Catfish Blues - Corey Harris

Corey Harris was born in Denver, Colorado to parents from Texas and Kentucky. He is a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and band leader who has carved out his own niche in blues. A powerful singer and accomplished guitarist, he has appeared at venues throughout the North America, Europe, Brazil, The Caribbean, West Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He began his career as a New Orleans street singer, travelling throughout the southern U.S. In his early twenties he lived in Cameroon, West Africa for a year, which had a profound effect on his later work. He has recorded many old songs of the blues tradition while also creating an original vision of the blues by adding influences from reggae, soul, rock and West African music. His 1995 recording, Between Midnight and Day, is a tribute to the tradition of acoustic blues. Subsequent recordings, such as Greens From the Garden (1999), Mississippi to Mali (2003), and Daily Bread (2005) show Harris’ maturation from interpreter to songwriter. Some of his imaginative compositions are marked by a deliberate eclecticism; other works stay true to the traditional blues formula of compelling vocals and down-home guitar. With one foot in tradition and the other in contemporary experimentation, Harris is a truly unique voice in contemporary music. He has performed, recorded, and toured with many of the top names in music such as BB King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Henry Butler, R.L.Burnside, John Jackson, Ali Farka Toure, Dave Mattews Band, Tracy Chapman, Olu Dara, Wilco, Natalie Merchant, and others. His additional recordings include Fish Ain’t Bitin’ (1996), Vu-Du Menz (with Henry Butler, 2000), Downhome Sophisticate (2002), and Zion Crossroads (2007).blu black ( 2010 ). In 2003 Harris was a featured artist and narrator of the Martin Scorcese film, “Feel Like Going Home,” which traced the evolution of blues from West Africa to the southern U.S. In 2007, he was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship – commonly referred to as a “genius award” – from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The annual grant, which recognizes individuals from a wide range of disciplines who show creativity, originality and commitment to continued innovative work, described Harris as an artist who “forges an adventurous path marked by deliberate eclecticism.” That same year, he was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine.

 If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

 

Concord Music Group/Telarc Artist: Otis Taylor - My World Is Gone - New Release Review

I just received a copy of the newest recording, My World Is Gone, by Otis Taylor. This recording will hit the streets on February 12, 2013. This is one of the most unisual contemporary releases that I have heard in a long time. The release opens with the title track, My World Is Gone, which was developed after discussions with Mato Nanji (Indigenous) backstage at the Jimi Hendrix tribute concert in reference to his Native American Nakota Nation and the simplicity of his comment. Nanji plays some really sweet acoustic lead guitar on this track. Huckleberry Blues is a really cool track with Taylor on banjo and Ron Miles on coronet. This track has a dance beat and a loose jazz feel. I can't tell you why...I just like it. Sand Creek Massacre Mourning has a strong feel of back country music with Taylor on banjo and interesting guitar effects by Nanji. The Wind Comes In has a real feel of John Lee Hooker from his prime time with a Mali twist. This is really a cool track. Taylor again on banjo (and of course vocals) and Nanji on lead guitar. Girl Friend's House is a curious track about chance encounter. It is as simple as a blues track gets with Taylor on banjo and again featuring Ron Miles on coronet. Jae Jae Waltz is a great little back country track done as authentically as I can imagine on a contemporary recording. The honesty of this track as well as many of the others on this recording are particularly noteworthy. Gangster And Iztatoz Chauffeur is a track that could easily be from a Ali Farke Toure release. It retains sounds of the pure African blues and I really like it. I commend Shawn Starski and Taylor for their capture of the Mali sound. Green Apples follows in this same groove but with more direct vocal attack. The addition of Miles on coronet adds a nice flavor to this track as well. The recording is completed with a more straightforward rock like track with a happy theme...imagine that. It is actually a pretty cool track and one that may actually see a good amount of airplay. Other artists on the disk are Larry Thompson, Anne Harris, Todd Edmunds and Brian Juan. I think that this is Taylor's best creation in years and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's cool to see someone stand up and do something different... and to see it be interesting. Hope you give it a spin! This CD is certain to win Taylor new fans.

  If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

 

SuperCool (This is amazing)

“just put me in a wheel chair and get me to the show” – Jeffrey Marshall SuperCool is a band with an incredible story, and the musical goods to back it up. Jeffrey Marshall (bass and vocals) was born with no arms or hands, and has an amazing self taught bass technique which has to be seen to be believed. Jeffrey jokes about obviously not being enthusiastic about sports as a kid, thus leaving music as his main pursuit. He has had to figure out how to play the bass without any possibility of learning his instrument by seeing how others do it. Not only is he a soulful bass player, delivering dynamic and passionate bass lines, but is able to do this while singing lead and playing harmonica. Daniel Levanti (guitar and vocals) has honed his guitar skills at Berklee College of Music, and through touring during his years in Europe. Daniel’s guitar playing has over the years with Supercool evolved into a style identifiable throughout the textures of diverse sounds and emotions which the band has come to be known for. David Koller (drums and vocals) is an extremely accomplished musician from Prague, and an icon of the Czech music scene. From 1987 to 2005 he was drummer, guitarist, and lead singer for the band, Lucie, which turned out dozens of songs now thoroughly imbedded in the culture of Czech and Slovak rock and pop music. Since then he’s delved into his solo work with a zeal and intention that’s recently earned him comparisons with the likes of Sting and Peter Gabriel. His most recent album, “Ted A Tady” (”Here and Now”), released in late 2010, has already been nominated for best album of the year. Part of their intriguing story is that these musicians all met in Prague, Czech republic. Jeffrey one day pulled out a map at home in Denver Colorado, after friends had encouraged him to travel. He closed his eyes and randomly pointed his toe at it. By chance his toe landed on Prague. Soon after Jeffrey was there, where he was later to meet Daniel, who’s story of how he came to find himself in Prague goes actually along somewhat similar lines. He too was itching for a change after he felt his days in Boston had run their course. Sipping coffee on Newbury St. he overheard someone telling exalted stories about the city he’d just returned from… Prague. He’d heard enough, and resolved to get there somehow. Roughly a year later Daniel and Jeffrey inevitably crossed paths, with the help of some friends, in the Prague music scene. From this moment they’ve been an inspiration to each other as songwriting partners and friends. At first collaboration, they both fell immediately in love with the sound they created together. Despite the apparent randomness of their hooking up, they have found a solid musical partnership. As roommates they were able to share and unite emotions and experiences and turn them into songs. Jeffrey mentions an example: “when you are dealing with Czech women, you never run out of love songs”. Soon after they began creating music together, there was a gap that needed desperately to filled, that of the drummer, of course. Fortunately enough, and this is one in a litany of examples where the legendary “Prague magic” has materialized on the Supercool stage, Daniel’s future wife, Katia, whom he’d just met at their first official concert, was a good friend of David. After an introduction David invited the guys to his studio where they recorded a demo with Pavel Razim on drums. This led to a succession of talented drummers, which included also Vasek Polansky and Barry Becker, who all appeared on the band’s first album, Supercool, Greatest Hits Vol. I, available on Earwave Records. It was only much later, in 2005, that while organizing a benefit concert for the studio full of guitars (one of Daniel’s and seven of Jeffrey’s), that were stolen in Prague while Daniel and Jeffrey were in Nashville checking out the music scene, that Supercool as it exists now, first took the stage. Meant to be a one night line-up, the band clicked so well that the notion was immediately born that this band should play together. So now, five years and a dozen cities later, Supercool has released their second album, Greatest Hits Vol. II. It’s available now from Championship Music (championship.cz). If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Otis Taylor's 'My World is Gine' CD features Indigenous' Mato Nanji

VISIONARY SONGWRITER OTIS TAYLOR RETURNS
WITH HIS POWERFUL AND UNIQUE BLEND
OF ROOTS MUSIC AND NARRATIVE POETRY

My World Is Gone explores the struggles of Native Americans
with contributions from Indigenous frontman/guitar virtuoso Mato Nanji

BOULDER, Colo. — Roots music visionary Otis Taylor’s 13th album, My World Is Gone, set for release February 12, 2013 on Telarc, a division of Concord Music Group, is a lightning bolt of musical creativity and social commentary. Its songs crackle with poetic intelligence and a unique, adventurous sound that balances the modern world with echoes of ancient Africa, Appalachia and more.

To call Taylor a cutting edge artist is an understatement. Although his music is based in the blues and folk realm, his meticulously crafted recordings crash the barriers of jazz, rock, funk, Americana and myriad other genres to create a hybrid that Taylor labels “trance blues.” And that signature style serves as a backbone for his frank tales of struggle, freedom, desire, conflict and, of course, love.

The central theme of My World Is Gone was fueled by Taylor’s friend Mato Nanji, the singer-guitarist and cornerstone of the band Indigenous. “Mato inspired the entire direction of this album,” Taylor relates. “We were talking about history backstage at a Jimi Hendrix tribute concert that Mato had just played, and, in reference to his people, the Native American Nakota Nation, he said ‘My world is gone.’ The simplicity and honesty of those four words was so heavy, I knew what I had to write about.”

Taylor had already begun composing new tunes with other themes for his follow-up to 2012’s critically heralded Contraband. Three of those — “Green Apples,” “Gangster and Iztatoz Chauffeur” and “Coming With Crosses” — appear on My World Is Gone.

But inspired by Nanji — who plays electric and acoustic guitars on six tracks and joins Taylor on vocals for several songs — and by his own understanding of Native American culture developed in part through dealing in Indian art as a young man, Taylor embarked on a soul-searching journey into the past and present, and into the psyche, of America’s indigenous people.

“I’ve written songs about slavery, but here in America that’s considered part of the past,” Taylor explains. “What’s happened and what’s happening to Native Americans is still going on. A lot of people forget that. This is a reminder.”

With his customary brevity, power and grace, Taylor conveys his stories in intimate detail and uses his rich baritone voice to give his characters breath and humanity. The album starts on point with “My World Is Gone,” portraying how the gilded seductions of the white man’s culture undermined the Native American way of life. The melancholy in Taylor’s and Nanji’s vocal performance, as they sing from the perspective of an Indian tormented by temptation and loss, is buoyed by the gentle melodies of Anne Harris’ fiddle and Nanji’s electric and acoustic guitars — the acoustic six-string an Otis Taylor signature model, with only 14 frets, built by the premier instrument makers at Santa Cruz Guitars.

Taylor revisits his song “Lost My Horse,” which originally appeared on 2001’s White African, with a new arrangement that features him and Nanji trading guitar and mandolin lines.

“In the days of the frontier, having a horse could be a matter of life or death, or comfort or poverty, and the horse has been an important part of Native American culture in the west, so the song fit perfectly,” he explains.

“Sand Creek Massacre Mourning,” which recounts the murder of 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho victims by Col. John Chivington’s cavalry in 1864, rests on the backbone of Taylor’s banjo, his primary instrument. He’s played mostly electric banjos on previous albums, save for 2008’s roots-focused Recapturing the Banjo, but on My World Is Gone Taylor employs
four-, five- and six-string acoustic models. “I wanted to get back to that organic sound, because the banjo’s spoken to me since I was a kid,” he says. “Its voice instantly brings you back in time, and so much of My World Is Gone is about history and tradition that its sound is perfect for these songs.”

Nanji again shares vocals with Taylor on “Blue Rain in Africa,” in which a Native American reflects on the survival of his culture, despite the odds, after seeing the birth of a white buffalo — a rare and highly sacred event — on TV. The song’s threads of hope are a striking contrast to “Never Been to the Reservation,” with its lyrics about “babies sleeping on the ground,” although both numbers benefit from Nanji’s burnished blues licks.

While Taylor’s vision can be dark and ominous — the title “Coming With Crosses” is self-explanatory — his songs often celebrate hope and beauty in poignant ways. “Jae Jae Waltz” uses its spare construction of banjo, drums, bass and guest Ron Miles’ cornet to tell a story of a widow’s search for new love, and “Sit Across Your Table” celebrates the comfort and joy a workingman takes in his marriage. The song is also a surprising foray into untempered rock ’n’ roll, with a wailing guitar solo by Shawn Starski.

Starski and Taylor are versatile musicians who make their six-strings sound like an African kora on both “Green Apples” and the quirky Elmore Leonard-like tale “Gangster and Iztatoz Chauffeur.” Starski is the latest addition to Taylor’s touring band, which also includes Anne Harris on fiddle, Larry Thompson on drums and bassist Todd Edmunds, who has replaced Taylor’s daughter Cassie, a fixture of his earlier albums and groups. She now leads her own band, Cassie Taylor & the Soul Cavalry.

Otis Taylor’s own parents were an important part of his musical foundation. His father was a passionate jazz fan who encouraged his son to become a musician. His mother has become the subject of several of Taylor’s songs. Although he was born in Chicago in 1948, his parents relocated their family to Denver when Taylor was a small child in part to protect their son from the harsh realities of urban living. In addition to listening to jazz in his father’s record collection, he fell deeply under the spell of the Mississippi Delta legend John Lee Hooker, whose spare, almost mystical sound still resonates in Taylor’s own work.

“I get a lot of my sense of space and my vocal phrasing from John Lee Hooker, whose music, especially his solo recordings, is so heavy and has so much space that it sounds like it’s alive,” Taylor explains. His other vocal totem is James Brown, whose shouts and howls inspire the thunderous vocal declamations that punctuate many of Taylor’s own recordings.

As a young man, Taylor mastered the banjo and moved on to the harmonica and guitar. He performed with electric guitar virtuoso Tommy Bolin as T&O Short Line, and by 1974-76, he was playing bass as part of the Boulder-based rock group Zephyr. Taylor even jammed with Jimi Hendrix once and pursued his muse to Europe, but frustrations with the music business led him to retire from performing in 1977. He became a dealer in art and antiques, and pursued another of his passions, bicycle racing, as a coach.

In the ’90s, the door to Taylor’s musical past was pried open by friends in the Boulder area, and in 1996, he independently released his debut album, Blue Eyed Monster. With the release of his next two discs, When Negroes Walked the Earth and White African, he began to shake up the blues world with his marvelously original music and his unflinching tales about racism, struggle and heritage. Over the years, Taylor has garnered more than a dozen Blues Music Awards nominations, and White African won Best Debut Album. He is also regularly nominated as an instrumentalist, and won a Blues Music Award for his imaginative banjo playing in 2009. Also, his albums Double V, Definition of a Circle and Recapturing the Banjo took Downbeat’s Best Blues CD awards in 2005, 2007 and 2008, respectively. In all, Taylor has won five DownBeat awards. He has also been nominated twice for the prestigious
Académie Charles Cros award in France.

His 2009 recording, Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs, was released in the same week that two of Taylor’s songs were heard by millions in Michael Mann’s blockbuster movie Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.

In 2010, Taylor started his own annual Trance Blues Festival in Boulder, Colorado, which brings a broad cast of professional and amateur musicians together for three days of performances, jams and workshops.

“The thing about music is that it’s not just a spectator sport,” Taylor says. “In a world where there’s a lot of misunderstanding, music can help people communicate and break down barriers, and start to really see each other for who they are.

“I write songs about people remembering, bearing witness,” Taylor continues. “I’ve learned that if you write about things that are important, people will listen. That’s one of the reasons why I wrote the songs that I did for My World Is Gone.

“I push myself to be prolific and to make every new album better than the last one for personal reasons, too,” he relates. “A few years ago I had a cyst removed that was attached to my liver and spine. It was a life-threatening situation — really painful. I didn’t know if I was going to survive the surgery. I came to grips with the idea that the albums I’m making are going to be my legacy. And I want the people who love me — my family, my friends — to be proud.”

# # #

For more information about Otis Taylor, please contact:
Cary Baker • Conqueroo • (323) 656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.com
Mike Wilpizeski • Concord Music Group • 718-459-2117 • Mike.Wilpizeski@concordmusicgroup.com
Tour Publicity: Kelly Johanns-DiCillo • Concord Music Group • 216-464-2313, x2470 •
Kelly.Johanns@concordmusicgroup.com

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Smokin' Banana Records Artist: Monkey Paw Finger - Smokin' Banana - New Release Review

Been listening to Smokin' Banana, the new release from Monkey Paw Finger. This is a pretty cool cd with a little taste of everything and a lot of fun. The band is primarily Michael J Hartman (guitars, bass, keys, drum machine, percussion and vocals) and David L Vacek (Vocals, Harmonica and percussion. First up is Bad Little Girl, a stripped down rocker that I really like. It's got everything that a song needs, cool lyrics, slide guitar, a rockin' beat and distorted harp. Chicken Shack Shakin' has another stripped track but this time more of a funky Latin beat. As stripped down as this is you find some real tasty harp and guitar riffs popping out. Sunshine and Rain is a full out rocker ... a lot of sound for two guys. My Next Sin actually crosses over to more of a country sound but these guys can pull it off ... chicken pickin' and all. I Ain't No Saint takes more of a direct blues attack but with some heavy overdrive on the amp. The riffs are tasty over structured chords. Rusty Traveler actually has a bit of a Todd Rundgren sound to it with the Philly sound creeping in. Overall a cool track. The recording end up with a full out bttw rocker, Wanted Man. Rippin slide, hammerin' drums, and talk of running from the law. These guys had a bunch of fun making this cd and I'm sure a lot of you will enjoy it!
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”

Instrumental - Al Chesis & The Delta Sonics

The Delta Sonics have been playing in Colorado since 1992, and have established themselves as one of the finest blues acts in the area with their solid musicianship and exciting live performances. Their musical stylings include Chicago Blues, West Coast Swing, New Orleans R&B, and some early Rock n' Roll.

Besides averaging 120 gigs a year, the band was featured at notable regional festivals like the Mile High Blues Festival (2009), Blues From the Top (2006 & 2007) Greeley Blues Fest ( 2006 & 2009)Belvedere Blues Fest ( 2008) , Pearl St. Brews and Blues Fest (2007 & 2009) and the Cherry Creek Arts Festival Main Stage( 2009) to name a few.
Al Chesis was one of the only local harmonica players to be featured at the SPAH Convention held in Denver in 2006 and also appeared on Mark Hummel's Harmonica Blowout with harp heavyweights Magic Dick, Kim Wilson, Jason Ricci, and Mark Hummel himself in Denver and Colorado Springs in October 2008.

The band was featured at the 1997, 1998, and 2001 Denver Blues & Bones Festival, the Boulder/Lyons Blues Festival five times, the Yellowstone Jazz Festival, and the Westword Music Showcase in 1996 and 1997. They have opened for many nationally known blues artists, including Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Taj Mahal, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, The Radiators, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Tommy Castro, and Charlie Musselwhite.. In 1999 and 2004, the band brought blues piano legend Pinetop Perkins to Colorado for two successful tours. Most recently, The Delta Sonics have also backed Steadyrollin Bob Margolin , Big Bill Morganfield, Bo Diddley (2004), and Pinetop Perkins on their recent club and festival performances in Colorado. They are a sought after back-up band for national blues artists.
Write on our Facebook Wall or post your Photos of great blues events! -  ”LIKE”

Dengue Woman Blues - Jeffrey "Houseman" Clemens

G. Love drummer Jeffrey "Houseman" Clemens hosting his Monday night blues gig at Douglas Corner in Nashville. Featuring Kenny Vaughan and Jack Silverman on guitar, Johnny d'Artenay on bass.

Born in Oklahoma, raised in Denver, Kenny Vaughan's earliest memories of music are his father's jazz record collection: "My dad listened to Jimmy Smith, Mose Allison, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Miles Davis, Tony Mottola, and used to take me to hear Johnny Smith play at Shaner's in Denver. My neighbor, Charles Sawtelle, listened to Flatt and Scruggs and played Salty Dog on his Martin guitar for me. I knew then and there that I wanted to do that! I got my first electric guitar when I was twelve. The first thing I played was 'Folsom Prison Blues'. My first band played Stones, surf, '60's garage punk, and Memphis soul. I saw the Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Cream, Howlin' Wolf, Captain Beefheart, Buck Owens and The Buckaroos, The Dead, The Doors, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Winter, John Mayall, and Led Zep's first stateside gig, all before I was sixteen!" Vaughan studied with guitarist Bill Frisell, which led to gigs with a local progressive jazz group. "Bill really opened my approach to my playing," he explains. At eighteen, when his family moved to rural Kansas, Kenny opted to stay in Denver, and after answering an ad in the paper, he began working seven nights a week playing country music on the local honky-tonk scene. "I played with some real characters," Vaughan recalls, "Great players and singers. We played mostly '50's and '60's country. It was like another world

Silverman spent the first couple decades of his musical career playing in rock and jazz bands in Providence, R.I., New York City, and his hometown of Cleveland, before moving to Nashville in the late ’90s. For years he worked as a sideman with artists such Jason White, Jim Hoke, Kristi Rose, Brady Seals and Mitch Ryder, to name just a few. After years of playing other people’s music, he decided it was time to start bringing to life the odd little symphony he’d been hearing in his head for years.

After a couple of years composing music and gigging around Nashville, Silverman decided it was time to record. He tapped world-renowned bassist Viktor Krauss, known for his work with artists as broad-ranging as Lyle Lovett and Bill Frisell, to produce and play bass on the album. Krauss was a natural fit — in addition to his seminal work with Frisell, he’s released two critically acclaimed albums of his own instrumental music, and has performed with Silverman for years. The record also features stellar contributions from drummer Derrek Phillips (Charlie Hunter, Greg Osby), keyboardist Tyson Rogers (Tony Joe White, Don Williams, Chris Stamey and cutting-edge jazz outfit The Blueprint Project) and finally trombonist Roy Agee, whose twisted musical contributions on several tracks serve as the perfect brass counterpoint to Silverman’s own demented digressions.
Write on our Facebook Wall or post your Photos of great blues events! -  Here

It’s on, The Blues is back in Greeley! - 21 12 2011

Blues in Greeley! Just in time to blow off some holiday steam…

The Inaugural ‘Pot Luck Blues Jam’ will be on Thursday Dec 22
At the beautifully remodeled Whiskey River.

Hosted by Christopher Richards, AC Blue, and Joe Chadwick.

7:30 – 10:30pm Every Thursday – 618 25th St Greeley, CO
On Hwy 85 just north of Hwy 34

Musicians and ALL music fans welcome!
Big pro stage w/the nicest sound system in Northern Colorado!
Full backline + keys & harp rig… plenty of room for your own gear (encouraged). Bring a dish & join in the Pot Luck, the band is providing free dogs for the jammers. 21 & up = No Cover 18 -21 = $5 Cover.

Three O'Clock Blues - Bad Brad and The Fat Cats

Bad Brad & The Fat Cats, (WINNERS OF THE COLORADO BLUES SOCIETY'S YOUTH SHOWCASE), are a group that blends the Blues with Funk/Soul to keep the Blues alive in the next generation!!! Call Us To PLAY YOUR PARTY!!! We'll keep you dancin' and movin' what you got!

Boom Boom - Big Head Todd and the Monsters

Big Head Todd & the Monsters is a rock band formed in 1986 in Colorado. The band has released a number of albums since 1989 with their 1993 album Sister Sweetly going platinum in the United States. The band has developed a sizable live following especially in the Mountain States of the United States.

Sittin' On Top Of The World - Taj Mahal & Corey Harris

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an internationally recognized blues musician with two Grammy Awards to date who folds various forms of world music into his offerings. A self-taught singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, banjo and harmonica (among many other instruments), Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his almost 50 year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and the South Pacific.

Corey Harris (born February 21, 1969, Denver, Colorado) is an American blues and reggae musician, currently residing in Virginia. Along with Keb' Mo' and Alvin Youngblood Hart, he raised the flag of acoustic guitar blues in the mid 1990s.He was featured on the 2003 PBS television mini-series, The Blues, in an episode directed by Martin Scorsese.
Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE

Honeysuckle - Corey Harris

Corey Harris (born February 21, 1969, Denver, Colorado) is an American blues and reggae musician, currently residing in Virginia. Along with Keb' Mo' and Alvin Youngblood Hart, he raised the flag of acoustic guitar blues in the mid 1990s. He was featured on the 2003 PBS television mini-series, The Blues, in an episode directed by Martin Scorsese.

Harris was born and raised near Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine with a Bachelors Degree in 1991, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2007. Harris received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for language studies in Cameroon in his early twenties, before taking a teaching post in Napoleonville, Louisiana under the Teach For America program. On his debut solo album Between Midnight and Day (1995) he investigated the repertoire of Charlie Patton, Booker White, Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters and Sleepy John Estes.

In 2002, Harris collaborated with Ali Farka Toure on his album, Mississippi to Mali, fusing blues and Toure's music from northern Mali. In 2003, he contributed to the Northern Blues release, Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash.

Harris has lived and traveled widely in West Africa, an influence that has permeated much of his work. Harris has toured extensively throughout Europe, Canada, West Africa, Japan and Australia. He is known for his solo acoustic work as well as his electric band, formerly known as the '5 x 5'.

He helped Billy Bragg and Wilco to write the music for "Hoodoo Voodoo" on Mermaid Avenue, an album consisting entirely of songs for which the lyrics were written by the late Woody Guthrie. He also appeared as a musician on the album and its sequel, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II.

In September, 2007 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced that Harris was among 24 people named MacArthur Fellows for 2007. The Fellowship, worth $500,000, is payable over five years.