Check out the amazing performers for 2009!
Headliners:
• Robert Cray
• Mavis Staples
• Shemekia Copeland
• Delta Highway
• Jack de Keyzer
• Jerome Godboo
• Fathead
• Garrett Mason
Headliner Bios:
Robert Cray
www.robertcray.com
For thirty-plus years Robert Cray has laid down track after track of good-time, uptown, low-down blues. He's won five Grammys and been nominated for 11 more, inspired critics to praise his soulful vocal and instrumental artistry, earned respect from his peers, and sent young guitarists running back to the woodshed. More information...
Mavis Staples
www.mavisstaples.com
For over fifty years, Mavis Staples has been an American treasure, working her vocal magic on the highways and byways of gospel, folk and soul music. With both her family group, the Staple Singers, and as a solo artist in her own right she has helped to define much of what is righteous and soulful in American music. In the early 1960s, the Staple Singers worked with Dr. Martin Luther King singing in support of the Civil Rights movement. Over the course of her rich career, she has sung with Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, The Band, and many others. Mavis, a 2004 Grammy nominee, is celebrating her 70th birthday this year.
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Shemekia Copeland
www.shemekiacopeland.com
At a young age, Shemekia Copeland is already a force to be reckoned with in the blues. While still in her 20s, she's opened for the Rolling Stones, headlined at the Chicago Blues Festival and numerous festivals around the world, scored critics awards on both sides of the Atlantic (The New York Times and The Times of London) and shared the stage with such luminaries as Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Taj Mahal and John Mayer.
Born in Harlem, New York in 1979, Copeland actually came to her singing career slowly. Her father, the late Texas blues guitar legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, recognized his daughter's talent early on. He always encouraged her to sing at home, and even brought her on stage to sing at Harlem's famed Cotton Club when she was just eight. At only 19, Shemekia stepped out of her father's shadow with the release of her 1998 debut recording, Turn the Heat Up!, Her second album, Wicked, released 2000, scored three Handy Awards (Song of the Year, Blues Album of the Year, Contemporary Female Artist of the Year) and a GRAMMY nomination. Her most recent release Never Going Back is receiving rave reviews.
Delta Highway
www.deltahighwayblues.com
Delta Highway breathes youth and energy back into the blues. With strong guitar sounds reminiscent of Muddy Waters and R.L. Burnside, combined with a progressive harmonica sound, this Memphis band has developed a style that is all their own and sure to please new and veteran blues fans alike. In December of 2008, Delta Highway was nominated for the 2009 Blues Music Awards for Best New Debut Artist. Winners are due to be announced on May 7th in Memphis.
Jack de Keyzer
www.jackdekeyzer.com
Blues, jazz, funky r&b and swing are all part of the palette that colour Jack de Keyzer’s musical portraits. The much acclaimed guitarist, singer and song writer has worked with artists as varied as King Biscuit Boy, Etta James, Blue Rodeo, Robert Gordon, Otis Rush and the Bop Cats. His guitar playing has been featured on hundreds of recordings. As a song writer he has been covered by Prairie Oyster on their hit album Everyone Knows , and as a singer he once sang a duet with kd lang. (Alright... it was a Budweiser commercial...) As an entertainer he has worked his magic to an ecstatic audience of 25,000 at the Montreal Jazz Festival and an equally ecstatic audience of 250 at Hugh’s Room in Toronto, where his latest Silver Blues CD and DVD were recorded. He performs internationally over 150 shows per year, most recently at Blues Sur Seine in France. 8X Maple Blues and 2003 Juno Award winning artist Jack de Keyzer is a masterful, jazz infused electric blues guitarist, soulful singer and eclectic song writer of the first order. His latest CD, 'Blues Thing' was released in the summer 2007.
Jerome Godboo
www.jeromegodboo.com
Anyone who has seen Jerome live has the image seared in their mind. There's the machismo and the mischievous grin, the low-slung leather belt of harmonicas, and there's a tenderness and vulnerability as well. Based purely on first impressions, it's easy to make comparisons to Jagger and Morrison, but Jerome imitates no one. If the respect of his peers is anything to go by, Jerome Godboo is a giant on the music scene in Canada. All in all, it's a potent mix, one that combines the still vibrant musical legacy of more than a century of the blues with a passion and urgency that constantly renews itself.
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Fathead
www.fathead.biz
It's been a long but steady climb since FATHEAD's debut CD in 1995, and the band has been tearing it up on the North American festival circuit ever since - winning over new fans every time they play - making FATHEAD one of the country's top roots acts. Signed to the world renowned ELECTRO-FI RECORDS' imprint, their latest release "BUILDING FULL OF BLUES" garnered them a second coveted JUNO AWARD (Canada's "GRAMMY") in 2008 for "Blues Recording Of The Year". FATHEAD is truly an original band with a sound immediately recognizable as their own. They have a ball wherever they play and it shows! More information...
Garrett Mason
www.garrettmason.com
Anyone who has seen Jerome live has the image seared in their mind. There's the machismo and the mischievous grin, the low-slung leather belt of harmonicas, and there's a tenderness and vulnerability as well. Based purely on first impressions, it's easy to make comparisons to Jagger and Morrison, but Jerome imitates no one. If the respect of his peers is anything to go by, Jerome Godboo is a giant on the music scene in Canada. All in all, it's a potent mix, one that combines the still vibrant musical legacy of more than a century of the blues with a passion and urgency that constantly renews itself.
More information...
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