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The 5th Shetland Blues Festival, the UK's most northerly blues festival, will take place over the weekend of Friday 29 August to Sunday 31 August. The venues and program have still to be confirmed. All the latest news can be found at http://www.shetlandblues.info and http://www.myspace.com/shetlandblues
The chairman of Shetland Blues committee, Barbara Ford, said that "2007 was an outstanding festival so it is hoped that 2008, the 5th annual Blues Festival will be even more successful. The visiting musicians represent a varied approach to the Blues, electric and accoustic; bands varying in size from 10 to solo performers. Finally with bands like headliners Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes, the audience will definitely find the need to take to the dance floor".
This year's headline band will be Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes, one of the UK's hardest working live acts at the moment, who make a welcome return to Shetland after their last visit nine years ago. Hailed by aficionados and music press around the world as Europe's foremost blues harmonica exponent, Paul Lamb has forged himself a place in the history books as one of the greatest players of our time. He has won countless awards, sold record-breaking quantities of albums, and performed the world over with his long-standing musical compatriots, The Kingsnakes.
Paul's son Ryan joined the Kingsnakes on guitar in 2007 who joins fellow Kingsnakes Sonny Below (Drums), Chad Strentz (Lead Vocals and rhythm guitar) and Jeremy Mercer (Bass).
Steve Phillips makes a return after playing the first Shetland Blues Festival in 2004. He returns to Shetland as part of a tour of the UK to celebrate his 60th birthday by playing as many different places in the UK as possible. An outstanding acoustic guitar player and famous for being a member of the Notting Hillbillies along with Mark Knopfler and Brendan Croker.
When it comes to the blues, The Lyndon Anderson Band have all the bases covered, wether it's a 1950's Chess classic, a chunk of 70's funk, a rocking Texas shuffle, jazz influenced west coast swing or one of their many originals, they play it all with style, authority and taste.
Having performed at some of the most prestigious music festivals, including Edinburgh Jazz Festival, The Great British R&B Festival, and the Stanley Blues Festival, performing to an audience of over 15,000, as well as countless bars and clubs, they are winning new fans at every turn.
The band are fronted by Lyndon Anderson (Vocals, harp and guitar), Davey Dormand (Guitar), Christine Wilson (Bass) and Kevin Hodge (Drums).
From Finland the Black River Bluesman and the Croaking Lizard play their Blues in the deep woods and swamps of the muddy Black River Delta way up North in cold Finland. Their unrefined, electric and hypnotic Blues have been compared to the rough sounds of the Mississippi Hill Country artists as well as to anything between Tom Waits and Jim Morrison or psychoblues and garage. Whatever the influences may be, they play their Blues with no compromises just the way they feel.
Jim Murray and Pete Mason are happy to be - The Hokum Hotshots...Hokum is 'blues with a smile on its face' and the Hotshots do it very well . . .
Instruments played include vocals (2), Steel National and Dobro Horizontal Guitars, Mandolin, Tiple (a 10 stringed South American instrument), ukulele, and acoustic 6 stringed guitars.
That makes a total of over 50 available strings, of which most are hit in the right order.
The musical influences range from field hollers, through ragtime, vaudeville, country blues, jazz and swing, through to the urban blues of the 1940s. Add to this compositions sympathetic to the tradition and a large dash of humour and you get close to defining the music that is The Hokum Hotshots.
Cherry Lee Mewis, a 5ft-nothing-22-year-old-white girl from North Wales, is the real deal. She's added her own fresh perspective to blues 'n' roots music with her album, 'Little Girl Blue', a mixture of 'forgotten', obscure blues tracks, adding a raw, unplugged feel teaming up with multi-faceted guitarist Max Milligan and producer and former Argent singer, John Verity.
Both Max and John's wealth of experience work brilliantly with Cherry's fresh approach. Resulting in a mix of warm, vintage, gut-bucket blues with rootsy sparse guitar style, covering songs by Memphis Minnnie, Robert Johnson and Jeff Buckley, these 20's blues numbers have still been left in their original, impassioned state, at the same time leaving Cherry's fingerprints on them.
Cherry served her apprenticeship endlessly gigging in clubs and bars developing not only her powerful soulful voice, but her performance and style too.
Daniel Smith is one of the most exciting talents to emerge on the British blues scene in recent years. In 1994, he first shot to prominence with Sonny Black, gaining rave reviews from press, audiences and fellow musicians alike. 2000 saw him launch his own solo career and form The Daniel Smith Blues Band.
Virtuoso live performances, his acclaimed debut album 'Southside Boogie' - re-released in 2006, BBC Radio sessions, several Edinburgh International Jazz & Blues Festival appearances as well as appearances on the European festival circuit have earned him as string of nominations as Best UK Blues Keyboardist.
Add to this his dry, laid-back, on-stage humour and you have a class act invoking a genuine sense of the old-time, good-time barrelhouse and speakeasy.
After Hours R&B Revue, a ten piece band from Thurso, was formed around ten years ago and has developed its own unique brand of Blues / Jazz based R&B. Strongly influenced by early 50's and 60's Rhythm & Blues artists such as Ray Charles, Fats Domino and Little Richard the band also draws on the Stax and Atlantic soul styles of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. The repertoire includes original songs as well as more recent influences such as Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
After Hours have toured extensively from Orkney to Glouscester and from the Hebrides to Aberdeen. They have played three times at the Great British Blues Festival in Lancashire and other notable venues include the Skye Beer Festival, The Donside Ball, Hootenanny's in Inverness, the Orkney Blues Festival, The Highland Festival and the Newmarket Bar in Thurso.
Website Links
Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes -
http://www.paullamb.com http://www.myspace.com/paullambkingsnakes
Steve Phillips -
http://www.stevephillipsmusic.com/ http://www.myspace.com/stevephillipsmusic
Lyndon Anderson Band -
http://www.l-a-b.net/ http://www.myspace.com/lyndonandersonband
Black River Bluesman
http://www.bluesman.fi/ http://www.myspace.com/blackriverbluesman Hokum Hotshots http://www.hokumhotshots.co.uk/ Cherry Lew Mewis http://www.cherryleemewis.com/home.html http://www.myspace.com/cherryleemewis Daniel Smith - http://www.myspace.com/danielsmithbluesband http://www.danielsmithbluesband.co.uk/ After Hours R & B Revue - http://www.murklebaysound.com |
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