| Influences | A sampling of music we love:
Louis Armstrong, Asylum Street Spankers, Packy Axton, Sidney Bechet, Robert Belfour, The Blue-Eyed Devils, The Blues Brothers (really!), Bluff City Backsliders, The Bo-Keys, Booker T. and the MGs, Brass Bands, Big Bill Broonzy, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Bob Brozman, Burlesque music, R.L. Burnside, Cab Calloway, The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, The Cheap Suit Serenaders, Charlie Christian, Patsy Cline, John Coltrane, Chris Cotton, Detroit Junior, Jim Dickinson, Dixie Hummingbirds, Big Joe Duskin, Duke Ellington, Tony Ellis, William Lee Ellis, Emmet Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, Flatt and Scruggs, Mary Flower, Guy Forsyth, Jason Freeman, Mary Gauthier, Dizzy Gillespie, Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Billie Holiday, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Hot Club of Cowtown, Impala, Mahalia Jackson, Blind Willie Johnson, Sharon Jones, Jug Bands, King Wilkie, The Kitchen Syncopators, Klezmer music, Leadbelly, Mark Lemhouse, Willie Mabon, Branford Marsalis, Jimbo Mathus, Fred McDowell, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Miles Davis, Memphis music, Memphix, Memphis Minnie, Mofro, Thelonious Monk, Bill Monroe, Gatemouth Moore, Jason Moran, Frank Morey, Jelly Roll Morton, Mudboy and the Neutrons, Mylab, New Orleans music, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Calvin Newborn, North Mississippi Allstars, Tim O'Brien, Old Crow Medicine Show, Charlie Parker, Elvis Presley, Ma Rainey, Tarbox Ramblers, Tampa Red, Django Reinhardt, Tony Rice, Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, Terry Robb, Jimmie Rodgers, Shangri-La Records, The Sirens Records, Stanley Smith, Bessie Smith, South Austin Jug Band, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Stax, Sun Records, Otis Taylor, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Othar Turner, Tom Waits, Fats Waller, Muddy Waters, WEVL, Dr. Michael White, Hank Williams, The Wiyos, Howlin' Wolf |
| Sounds Like |
Eden Brent Described by one critic as "Bessie Smith meets Diana Krall meets Janis Joplin," 2009's Blues Music Award winner of both "Acoustic Artist of the Year" and "Acoustic Album of the Year" is a masterful blues & boogie pianist and vocal stylist who combines elements of blues, jazz, soul, gospel and pop.
Asylum Street Spankers "A roots-rock riddle, nestled in a satirical Vaudeville enigma, packaged in an old-timey radio-show puzzle and slathered with hippie-fried mystery sauce." –Tampa Weekly Planet
Fiona Boyes Sassy and soulful electric and acoustic blues have earned this Australian guitarslinger nominations for Blues Music Awards for three years running.
Mary Flower Blues, Folk, Rags, Swing, Fingerpicking, Lap-Steel, springwater-clear vocals... nominated for Acoustic Artist of the Year by the Blues Foundation.
The Soul of John Black "Funky blend of blues, soul, and rock" from ex- Fishbone and Miles Davis sideman, merging rootsy, bluesy fundamentals with modern soul, funk, and hip-hop influences.
Woodbrain "A very new and very exciting vision of the blues – a fusion of the Delta and their own haunted visions. In a way, when performing live they’re like a classic jam band that can take a song and its theme for great lengths... but whatever they are, they're extremely innovative with a sound completely their own. Exhilarating and mind-enchanting." –Cascade Blues Association
Mark Lemhouse Genre-defying, Handy-nominated explorer of Americana, Blues, and any other roots music style that strikes his fancy. A distinctly contemporary songwriting voice filtering the emotion of Hank Williams Sr. through the attitude of Tom Waits.
William Lee Ellis International accolades abound for acoustic Americana/blues artist William Lee Ellis, a Memphis-based master guitarist who has been described as a wizard on steel strings with an ability to render time and history irrelevant, and whose albums have been hailed as a rare piece of art.
Terry Robb Acoustic Blues with a contemporary edge from eighteen-time winner (actually, we’ve lost count a while back) of the Cascade Blues Association’s Muddy Award.
Chris Cotton Harkening back to the days when the distinction between blues and country was hopelessly blurred, rising Americana / blues guitarist Chris Cotton places his own stamp on roots styles ranging from the Piedmont to North Mississippi.
The Bo-Keys Incendiary soul/jazz/funk &ndash a hard-hitting and authentic modern take on Memphis original soul-stew sound. Featuring Stax musicians Skip Pitts, Willie Hall, and Ronnie Williams.
Calvin Newborn Guitar genius Calvin Newborn played on B.B. King's first recordings, taught Elvis how to dance, and tore up the Big Apple in the heyday of bop...
Big Joe Duskin Legendary patriarch of Cincinnati blues and boogie piano presents his first new studio recording in nearly 2 decades...
Bluff City Backsliders Modern-day practitioners of barrelhouse, honky-tonk, Delta-bred sacramental hoo-doo music that is profane as it is glorious... |
