sat in or been joined on stage by the
Allman Brothers Band, Warren Haynes, Bob Weir, Los Lobos, Derek Trucks, Susan
Tedeschi, The North Mississippi Allstars, and Victor Wooten. They recently headlined
at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Bonnaroo, High Sierra, Philadelphia
Folk Festival and nearly 50 additional folk, jazz, blues, and arts festivals. Impose
Magazine said of The Lee Boys 2008 Bonnaroo set: “…gospel-blues troupe the Lee
Boys made Robert Randolph’s later-afternoon set feel like a let down. They were
easily the find of the festival.”
The Lee Boys were recently named to the SouthernArtistry.org website, a Southern
- GlideMagazine.com’s Top 10 Concerts of 2008“…the Lee Boys bring the sacred steel sound to the next level…”
Joanne Shaw Taylor
Joanne Shaw Taylor
Appearing Feb. 10th With Eric Sardinas
At Oklahoma City Limits
Joanne Shaw Taylor - White Sugar. Ruf Records
Telecaster, Texas style
“I have played with all sorts of blues musicians all over the world, I even made a film ´Deep
Blues´ where I went to Mississippi and recorded some legendary players such as R.L Burnside and Jesse -Mae Hemphill. Last year I heard something I thought I would never hear….a British White Girl playing blues guitar so deep and passionately it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end!“ (Dave Stewart/Eurythmics)
When Dave Stewart had his big experience, Joanne Shaw Taylor was only 16. Her skills at the Telecaster were so perfect that the bluesfan and Eurythmics-frontman asked her to join his supergroup D.U.P. to tour europe in 2002. She was also offered a record contract but the label went bust. Today Joanne is 23 and happy about the fact that she took her time with the
recording debut: „I wanted to take time out to really work on my craft and make sure that when I did an album it was the best that I could do.“
For „White Sugar“ Joanne took a plane to Memphis where her label RUF had booked Jim
Gaines´ studio. Jim had worked with some of Joanne´s idols like Albert Collins and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He brought in the experienced sessionmen Steve Potts (Drums) und Dave Smith (Bass). „Working with these guys was totally easy. I knew of them because of Luther Allison and the Jonny Lang albums. They didn´t know the tracks until five minutes before we recorded them. I made them listen to the songs once and then play them. It was fantastic. They got so much feeling and soul. They are amazing guys to work with.“
The power trio – that´s the kind of band which suits Joanne Shaw Taylor, also at home in
Birmingham, where she and her trio play the pubs, clubs and festivals. „I always wanted to try
Track List
1. Going Home
2. Just Another Word
3. Bones
4. Who Do You Want Me To Be?
5. Time Has Come
6. White Sugar
7. Kiss The Ground Goodbye
8. Heavy Heart
9. Watch ‘em Burn
10. Blackest Day
Ruf Records, Ludwig-Wagner-Str. 31 A, 37318 Lindewerra/Germany
Phone: +49 36087 9220 Fax: +49 36087 92211
www.rufrecords.de ruf@rufrecords.de
the power trio thing, like Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Paladins or Jimi Hendrix. I thought it would
bring me on as a guitar player and a singer – which I think it has done. And“ – Joanne
chuckles – „it´s also cheaper, you know.“ She talks about some influences. When Joanne was a little schoolgirl, she was caught by the rough side of the blues: SRV, Albert Collins, the Paladins, Jimi Hendrix. At christmas she got her first electric guitar. The old classical guitar, which she had played since she was eight, vanished from the children´s room. „As soon as I heard SRV and Albert Collins I knew pretty
much that I wanted to do that full stop. That was the lifestyle route that I was goin´ to go down. It was never a hobby. It was always very serious and dedicated to it.“
„White Sugar“ is the proof. The confident and young british woman keeps the traditions of her idols but she is going her own way. With her record debut she demonstrates her talent with ten songs that she has written herself. Playing the hard stuff à la SRV, making us feel the bite of her telecaster just like Albert Collins did or working out charming little riffs from the Jimi Hendrix book – Joanne is always seeking – and finding – new terrain. Funky shuffles, soulful ballads or the hypnotic hookline of the title track, a burning instrumental, she presents her craft powerfully. Some songs were written during the the flight to Memphis, a few others were written 10 years ago and are kind of her signature tunes. There is the autobiographical „Kiss The Ground Goodbye“, deep feelings come wirh „Heavy Heart“ or „Blackest Day“, a song that Joanne wrote when she was 14. „With ´Blackest Day´ I really wanted to show my influences.“ She can be proud of her first album. „„She´s my pride & joy…“ SRV once sang. Her fans will be proud of Joanne, too…
“She plays with more attitude and flare than most.
Massive potential here. Inspiring.”
GUITARIST magazine
“ Catch her live if you can, then you can say: I was there at the beginning”
Blue Print Magazine
“Joanne IS the new face of the blues”
Blues Matters
Eric Sardinas
Eric Sardinas
Appearing Feb. 10th 2010
Oklahoma City Limts
ERIC SARDINAS
Eric Sardinas and Big Motor
On his fourth album, Eric Sardinas and Big Motor, the artist delivers a powerful musical statement that stands as his most accomplished release to date, fueled by a wily sense of adventure, imagination and ferocious lead guitar finery. Honest, soulful and firebranded with a gritty passion, Eric Sardinas is the real deal, infusing his music with an embattled spirit, reconfiguring deep southern blues with the finesse of a master.
Picking up the guitar at the age of six, Sardinas reaped a heavin’ helpin’ of inspiration from a melting pot of influences numbering R&B, gospel, rock and roll and most tellingly, his profound love of traditional blues forms. All inform the songwriting and incendiary playing on the new album. And while those influences inexorably shape his playing he’s no mere mimic. Instead, he’s absorbed all those styles into his DNA, reinterpreting them into his own driving contemporary blues/rock sound. On the new record, helping to power Sardinas’ musical engine is a crack rhythm section featuring the driving bass of Levell Price and drum thunder of Patrick Caccia.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Matt Gruber, the CD kicks into overdrive with the propulsive kick of the opening cut “All I Need,” the musical ride accelerating into top gear, blowing rubber at 100MPH. A relentless groove, Sardinas’ earthy vocals and tasty slide guitar make this the perfect introduction. “The swampy introduction is kind of a metaphor for the big motor sound coming at you,” attests Sardinas. “I wanted the songs to take you on a ride.” Gospel meets Texas rock on “Ride”, “Door To Diamonds” is the ultimate kiss-off to a
spurned lover while “Find My Heart” pile drives the listener with walls of explosive
guitars, soulful vocals and contagious energy. “Listen, can’t you hear that train, coming down the line now and calling my name” croons Sardinas on “Gone To Memphis”, a more lyrically reflective track, earmarked by contours of melodic innovation, impassioned singing and an arresting, hooky chorus that refuses to leave your brain. “‘Gone to Memphis’ is not literally about walking out the
door but already being through it,” asserts Sardinas. “It’s more about mentally moving forward and doing what it takes to make those moves. Memphis is a big part of my psyche so I used it in the song.”
Opening with the strains of a live audience, a snarling lick drives “Just Like That,” a gutbusting blues stomper characterized by the artist’s jaw-dropping dive-bomb slide guitar pyrotechnics, which reflect his love of Son House and Robert Johnson. An amphetamine paced rootsy take of Elvis Presley’s 70’s smash, “Burning Love” updates “The King’s” slice of gold with dobro flavored ferocity. “It’s a beautiful and honest song and one I grew up with,” said Sardinas. “The simplicity of the message belies a complexity and that appealed to me.”
Setting the scene on the closing track is the lonely sound of the swirling wind whistling through the fields, the Tony Joe White penned “As the Crow Flies” is the record’s tourde-force. The song’s glorious wide-screen sound serves as a showcase for Sardinas’
emotional vocal and dobro playing before racing toward the finish with the rhythmic thrust of layers of acoustic and electric guitars Scoring accolades for his previous studio albums (1999’s Treat Me Right, 2001’s Devil’s
Train and 2003’s Black Pearls), Sardinas has garnered acclaim for his explosive live performances, which clearly demonstrate his consummate six-string agility. A veteran of the live circuit, he’s racked up thousands of performances worldwide.
You don’t need a weathered road map or expensive GPS system to navigate your way through the 11 musical signposts on Eric Sardinas and Big Motor. So what are youwaiting for? Rev this baby up, crank the motor, and take it out for a thrilling musical ride you’ll never forget….