Sunday - Jun 3, 2012 - 8:00pm @ House of Bricks | directions & tix >
$20 - R&B singer, songwriter and guitarist Tommy Castro is one of the most popular and creative roots artists to emerge in recent years. Castro, a multiple Blues Music Award winner, is famed not only for his hard-hitting, impassioned vocals, soaring guitar work and his blues-infused, rocking R&B sound, but also for his striking, original songwriting and exhilarating stage show.Sunday - Jun 10, 2012 - 8:00pm @ House Of Bricks | directions & tix >
CD Release Party $15 adv / $20 door - Walter Trout’s 20th album is called Common Ground, but for the visionary roots singer, songwriter and guitarist that’s more than a title.
It’s where Trout’s compelling music resides — in a territory that unites blues, rock and pure sonic adventurism, where inspiration and technique meet to create a unique, soulful language. That language has won Trout fans across the world. Britain’s BBC Radio One placed him at number six on their list of the Top 20 guitarists and legendary BBC disc jockey Bob Harris calls Trout “the world’s greatest rock guitarist.”
“Music gives you an opportunity to speak directly to people’s hearts – it goes beyond words,” says Trout, who developed his craft playing alongside such legends as John Mayall and John Lee Hooker. “There are times when I’m playing guitar when I enter a state where I’m not consciously aware of what I’m playing. It’s like a signal coming through me.”
And that signal’s loud and clear on Common Ground’s tunes like the title track, a plea of unity, and the autobiographical “Open Book.” Produced by the famed John Porter and featuring drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp, John Fogerty), bassist Hutch Hutchinson and pianist Jon Cleary (both of Bonnie Raitt’s band), the album sets a new bar for Trout’s already illustrious career.Friday - Jun 15, 2012 - 9:00pm @ Gas Lamp | directions & tix >
$10 - Part harmonica virtuoso and part rhythmic explorer, Harper is a fiery artist -singer / songwriter who blurs the lines between blues, soul, rock and world music. His latest Blind Pig release, "Stand Together" (2010) is the most artistically realized CD Harper has ever written. By combining traditional and modern influences, borowing from Western and Aboriginal music, Harper has created a highly original take on the roots genre which many have labeled "World Blues".Saturday - Jun 16, 2012 - 9:30pm @ House of Bricks (HOB) | directions & tix >
CD Release Party $12 adv / $15 door - From smoking slide guitar boogies to raw-boned Chicago shuffles to the deepest slow blues, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Lil' Ed Williams is an awe-inspiring master bluesman. He and his blistering, road-tested band, The Blues Imperials—guitarist Mike Garrett, bassist James "Pookie" Young, drummer Kelly Littleton—are celebrating 20 amazing years together. Live, Lil' Ed And The Blues Imperials simply can't be beat as Ed breaks out the deepest back-bends, the highest toe-walks, and the most authentic electric slide-guitar blues being played today. Not since the heyday of Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers has a Chicago blues band made such a consistently joyous, rollicking noise.
Lil' Ed boasts a direct bloodline to blues history—his uncle and musical mentor was the great Chicago slide guitarist, songwriter and recording artist J.B. Hutto. According to The Chicago Tribune, "Williams represents one of the few remaining authentic links to the raucous, pure Chicago blues." The Associated Press agrees, stating, "Williams fills Chicago's biggest shoes with more life and heat than anyone on stage today." Adding to the legend is Ed's storybook rise, taking him from working in a car wash to entertaining thousands of fans all over the world. In 2006 he made multiple appearances on Late Night With Conan O'Brien (including a hilarious film with Lil' Ed teaching Conan how to play the blues) culminating with Lil' Ed on stage jamming with O'Brien in front of a television audience in the millions.Friday - Jun 22, 2012 - 9:00pm @ Gas Lamp | directions & tix >
$10 - Lil’ Brian is a virtuoso of both the large piano note accordion and the old-style diatonic accordion and is serious about showing how this instrument can be as hip as any in contemporary music. “There are no limits to this music,” says Lil’ Brian. “I love the roots of Zydeco. My greatest joy is to take these roots and combine them with today’s beat to make it my music.” His new release, Worldwide, continues to push the envelop in the world of the accordion and Zydeco.
"Lil' Brian—a trailblazer in the spirit of Clifton Chenier and Buckwheat Zydeco—revs up his mighty sound on FUNKY NATION. This is great music, hard-driving and irresistible."
- Michael Tisserand, author of
The Kingdom of ZydecoSunday - Jul 1, 2012 - 8:00pm @ House of Bricks | directions & tix >
$15 adv / $20 door - Hard-rocking blues-soaked guitarist/vocalist/song-writer Tinsley Ellis sings and plays with the energy and soul of all the great Southern musicians who have come before him. Ellis attacks his music with rock power and blues feeling, following in the tradition of Deep South musical heroes Duane Allman, Freddie King, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes. His live shows feature extended fretwork filled with melodic and rhythmic experimentation, in the spirit of jam bands like his friends Widespread Panic and The Allman Brothers. Atlanta Magazine declared Ellis "the most significant blues artist to emerge from Atlanta since Blind Willie McTell."Sunday - Jul 22, 2012 - 6:00pm @ House of Bricks | directions & tix >
Both of these GREAT artists are touring in support of NEW releases!
$20 - The Phantom Blues Band was formed as a studio band to backup Taj Mahal on his CD, ‘Dancing’ the Blues’. Their association with Taj led to headlining clubs, theatres and festivals throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan and being honored with two Grammys and a W.C.Handy Blues Award.
Their Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma musical roots have afforded them well in their decades as Hollywood studio musicians, recording with many notable recording artists including Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Rolling Stones, Taj Mahal, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Etta James, Elton John, Leon Russell, Little Feat, and B.B. King.
At heart, The Phantom Blues Band’s sound is a cross-breeding of many different musical styles which includes Blues, Jazz, R&B, Gospel, Rock and Roll and Reggae.
With ‘Inside Out’, the band’s third CD, all the elements of their collective experience as players, producers and composers come together as they pay homage to their musical heroes and push forward with exciting new music. Their take on several old 1950’s R&B chestnuts is refreshing in it’s originality.
‘Inside Out’ features band members Tony Braunagel, Larry Fulcher, Mike Finnigan, Darrell Leonard, Joe Sublett and Johnny Lee Schell with a little help from world renowned session players Lenny Castro on percussion and Crusader founding member and keyboard player Joe Sample.
This is music that goes down deep inside your heart and soul.
MONOPHONICS http://monophonics.com/
Psychedelic Soul, sometimes called Black Rock, is a sub-genre of Soul music, which mixes the characteristics of Soul with Psychedelic Rock. It came to prominence in the late 1960s and continued into the 1970s, playing a major role in the development of Soul and Funk music.
Over the past seven years, Monophonics have staked their claim as one of California’s premier bands. Raised amid the Bay Area’s rich musical culture, Monophonics has proudly carried on the tradition of music native to their hometown, which flourished during the birth of psychedelia.
Monophonics were formed in 2005; originally a instrumental ensemble comprised of guitarist Ian McDonald, bassist Myles O’Mahony, saxophonist Alex Baky, trumpeter Ryan Scott, and drummer Austin Bohlman, the band has recently added the dynamic soul vocals of keyboardist Kelly Finnigan. The result is a psychedelic soul & heavy funk sound, which harks back to the stylings of the late 60’s and early 70’s, all while keeping its feet planted in the present.Friday - Jul 27, 2012 - 9:00pm @ Gas Lamp | directions & tix >
$10 - Lionel Young is a high energy performer with a bent for the blues. His LIONEL YOUNG BAND, winners of numerous awards for best in and around the Colorado region, have won the 2011 International Blues Challenge (IBC) band competition. Added to his victory at the 2008 IBC in the solo-duo catagory, that makes Lionel Young the first double champion in the history of the IBC.Wednesday - Aug 1, 2012 - 8:00pm @ Gas Lamp | directions & tix >
$10 - Not just a wailin’ guitar slinger, Laurie is a compelling lead vocalist and songwriter who writes from personal stories filled with pain, triumph, hope, and her characteristic humor. Laurie Morvan Band concerts feature the beautiful harmonies of Laurie and backup singer Lisa Grubbs, as well as dueling solos between Laurie and bassist Pat Morvan. Keyboardist Tom Salyers’ fluid, passionate playing sparks up every show. Driving this high energy train is drummer Kevin Murillo who lays down a powerful and intense blues rock foundation. Laurie and her band are a tight-knit unit who love performing and recording together. Their fun-loving enthusiasm leaps right off the stage…and it’s contagious!Saturday - Aug 4, 2012 - 9:00pm @ Gas Lamp | directions & tix >
$12 Adv / $15 Door - “Two things distinguish this fine band, the first being leader Davina Sowers’ big, nostalgic soul voice, something between Etta James and Madeleine Peyroux. The other is the band’s crisp, clean sound, just piano, upright bass, trombone, trumpet and drums. No clutter.”Saturday - Aug 25, 2012 - 9:00pm @ Gas Lamp | directions & tix >
$10 - The Grand Marquis have that classic, timeless 'straight-from-the-Kansas City-speakeasy' sound while injecting a vibrant relevance into their brand of hot swinging jazz & jumping blues. Versatile and buoyant, distinct and refreshing - a rhythm cocktail served by masterful musical mixologists.
The Grand Marquis' music can bring to mind a variety of settings and places as well: Prohibition-era KC, the streets of New Orleans, 1950's Memphis and even 1930's Paris. But their sound remains grounded in a roots influence that keeps inspiring the Grand Marquis to create, innovate and build off a solid foundation of American music. Theirs is a style that defies the limitations of category, whether jazz, blues or swing, yet finds favor with a wide audience culturally, demographically and intergenerationally.Thursday - Sep 13, 2012 - 8:00pm @ House of Bricks | directions & tix >
$10 - Bart Walker’s debut, Who I Am, is a portrait of the Nashville-based guitar and vocal powerhouse as a dreamer, a fan, a survivor, a creative dynamo and, most of all, a one-man argument for the continued vitality and emotional heat of the blues.
A born virtuoso who began playing and singing at age four, Walker and his band — which includes ex-Stevie Ray Vaughan keyboardist Reese Wynans — make his original plucked-from-life tunes sound like classics, delivered with the same incendiary energy as the live performances that have won them a growing following in the South and Midwest.Friday - Nov 9, 2012 - 9:00pm @ Gas Lamp | directions & tix >
$10 - The Dustin Pittsley Band offers something different to the typical music scene by creating a unique blend of music combining different genres, mainly blues, rock, and jam band with the goal of creating music that is hard to label.
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