Ashford Gordon and his band are: Mikey Katnic, Keyboard and Vocals; Glenn Sciurba, 1st Guitar; Billy Bold, Bass Guitar, Dynamic Dave Stewart, Drums and Vocals; Ashford Gordon, Bluesman Par Excellence/Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter.
The players supporting Ashford Gordon on the body of work represented here and at CDbaby and Surprise Truck Entertainment are: Mikey Katnic, Keyboard and Vocals; Glenn Sciurba, 1st Guitar; Billy Bold, Bass Guitar; Dynamic Dave Stewart, Drums; Arte O'Dell, Guitars on "Think About The Children"; Freddy Markowitz, Rhythm Guitar on "Think About The Children"; Steve Agostini, Bass on "Think About The Children"; Gary Orsino, Keyboard on "Think About The Children"; Marty LaRocca, Drums on "Think About The Children"; DC, Six-String Contrabass; Dean Giles, Drums; Chris "The Rock" Rokusek, Keyboards & Backing Vocals; Dynamic Dave Stewart, Drums; Andrew Diaz Jr., Percussion; Jackie Lomax, Guitar and Slide Guitar; Hippie Mark Searcy, Harmonica; Tracy Longo, 1st Guitar; Pat Rodgers, Drums; The Moby Dick Girls, Backing Vocals; David Goodstein, Drums; Sam Bass, Viola and String Arrangements; David Ralicke, Horns and Horn Arrangements; Gabriel Gordon, Acoustic and Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals and Production; Steve Refling, 1st Guitar, Engineering and Production; Jeff Cowan and Goldmine Studio, Ventura, Ca. Engineering; David Van G and Moby Dick Studio, Ventura, Ca. Engineering and Production; Frank Imbesi and the Sound Chamber Studio, Modesto, Ca. Engineering and Production; Tony "Punchman" Medieras Engineering; Matthew Roberts, Surprise Truck Entertainment, Hollywood, Ca., Production.
Writers collaborating with Ashford Gordon: Arte O'Dell, Michael Mirko, Mike Montry, & Dean Giles, Mikey Katnic, Glenn Sciurba, Michael Golden & Mike Schmid.
Living The Blues-Ashford Gordon words to love
Louisiana Guitar Red, Willie Dixon, Elmore James, Mike Bloomfield, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Dinah Washington, Ritchie Havens, Dave Brubeck, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Fats Domino, Jerry Butler, Steve Cropper, Django Rheinhardt, Charlie Christian, T-Bone Walker, Bill Withers, Taj Mahal, Walter Becker, Donald Fagan, Wes Montgomery, Jerry Garcia, Josh White, Son House, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Paul Desmond, Etta James, Louis Jordan.
Ashford Gordon was born in Starkville, Mississippi August 24, 1948 to a family related to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians located in the hill country of northeastern Mississippi. He spent his early years on a 500 acre dairy farm where he rose with the sun to milk the cows and perform other chores to aid his Great-Grandparents. While there where electric lights in the home, there was no indoor plumbing and the youngster had to gather wood each day for the wood burning kitchen stove. Needless to say, there was no music heard on this farm. It was all business all the time. Gordon's parents moved to St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1950s where the young Ashford lived in the first federally funded housing projects in the United States. However, the large housing projects soon proved uncontrollable and impervious to police patrols resulting in the eventual razing of the entire group of buildings. During this period, the future blues musician was schooled in a small Catholic parish school by nuns who discovered the young lad could sing. This led to his first public performance at Christmas eve midnight mass in 1956. Ashford's earliest blues influences were to be heard on the black radio stations around St. Louis. Artists such as Little Walter Jacobs, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry streamed into the Gordon home daily. Gordon's father, a construction laborer, relocated his family to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1959 exposing his young son to a brand new world. Attending a series of high schools, Ashford eventually broke the color barrier becoming the first black student to attend Westmont High School in Campbell, California. During his high school years, Gordon earned five letters in sports, played on two undefeated championship teams, was elected senior class president, served as salutatorian at his graduation services and was a member of the school's state championship chamber choir. His early career focused on gospel music and he performed throughout the West Coast until the early 70s when he moved to New York and found work in various Supper Club and casual night club gigs throughout New York and New Jersey as a bass player, guitarist and vocalist. Moving back to California in 1979 he founded his first blues band, however success on any scale was hard to find and he went to work for the local telephone company to support his growing family. Continuing to work gigs at night while maintaining his day job, Ashford fronted a number of regional groups through the 80s finally catching on in Santa Cruz, California in the early 80s until a disastrous divorce and subsequent short-lived second marriage led him to the love of his life, Dale Ecker, who has served as his manager as well as his wife for the past 22 years. It was Dale who suggested he base his blues band in Turlock, California in 1992. This band, Too Late Tomorrow worked steadily and caught the attention of a Central California promoter who was looking for a band to back the late seminal blues guitarist Louisiana Guitar Red who became a mentor to Ashford's emerging Mississippi blues sensibilities. Working behind Red (Cardell Boyett) to critical and popular acclaim, Ashford honed his blues guitar technique and blues vocals to a smooth but powerful edge causing Lynn Sampson, a Stanislaus County Connections reviewer to state in 1994..."Gordon's singing is excellent. His phrasing is incomparable. His intonation is flawless. He has enough composure on stage to never rush the beat or jump on the first pulse of each measure. His tone quality is earthy but not coarse. I could listen to Gordon sing for hours". In 1995, Gordon and his group backed Louisiana Guitar Red at the prestigious Monterey Blues Festival and that same year Gordon founded the Ashford Gordon Band in Ventura, California and went to work recording his first CD, Nothin' But Trouble. At the same time Gordon's oldest son Gabriel Gordon broke out in New York as the leader of a rock outfit, 12th Planet and soon was touring with Natalie Merchant as her guitarist and backing vocalist revealing the passing of the mantle of Gordon's unique technique on to a young lion made in his own image. In 2000 Gordon released his second CD, Somewhere Down The Line prompting Bill Locey, music reviewer for the Los Angeles Times to say of Ashford in a September 2000 review..."Gordon and his dexterous digits has been playing locally for the last several years and is one of the few working musicians who actually make money at their night jobs". In 2002 Ashford Gordon and his son Gabriel Gordon released a collaborative CD, Planetary Man on the Surprise Truck label featuring six Ashford tunes and six Gabriel tunes. In the fall of 2006, Ashford and Gabriel joined by Ashford's adopted son, James Kakande-a stellar artist in his own right boasting chart-topping hits throughout Europe- embarked on a mini-tour of Germany and Switzerland culminating in a sold-out performance in Paris attended by many major players in the European music scene. The Ventura County Star's Time Out music magazine columnist Bill Locey said of Ashford Gordon in December 2006..."The Mississippi native is a living exponent of that state's most famous export.."
Your Hip Shakin Mama is sittin in to wish you a Very Funkalicious Evening! Thanks for sharing your amazing space with me! I'm so glad you came up to see me and left such a lovely note! It mad4 my week! I'm recording my first all-original CD right now. I can't wait until it's done! You'll love it even more!!!
Thanks for stopping by my page. I really appreciate the support cuz it helps me grow as a singer.. Hope all is well with you?!.. Keep doin what you do and all your dreams will come true like you planned. Holla back anytime! Irina
Thanx a lot for the friendship! Keep up the good work! And let your soul be your pilot - today, tommorow, always! From Russia with love... MAX DMITRIEFF, singer & songwriter www.myspace.com/KatherinesFavorites
I hope you will dial in and listen to the radio show that I'll be on tomorrow night at 8pm EST (that's 5pm your time...right?)
Here is the link....
....will be on The Warren Michaels Show "LIVE" from New York!! When: Thurs., August 6th @ 8:00 PM EST. You can listen online at http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=246675055650&h=2om4H&u=S7nsH&ref=mf
The call in number for the show: 646-595-2757. This is a very special 2
hour event! Paul Underwood will be releasing all the " long awaited
news!!" :))
You can still catch me on my radio show with Warren Michaels. I posted it on my blog here on My MySpace page. All you have to do is sign in to my blog and listen.
There may still be something we can later do this summer. I have an open invite to put together a great show. Care to join me?
Thought you might like to support some northern blues.....The Dusty Roads Band is eligible for an APCMA in the following categories :Best Blues Album,Best New Artist,,Best Songwriter,,Best Album Design, Best Group or Duo,Best Single of the year. Online voting begins first round July 7,2009 and goes to August 13,2009..If you could please take a moment and login to http://www.aboriginalpeopleschoice.com/ And vote online, it would really help us gain what we think is some well deserved recognition for all the hard work we have done and are doing to bring great music to your ears.
ashford, thank you sooo much for your kind words...really means alot to me. I hope you are well...hows arizona? too hot???!! Well, Im in Ojai now not ventura...so it could get toasty this summer...but jonathan and ksenia live right around the corner and we hang out alot! xx take care, Suzanne
Online!
