Tag: Blues

When Matt Andersen steps on stage, he brings a lifetime of music to every note he plays. His latest album, “The Big Bottle of Joy,” is all about hard-won celebration; a dozen songs infused with raw blues-rock, rollicking Americana, thoughtful folk, and ecstatic gospel. Andersen’s stage presence is informed by decades of cutting his teeth in dusty clubs, dim-lit bars, and grand theaters all over the world, delivering soulful performances that run the gamut from intimate to wall-shaking.

n the midst of creating his new album, “The Deep and the Dirty,” singer-guitarist Eric Johanson learned that his previous album cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard blues chart. It was his fourth time reaching the Top 10. And for a Louisiana native who’d grown up idolizing bluesmen like Freddie King and Robert Johnson, it felt pretty good. Even so, genre success didn’t discourage Johanson from reaching beyond the blues for the new album’s eclectic, electrifying songs.

According to Atlanta-based blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Tinsley Ellis, his new, first-ever solo acoustic album, Naked Truth, is both “a departure and an arrival.” Ellis has been recording and traveling the world for over four decades, delivering his feral, guitar-fueled, original electric blues-rock to ever-growing audiences at concert halls, festivals, and clubs. Naked Truth is steeped in the folk blues traditions of Muddy Waters, Skip James, Son House, Robert Johnson and even Leo Kottke.

Iowa bluesman Kevin Burt and his band, Big Medicine, make their Ark debut with a new release, Thank You, Brother Bill: A Tribute to Bill Withers. Kevin and Bill Withers have a connection deeper than their voices. A song by Bill Withers, says Kevin, “instantly attaches itself to my soul.” The late Bill Withers “told me in a roughly two-hour conversation we had many things that (pardon the pun) lean on today. One of those nuggets of insight was to ‘tell the stories that make me feel most vulnerable, that’s what people connect with.’ I hope to someday have an impact on someone else’s world the way Mr. Withers has had an impact on mine.”

Shemekia Copeland possesses one of the most instantly recognizable and deeply soulful roots music voices of our time. The multi-GRAMMY nominee is beloved and honored worldwide for the fearlessness, honesty and humor of her revelatory songs, as well as for her winning, engaging personality. The Chicago Tribune says, “Copeland is the greatest female blues vocalist working today. There’s no mistaking the majesty of her instrument, nor the ferocity of her delivery.”

Featuring two of the most fascinating voices in modern Delta blues,—Corey Harris and Cedric Watson—”True Blues” is a very special show. Corey is a MacArthur Grant recipient, and Cedric is one of Louisiana’s foremost purveyors of Creole music and culture. True Blues chronicles the extraordinary living culture of the blues in an evening of music and conversation. Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, bandleader, and MacArthur fellow Corey Harris has carved out his own niche in the blues tradition. He has performed, recorded, and toured with many of the top names in music such as B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, R.L.Burnside, The Dave Matthews Band, Tracy Chapman, and Wilco, among others, and was a featured artist and narrator of the Martin Scorcese 2003 film “Feel Like Going Home,” which traced the evolution of blues from West Africa to the southern U.S. Corey shares the stage with one of the brightest young talents to emerge in Cajun, creole and zydeco (Louisiana French) music over the last decade, Cedric Watson—a four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist, and songwriter with seemingly unlimited potential.