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Join us at PHB for the swinging’ Jazz and Blues vocalist, Lavay Smith the bandleader of the Red Hot Skillet Lickers for a night of dancing and good times.

Lavay grew up in Southern California and the Philippines and has become an internationally recognized Diva of Jazz and Blues, with a singing style influenced by Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Little Esther Phillips and other legendary greats. Whether singing her own compositions or drawing on a large repertoire of classics, Lavay and her all-star 7-piece band bake up an instant recipe for dancing and good times.

This sultry chanteuse evokes a sensuous era of Jazz queens and sexy pinups and adds a modern, feminist twist. No wonder Los Angeles Magazine chose her as one of the sexiest people around! Lavay began attracting crowds right from the start thanks to her big, bluesy voice, exciting stage personality, and glamorous approach. According to Fox TV, the band has become “a San Francisco Landmark”, winning numerous awards including a “Wammie” and a “Bammie”. In 1998, the reader’s of San Francisco’s two major newspapers, the Chronicle and the Examiner, voted Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers the “Best Band” in the annual readers poll.

Important publications have sung the praises of Lavay Smith and her band, including Downbeat, The Los Angeles Times, Jazziz, The Boston Globe, Blues Revue, The New York Press, Living Blues, and the Alternative Press (see attached pages for juicy quotes). Television and Radio appearances include Public Television’s “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer”, Fox TV’s “Fox Files”, and NPR’s “To The Best of Our Knowledge”. World famous celebrities have jumped on the Lavay Smith bandwagon as well. Johnny Otis says “Lavay is wonderful! She and her band are a breath of fresh air.” Dan Aykroyd, a.k.a. Elwood Blues, says of Lavay’s debut album, “One Hour Mama”, “…this CD is guaranteed to make you feel better.” Even President Clinton has seen the light, proclaiming, “I love this band – they’re great!”

Lavay’s second CD, “Everybody’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Miss Thing” incorporated a variety of classic American musical styles, including swing, bebop, salsa, jump blues, and New Orleans R&B. Enlisting the arranging talents of David Berger, arranger for Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the album includes 6 outstanding original tunes, many classics and several obscure gems.

Lavay’s latest CD, “Miss Smith To You!” contains 12 tunes, including three more original songs, and features Lavay’s lush vocals with gorgeous arrangements performed by an all-star big band. From the opening swinging horn riff on “Miss Brown To You” to the New Orleans second-line rhythm of “When The Saints Go Marching In”, Lavay and her band have produced another winner, with a variety of tempos and grooves that will have you tapping your feet and singing along.

Lavay Smith’s 7-piece band features some of the finest musicians in the world and is comprised of four horns (trumpet, trombone, alto saxophone and tenor saxophone), piano, bass and drums. Truly an all-star ensemble, Lavay’s musicians have performed or recorded with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat “King” Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Quincy Jones, Tito Puente, Lionel Hampton, Jay McShann, Johnny Otis, Wytnon Marsalis, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, Big Mama Thornton, Erroll Garner, Charles Brown, Rosemary Clooney, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Rufus Thomas, Taj Mahal, Dr. John, Sy Oliver, Esther Phillips and many more.

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers maintain a busy schedule, including extensive touring throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan. They have performed at many prestigious venues including Lincoln Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival, The Chicago Jazz Festival, The Montreal Jazz Festival, The Playboy Jazz Festival at The Hollywood Bowl, The San Francisco Blues Festival, The Toronto Jazz Festival, The Santa Barbara Jazz Festival, The Ottawa Jazz Fesitval, The Portland Waterfront Blues Festival, The San Francisco Jazz Festival, The Salt Lake City Jazz Festival, The Doheny Blues Festival and Jazz Aspen/Snowmass. When not on the road, Lavay and her band are showcased in the San Francisco Bay Area’s premier nightclubs, including Yoshi’s, The Cafe du Nord, Biscuits & Blues, Enrico’s, Ashkenaz, Rancho Nicasio, Kuumbwa Jazz Center and Moe’s Alley.

Lavay approaches her material from the standpoint of an independent woman, combining world-class singing and musicianship with hilarious, provocative lyrics. Lavay’s musical stance is echoed in her real life role as owner of her own record label, Fat Note Records. Her debut CD, “One Hour Mama” received widespread critical acclaim and her second CD, “Everybody’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Miss Thing!” received a prestigious 4 & 1/2 Star review from Downbeat Magazine. Her red-hot stage presence and high musical standards ensure that this sexy diva will continue to light up stages all over the world.

For Booking, call Jim Cassell of The Berkeley Agency 510-843-4902, or send an email to mail@berkeleyagency.com

To contact Lavay Smith, send an email to lavay@lavaysmith.com

To contact Chris Siebert, send an email to chris@lavaysmith.com

You can visit Lavay at facebook and myspace.

Biography
As a singer, he is by known by many as a “bourbon-esque” crooner, performing standards from the Great American Songbook, to others he is a curious oracle of soul and the blues. A pianist and songwriter since childhood, Johnny has arranged and produced two CD’s of his original compositions.
Currently hosting “In the Pocket with Johnny Fabulous” on SCTV, a Santa Cruz television show featuring music and art, Johnny Fabulous also is a performing artist with the Young At Heart Project which provides one hour music shows for senior communities throughout the Bay area. As a vocal coach and piano instructor, Johnny draws upon decades of experience to nurture the growth and development of his students. Johnny Fabulous continues to perform his unique and very distinctive style of music in the Bay area club scene.

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Chris’ dazzling guitar work is featured even more prominently than on its acclaimed predecessor, and for the first time on disc, the pair performs four unplugged selections, James’ vocals ringing with extraordinary force over rollicking grooves anchored by Patrick’s rock-steady bass. Original material dominates; the album’s four covers include two Bo Diddley gems (“Little Girl” and “Dearest Darling”). Piano legends Henry Gray and David Maxwell and veteran Chicago drummers Sam Lay and Willie Hayes are all on board, as is their harp-blowing cohort Rob Stone. Chris and Patrick return the favor on Rob’s new Earwig CD, Back Around Here.

Stop And Think About It spread the names of Chris James and Patrick Rynn far and wide. The CD was nominated for a Blues Music Award as best debut recording and won a Blues Blast Award as best artist debut. “Mister Coffee,” a standout original from the album, was nominated for a BBA and a third place finisher in the Independent Music Awards, where Chris and Patrick were nominated for a People’s Choice Award. And in 2010, Patrick was nominated for a Blues Music Award as best bassist, adding another impressive honor to their shared trophy case.

The San Diego-based bluesmen inaugurated their musical partnership in 1990 when both were in Chicago for the first time. The sartorially splendiferous duo has been inseparable ever since, their telepathic onstage interplay always in evidence whether they’re digging deep into classic postwar blues or dishing up the meaty, satisfying originals prominently featured on their new CD. By the time of that fateful first meeting, Chris, once a teenaged musical prodigy, had logged plenty of gigging miles, fronting bands long before he ever visited the Windy City.

Born in North Carolina but raised in the warm and sunny climes of San Diego, Chris was thoroughly hooked on blues as a child. “My stepdad got me hooked on blues, and I started playing blues piano by the time I was 11. Chuck Berry was the first guy that was really a big influence on me,” he says. “When they were interviewing him, he talked about the same four guys all the time. He talked about Muddy Waters and Little Walter, Elmore James, and Charlie Christian.”

Chris tracked down a BBC radio documentary on Berry to investigate the Duck Walker’s major influences first-hand. “The very first thing they played was Muddy and Walter: ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You,’” he says. “That was the song that I heard that I just said, ‘This is what I want to do!’” Also on the tape was pianist Jay McShann’s “Confessin’ The Blues,” featuring singer Walter Brown. “That was basically one of the very first blues songs I remember learning the words to. That’s why it was important for me to put on our very first CD.”

Transfixed by anything having to do with blues, Chris snagged a gofer job at a local blues festival where he met legendary shouter Roy Brown, received an impromptu guitar lesson from Lowell Fulson, and talked to Texas-bred guitarist Tomcat Courtney, San Diego’s top bluesman then and now. “I just saw him, and I really liked Tomcat,” says Chris, already skilled enough on harp at the tender age of 13 to join Courtney’s band shortly thereafter their first encounter.

“I only played harmonica with him for maybe six months or something like that, and then the bass player quit. And then Tom just gave me a bass and said, ‘Okay, boy, here’s the bass. The bass player’s quit. I need you to learn this by next week!’” laughs Chris, who followed orders. Soon he was alternating between bass and guitar with Courtney before switching over to guitar altogether. Tomcat’s main haunt was the Texas Teahouse, where the Texas-born guitarist headlined Thursdays. “The place was packed to the rafters, like a sardine can, with college kids,” says Chris. “There were times the place was so packed in the summertime that we couldn’t even get off the stage to take our break. We just stayed up onstage.”

Although blues remained Chris’ primary passion, it wasn’t his only idiomatic interest. “When I was 17, I stopped playing blues for a year because I wanted to get myself a music education,” he says. Veteran jazz saxists Gene Porter and Jimmie Noone, Jr. provided it. “I started hanging out with these guys, because other than having a natural ability to play, I wanted to know what I was playing.” After absorbing their combined wisdom, it was back to Tomcat and the blues for another extended stretch. Chris made his recording debut at 17, playing harp, piano and guitar on Italian country blues guitarist Roger Belloni’s The Lemon Grove Tapes.

In 1990, Chris made his first pilgrimage to Chicago, where he heard dazzling blues piano emanating from the Underground Wonder Bar one evening, courtesy of local 88s ace Detroit Junior. “I was so excited meeting Detroit Junior that I asked him if I could sit in,” says Chris, who proceeded to do so on a borrowed guitar. “I ended up playing the whole second set with him. So then the break came and I said, ‘I appreciate you letting me sit in!’ And I was going to be on merry way. And Detroit stopped me. He goes, ‘Do you want to play the third set with me?’ I said, ‘I have nothing better to do, man. I’d love to!’ So I stayed and played the third set. I finished out the night with him. I finally said goodbye, and I was walking out the door, and he hollered, he said, ‘Hey, one more thing–what are you doing tomorrow?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ He goes, ‘Well, I’m playing here again. You’re hired!’”

When he wasn’t playing behind Detroit Junior (whose “Call My Job” remains a blues classic), Chris made the rounds of the local jam sessions. At the now-defunct B.L.U.E.S. Etc., he first encountered his future musical partner Patrick. It wasn’t exactly love at first sight.

“We did not hit it off when we first met each other,” admits Chris. Fate decreed that the pair would cross paths again very soon. “About two days later after that, I’m working at the Guitar Center, and in walks this guy. And it was Chris,” says Patrick. A couple of days later, Chris came back to the guitar emporium again.

“I’ve got a guitar in my hand, and I’m playing. I’m squeaking around on it, doing some stuff, trying to play some slide things,” says Patrick. “The phone rings in my department, and I’m thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve got to get the phone.’ I hand the guitar to somebody, and I get the phone. And I’m on the phone, and my back is towards the people, and I’m facing the wall. Well, all of a sudden, about halfway in this conversation, I start hearing the heaviest traditional country blues. And I turn around, and it’s Chris. And I just got this big smile on my face, and he stood there grinning at me. He was playing ‘Terraplane Blues.’

“We became instant friends. He was in Chicago visiting his cousin, and he didn’t have anything to do, so he ended up coming down to the store just about every day. He’d be back in the acoustic room, and he’d be teaching me how to play this stuff.” Chris convinced Patrick to concentrate exclusively on bass rather than spending time playing guitar. “He saw something in me that I didn’t even see,” says Patrick. “He says, ‘Man, you’re a bass player!’”

It wasn’t like Patrick didn’t have experience holding down the bottom in a blues band. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he was classically trained on bass before a high school buddy urged him to check out a high school jazz ensemble led by veteran saxist Floyd “Candy” Johnson, who invited the young bassist to play with the orchestra. “He pulls out this piece of music and he sets it down. He says, ‘We’re gonna play this. You just play this.’ I said, ‘Okay, no problem.’

“It was the bass line written out,” continues Patrick. “So he counts it off and we get into it and we start playing, and I get to the 12th measure. There’s no repeat sign, there’s no turnaround, so I stop playing. So then about 25 measures into the piece, Candy Johnson gets this funny look on his face and he stops the band, and he goes, ‘Boy, what the hell are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Well, what do you mean? You gave me this piece of music, it’s got 12 measures, no repeat sign. I thought I was done!’ He said, ‘Son, this is blues. You just keep playing!’ And it turned out it was Duke Ellington’s ‘C-Jam Blues.’ And that’s how I got introduced into blues.”

Patrick had a blues epiphany at age 18. “I was in this bookstore at the university, and every second quarter of the school year they had a tape sale,” he says. “I saw this one, and it was pretty cool, and I said, ‘Well, I’ll get this.’ So I paid five bucks for it, and I threw it in my backpack and I went to school. Then at the end of the day, I was going home and I remembered I had that tape in my book bag. I stuck it in, and I pressed play. And my God, it still puts a lump in my throat. My whole world just changed, man. It was The Best Of Elmore James. And that first tune on there, ‘Dust My Broom,’ he hit that slide and went into it, and man, I got chills up and down my spine. I got a lump in my throat. It just moved me so heavy, man. I was like, ‘Wow! Wow!’ It just blew me away.”

The Griswolds, led by brothers Art and Roman Griswold, were Toledo’s top blues band. Patrick’s cousin urged him to check them out at the Longhorn Saloon. “After about four months of going down and seeing the Griswolds, one night I walked in and I had my harmonica in my pocket, and I asked if I could sit in. And they said, ‘Sure!’” says Patrick. “We did a couple of songs, and boy, I stunk the stage up so bad. But I was up there playing, and I was digging it. I was hooked!”

Four months later, Patrick noticed a bass onstage belonging to saxist Eli “Professor Easy” Gardner at another Griswolds gig. “I said, ‘Well, I play bass!’ I didn’t play blues bass, but I play bass. He said, ‘Well, come on!’ So I sat in, and I sort of rudimentarily knew how to play a walking bass line from playing jazz in the jazz band. So I got through the 12 bars of it. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I was doing it well enough to where Fess looked over at Art and said, ‘Hey, that bottom sounds pretty good, don’t it?’ Art was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds pretty good!’ Art used to talk real fast. So they said, ‘Hey, can you come back tomorrow night?’ And I said, ‘Sure!’” Patrick borrowed a bass and amp from a local music store for the gig. “I didn’t get paid, but I played the whole night with them,” he says. “After a couple of nights of that, I ended up playing with them for five years.”

Patrick’s first Chicago visit came in the spring of 1990 at the behest of one of Chicago’s most revered harp players, the late Junior Wells. The two had met at a Toledo blues festival that spring; when Wells’ set with Buddy Guy was rained out, his band came down to visit the Griswolds that evening. Fortuitously, Junior found himself in need of a bassist when it came time to sit in. Patrick was more than happy to volunteer his services.

“I played an hour-and-a-half with the band and Junior Wells,” says Patrick. “That night changed my whole life.” Wells was impressed. “After we were done playing, Junior says to me, ‘Son, you play pretty good. The fest in Chicago is in a couple weeks. I’d like to invite you out to be my guest!’” During his brief stay in Chicago, Patrick met the cream of Chicago blues royalty. “I went down to the Checkerboard Lounge, and that day I played onstage with James Cotton.”

After such an exciting weekend, the Toledo blues circuit didn’t seem as enticing, so Patrick decided to move to the Windy City that autumn. “I packed up everything I could get in my car, which wasn’t very big at the time,” he says. “I had a thousand bucks in my pocket, and I went to Chicago. I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have a place to live.”

With both young bluesmen settled in the Windy City, Chris drilled Patrick on the traditional aspects of the blues. “Nine hours a day, every day, having to listen to records and learn how to play with the music and learn how to get that internal music without a drummer. He was teaching me how to play bass lines and walk the bass and how to do different grooves, like a lump or a slow Muddy or a B.B. King shuffle,” says the bassist. “He was teaching me the rudiments of everything. And I was learning and listening and going out to the clubs every night. Man, I was exhausted. But over time, it started happening.”

They landed their first weekly gig together at the Tip On Inn and took it from there. The pair’s first big break came as an outgrowth of a tribute to harp immortal Little Walter at Rosa’s Lounge with an all-star cast of Chicago blues giants in attendance, including Louis and Dave Myers, Billy Boy Arnold, Jimmie Lee Robinson, Big Moose Walker, Sunnyland Slim, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, and plenty more.

The pair didn’t know they’d be asked to perform. “Louis and Dave and all these guys, they wanted a break. But there were so many guys in there that they needed people to play,” says Chris. “They asked me, ‘Do you know Little Walter?’ I said, ‘Of course I know Walter’s stuff!’ So they put us up there, and we started playing. And there’s Willie Smith and Sam Lay and all these guys, looking at us playing. I was so nervous it was unbelievable. It was a miracle I could play, ‘cause these guys were all looking at me and Patrick playing.”

It took a few months, but that winning performance paid off. “The phone rang, and Chris runs in the house, and he’s in there for about a half hour,” says Patrick. “And he comes running out. He says, ‘Get packed! We’re going to Atlanta!’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?” He said, ‘Sam Lay–we just got hired! We’re going down to Atlanta for a week and playing!’ The two anchored the powerhouse drummer’s band for five years. “Within six to seven months of being in Chicago, we ended up being in a national act,” says Patrick. The two first recorded together as members of Sam’s band, the tapes debuting in 1994 on Appaloosa as Sam Lay Blues Band Live. Slide Guitar Blues, hailing from the same date, later came out on Icehouse and marked Chris’s first vocal outings on record. More recently, they backed Lay on Hightone’s live Rhythm Room Blues in 2001.

The two grew close to Dave Myers, co-founder of the Aces and a Chicago blues electric bass pioneer. “We used to go over to his house and spend all night just sitting in his kitchen playing. Chris on guitar, Dave on guitar, me playing Davey’s bass. I always knew I was doing okay if Dave was smiling. But as soon as I started doing something that wasn’t right, he’d kind of screw his face up a little bit and look right through me. And he’d go, ‘Why are you doggin’ your bass?’ I’m going, ‘I didn’t know I was!’” says Patrick, who was surprised to see a photo of Candy Johnson in Dave’s collection (ironically, the saxist occasionally shared a bandstand with the Aces during the ‘50s). “Dave Myers was a huge influence on me. Not only was he an influence, but he was a really dear, close friend. He was a friend first before he was an influence. And I miss him a lot. I still think about him when I play.”

While playing in Woodland Park, Colorado in 1994, Lay invited college student and budding harp player Rob Stone to sit in with them that night. Like Chris and Patrick, Rob felt a migrational pull to Chicago. The three teamed up as a unit there before Chris and Patrick returned to San Diego (they can be seen in action at the 2000 Chicago Blues Festival in Godfathers And Sons, part of Martin Scorsese’s PBS-TV blues documentary series). When Stone decided to make an album, he asked his friends to come back and help. “Robbie wanted to start getting gigs in Chicago on his own, so he needed to have his own CD,” says Chris. “We were working on the CD and recording it, so then we said, ‘What are we gonna call the band?’” They decided on the C-Notes, in honor of Rob’s spendthrift ways and Chris’s penchant for spending his last buck on CDs.

No Worries, Rob Stone & the C-Notes’ acclaimed 1998 debut album, was just the beginning. In addition to co-starring on the C-Notes’ potent 2003 Earwig release Just My Luck (they co-wrote nine songs with Rob on the set, which featured guest appearances by Dave Myers and Sam Lay), the pair has recorded with piano pounder Dennis Binder (2007’s Hole In That Jug on Earwig), and played on legendary Chicago guitarist Jody Williams’ second Evidence album in 2004, You Left Me In The Dark (Chris had the honor of playing alongside one of his heroes, Robert Jr. Lockwood, on the set). They’d begun playing with Jody near the beginning of his heartwarming comeback, when they traveled to Westport, Mississippi with Sam Lay to play the 2000 Howlin’ Wolf Memorial Blues Festival.

“Jody did not come down with a band. So they were scrambling around trying to find someone to play with Jody,” explains Chris, who cites Williams as one of his guitar heroes along with Louis and Dave Myers, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and Luther Tucker. “I said, ‘Hell yeah, I’ll back up Jody!’” Back in Chicago, Jody hired the Blue Four as his band (Willie Hayes was on drums). “He liked playing with us,” says Chris, “and he saw that we were reliable and dependable.” They traveled the globe with Williams until 2004; Chris contracted a serious stomach ailment in Italy in 2004 that prematurely ended that stint with the revered guitarist.

After an unexpectedly lengthy recovery period in San Diego, Chris was well enough by July of ‘05 to travel to Europe as a member of Phoenix harpist Bob Corritore’s band. That led to his being asked to join the Rhythm Room All Stars. “I was in the band for like six months, then Patrick came aboard,” says Chris. Their explosive exploits at the Rhythm Room can be heard on House Rockin’ And Blues Shoutin’!, a 2007 live disc on the Blue Witch label where they back Big Pete Pearson and Billy Boy Arnold. They also played brilliantly on Downsville Blues, Courtney’s 2008 national debut CD for Blue Witch.

Neither Chris nor Patrick can fully explain their ESP-like musical compatibility. “When I started playing with Chris, I didn’t know anything,” ventures Patrick, whose bass influences in addition to Dave Myers include Willie Kent, Ransom Knowling, and Big Crawford (as you might expect after encountering the latter two names, he’s just as conversant on upright bass as on electric). “Because I’ve learned all that stuff, I have the tools and I have the way of playing to make the chemistry between me and Chris just work.”

Gonna Boogie Now extends an impressive winning streak that hit full stride in 2008 with Stop And Think About It. “The first CD was a band CD, the ensemble Chicago thing that we do with harmonica and the full band,” says Chris. “Gonna Boogie Now is more guitar-oriented.”

That unusual dedication to presenting something fresh and exciting every time out, whether on album or onstage, bodes well for the bluesmaking future of Chris James and Patrick Rynn.

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Each week Aki brings with him a special guest performer!

www.akikumar.com/tuesday-night-blues-jam

About Aki Kumar:

Dynamic frontman & harp player Aki Kumar is a bonafide star among the next generation of West Coast blues artists and the world’s first professional blues harmonica player to hail from India. A master of the hugely influential Chicago blues sound, Kumar inherits his style from the harp legends of the 1950s and 60s. Aki has a unique voice in the blues, blending elements of blues harmonica pioneers of yesteryear with a signature sound of his own.

“..old school blues at its finest by way of India. And the lad has soul to spare.”
Dan Aykroyd aka Elwood Blues

Born and raised in Bombay (now Mumbai) – India, Kumar has long established his mark on the West Coast blues scene as a top-notch frontman, vocalist , entertainer and blues harp player. The Aki Kumar Blues Band has been the culmination of his journey through American roots music and constantly showcases his ever-evolving sound. This band performs vintage blues with tremendous skill and energy and is guaranteed to entertain audiences across all venues, from intimate listening rooms to large festivals.

“(Kumar) has a natural propensity for the music, with a rich, deep tone and a sensitive, economic style that emphasizes feel over flash.”
Jonny Whiteside, LA TIMES

In recent years, Aki Kumar has performed all across the United States and internationally (Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Brazil, Chile, India), collaborating with some of the top blues artists on the scene. He has also contributed his blues harmonica licks to numerous recordings produced on the West Coast in the last decade, including several albums produced at the world renowned Greaseland Studios. This year marks another exciting year for Aki Kumar, with upcoming recording projects, internationals appearances and other musical collaborations across the world.

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Thompson was born in Oakland, California, United States, and had mastered basic guitar and slide guitar techniques by his mid-teens.[1] He was educated at Newark Memorial High School, in Newark, California.[2] In the early 1970s, Thompson played backing to Little Joe Blue, and worked solo and as a sideman in San Francisco Bay Area clubs. He joined John Lee Hooker’s backing band in 1975, staying with him for three years. In 1980, Thompson formed his own group, the Resisters, and secured a recording contract with Takoma Records.[1] He played at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1978, 1979 and 1983.

In 1983, he released his debut album, Treat Her Like Gold. Thompson also found employment separately working with Lowell Fulson, Etta James and Big Mama Thornton. Thompson’s second album Resister Twister was released in 1987 and nominated for a Grammy Award,[3] plus 1990’s Just Like a Devil, was taken from his work on Mark Naftalin’s Blue Monday Party radio show.[1]

Thompson’s 2007 album, Resonator was a purely acoustic production.[3]

Pianist Sid Morris as a teenager in the 60’s he began playing piano in a blues band with South Bay blues pioneer Gary Smith. Gary later introduced him to pianist Alberto Gianquinto, a San Francisco native who was a member of the original James Cotton Blues Band. For a short time in the early 70’s, Alberto was his mentor. Currently residing in San Jose, Sid has been performing since 1970 and continues to be an active member of the San Francisco Bay Area music community. Raised in Houston, Texas before his family moved to the South Bay, Sid performed at the very first San Francisco Blues Festival in 1973 and subsequently appeared at four other SF Blues Festivals. During his early years on the scene, Sid was mentored by Alberto Gianquinto. In 1976, Sid participated in the now legendary recording of the album, Blue Bay, an anthology featuring the elite of Bay Area musicians.

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Walter Jebe & the Lost Roots Band

Walter Jebe has been part of the Bay Area blues scene for over 40 years. Working his way through the clubs and backing local blues, country and rock-n-roll bands he soon found his love of American roots music with an emphasis on blues. He has shared the stage with Chris Cain, Ron Thompson, Steve Freund and Aki Kumar to name a few. He has opened shows for Elvin Bishop, Tommy Castro and Joe Louis Walker and has performed at the Monterey Blues Festival, the Sonoma Blues festival, the Redwood City Blues Festival and last year toured with the Simon Kinney-Smith band (an Austrailian blues sensation). Walter is also an accomplished slide guitarist to compliment his singing and tasteful guitar work.

The Lost Roots band covers a wide range of American roots music with a blues attitude which just feels right. Walter has been influenced by the many different genres he grew up with and likes to have good time and so does his audience.

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Critically acclaimed blues maverick, Shane Dwight, will pull you into his house by the ear after the first chord of No One Loves Me Better out on Red Parlor Records out on April 5, 2019. This esteemed independent label has long been a champion of music’s best songwriters, and Dwight is no exception. This new collection of songs is some of his most personal yet– gut-wrenching, and heartbreaking to date. The story of a man finding love, committing a crime and wanting redemption runs deep in Shane’s songs.

From the heartwarming “No One Loves Me Better” to the dark “Bullets & Gasoline” to the sassy “Sucker,” Shane nails life to the wall like a WANTED sign out in the wild west. Shane’s songwriting has evolved so far that he may be untouchable for a while, and fans won’t be able to get it out of their heads, critics won’t know what to do with him. But one thing’s for sure; he’s here to stay.

Recorded at Grammy Award-winning Kevin McKendree’s studio in Franklin, TN with a mega all-star cast of players the sounds of this album, are slick, powerful and groove driven. The heartbeat of the drums and the entanglement of guitars mix well with Shane’s raspy voice. The eccentric guitar tunings bring the haunted voices to life; you can almost see the movie. “You will hear some of my friends, Bekka Bramlett (Elton John), Kenneth Blevins (John Hiatt), and Rob McNelley (Bob Seger) who all came to the table that day to be a part of this story. The story is of a misunderstood man, his trials and tribulations over the perils of whiskey, women, and the music business.” – Shane Dwight

No One Loves Me Better, ends with “The Trial Of A Poet” – a haunting resonator and background vocals from the renowned Bekka Bramlett; it’s filled with fog, crunchy leaves, and a flashlight.

There are blues, rock, soul, country and a little bit of hip-hop that shows his California roots. It’s heavy, it’s deep, and it’s a swamp full of characters that show up at the fight.

“Exceptional talent…. it’s clear this cat can sing anything he wants.” – Blues Revue Magazine

Shane grew up on a ranch in Morgan Hill, CA a few hours from San Jose and Monterey, where the air was fresh, and the sun was hot. At the age of nine, he was diagnosed with Perthes bone disease in his hips that prohibited from him walking for about a year as a young boy. Since then, the debilitating illness does go into temporary remission but when it returns it forces Shane to live with severe chronic pain. Shane began to learn how to play guitar back in high school, playing with friends and bands along the way, he started The Shane Dwight Blues Band at 28. His musical roots were FM radio, Album Oriented Rock artists like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He dug deep into their influences and found a stack of others, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Albert King; those gave him the nod to take it even further.

Sometimes standing on the rock where Moses stood is vital to get the energy of the ground into your soul and when Shane stood on the same burn spot where Jim Hendrix once stood at the famed Monterey Blues Festival, he felt the mysterious aura seep into his bones. Bones that once were strong get weakened at times when you need to fill your cup.

Where do you go to get it filled up? At the well of course, and for Shane that well is his fans. He has crisscrossed this country and the world many a time, to bring the people what they want, his music – a blend of rock and blues with a little dash of country. His band went on to win the Monterey Blues Festival Battle of the Bands in 2001, and that’s when it began.

He caught fire that day in Monterey, and never stopped except to get gas. His grassroots approach to his career has also been crucial for he has built it fan by fan, show by show and album by album. From What You Need to Gimme Back My Money to A Hundred White Lies, Shane has conquered it all; festivals, CD sales, radio and press accolades galore from rock to country to blues and back again. Dwight’s most successful to date has been A Hundred White Lies, which received praise from publications like, USA Today, Guitar World, and Living Blues Magazine. It charted on several popular radio lists, XM/Sirius Satellite’s Channel, “Bluesville,” Living Blues Magazine, Route 66 – an Americana radio show chart for a total of about six months together. Then, in Spring 2018 he went into Greaseland Studios with Kid Anderson and did a fresh set of his favorite blues covers with another all-star cast of players, called High Time I Got Mine which is only sold at his live shows.

Shane’s hectic touring schedule reads like an airplane flight plan. He keeps it real with a bi-coastal routing to festivals, winery series and of course, he will show up at his favorite dive bar to croon. He has performed over 3500 shows over the past 20 years, headlining at some of music’s most significant events; Beale Street Festival, Portland Waterfront, Reno Blues Festival, Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise, Ottawa Blues Fest; sharing the stage with household names such as Blake Shelton, The Doobie Brothers and B.B. King. He’s backed off the 200 dates a year he once did, but he still brings the rock to the table and the blues to the dance floor.

Country and blues music is about the same. You see, they are rooted from the same soil with a Bible and bottle in each hand. And that’s why Guitar World said that Shane Dwight, “rocks hard.”

http://www.markhummel.com/

Grammy Nominee, Blues Award Winner, Author, Harp Man Mark Hummel has had a banner year in 2014! Grammy Nominated for his “Remembering Little Walter” CD he produced and performed on, Mark also won Best Blues CD AND Blues Traditional Blues CD at Blues Music Awards in Memphis. Mark’s, “The Hustle Is Really On” climbed to # 2 this year and stayed in the top five for four months in the Living Blues Radio Charts. Hummel’s book BIG ROAD BLUES:12 Bars on I-80, has been garnering rave reviews all around the U.S., and was nominated for best Independent Book release.

Mark Hummel started playing harmonica in 1970 & has gone on to become one of the premier blues harmonica players of his generation. Thanks to over thirty recordings since 1985, including the Grammy nominated 2013 release Blind Pig recording “Remembering Little Walter”, part of the Blues Harmonica Blowout cd series Hummel started in 1991. These events have featured every major legend (Mayall, Musslwhite, Cotton, etc.) on blues harp as well as almost every player of note on the instrument- a who’s who of players.

Hummel is a road warrior – a true Blues Survivor. Along the way, he has crafted his own trademark harmonica sound – a subtle combination of tone, phrasing and attack combined with a strong sense of swing. Mark has been with Electro Fi Records since 2000,releasing five CDs. Thanks to Mark’s earlier albums, constant touring and appearances at the major blues festivals, he’s firmly established his solid reputation around the US and Europe.

Born in New Haven, CT but raised in Los Angeles till he graduated high school. Mark moved to the Berkeley at age 18 to pursue a career in blues music, where he felt the music was taken more seriously.

Mark started the Blues Survivors in 1977 w/ Mississippi Johnny Waters. By 1984 Hummel began a life of non- stop touring of US, Canada & overseas, which he still continues at least 130-150 days out of each year. Hummel has toured or recorded with blues legends Charles Brown, Charlie Musselwhite, Lowell Fulson, Billy Boy Arnold, Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, Brownie McGhee, Eddie Taylor, Luther Tucker and Jimmy Rogers.