Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Joe Louis Walker
Rick Estrin & the Nightcats
Mighty Mike Schermer
Chris Cain
The Laurie Morvan Band
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Kenny Wayne Shepherd has lived more than half of his life in the spotlight. At the age of at 16, he was signed to a major record label. While a senior in high school, he recorded his first album and while most of his classmates were looking for a part time summer job after graduation, Kenny was embarking on a world tour. Now, at only 31 years old, he has sold millions of albums worldwide, received four Grammy nominations, two Billboard Music Awards, two Orville H. Gibson Awards, the Blues Foundation’s Keeping The Blues Alive Award, and a Blues Music Award among many other accolades. He has had four No. 1 blues albums and a string of No. 1 mainstream rock singles and his last project, 10 Days Out; Blues From The Backroads, has not only received critical acclaim, but was also the # 1 selling Blues Album of the Year in 2007. He is widely considered to be one of the best blues/rock guitarists (James Brown once referred to him as “one of the wonders of the world”) and on September 1, 2008, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation released the guitar that Kenny designed mdash; the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Stratocaster®.
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Kenny has been featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Craig Ferguson and many other television shows. He has been featured in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Maxim Magazine, Blender, Spin, USA Today and a host of other publications.
His musical career has been nothing short of phenomenal.
In 1995, a teenage Kenny Wayne Shepherd burst onto the music scene with the release of his debut album Ledbetter Heights. Ledbetter Heights produced radio hits “Deja Voodoo”, “Born With A Broken Heart” and “Aberdeen”. His relentless touring and success on rock radio launched the sales of the album to Platinum status.
His follow up album, 1997’s Trouble Is…was a huge commercial success as well, with radio hits such as “Somehow, Somewhere, Someway”, “Everything Is Broken”, “Slow Ride” and “Blue On Black”, which was a record breaking # 1 song on Rock Radio for 17 consecutive weeks. The Platinum selling Trouble Is… earned him his first Grammy nomination, two Billboard Music Awards (Rock Song of the Year and Blues Album of the Year) and the Orville H. Gibson Award among many other accolades.
1999 saw the release of Live On. More touring, more radio hits, “In 2 Deep”, “Was” and “Last Goodbye” and more album sales assured another Gold album. It also saw another nod from NARAS with a second Grammy nomination.
After relentless touring for basically five years, Kenny Wayne Shepherd took a well-deserved break. In 2004, he came back strong with the release of his 4th album The Place You’re In, a blistering rock record. As his fan base grew, so did his touring and his success with appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and another year-long national tour.
In 2007, Kenny released his most ambitious project to date. A full-length feature film documentary with an accompanying live album entitled 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads. The film follows Kenny and his friends, Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon (Double Trouble) and Noah Hunt embarking on a ten day trek into the heart of America visiting blues veterans in their homes, backyards and local juke joints. The film and CD features performances with some of the most renowned blues artists of all time, including B.B. King, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins and Honeyboy Edwards along with some of the blues lesser known, but towering talents. The CD/DVD earned him 2 more Grammy Nominations, The Blues Foundation’s “Keeping The Blues Alive Award, a Blues Music Award (formerly The W.C. Handy Award) and was Billboard’s # 1 selling Blues Album of the Year.
On September 1, 2008 Fender Musical Instruments Corp. released the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Signature Series Stratocaster, a guitar Kenny spent countless hours designing. The guitar is technically built similar to Kenny’s #1 Stratocaster, a 1961 original, and is available in three different paint designs. The first shipment of guitars sold out nation wide and is currently on backorder at most stores across the country.
Not bad for a guy who’s only 31.
Former San Francisco-based bluesman Joe Louis Walker was just a teenager when he burst upon the scene and set off on a course that would put him in the company of legendary guitarist Mike Bloomfield. And that wasn't all. During his formative years, he shared stages with John Lee Hooker, Thelonius Monk, The Soul Stirrers, Steve Miller and Jimi Hendrix.
Walker's rise to blues prominence came to a self-imposed halt when mentor Bloomfield died at a young age, prompting Walker to change his lifestyle. He dropped out of the music business, enrolled in college, and earned degrees in music and English. His musical performances were still regular, but with a decidedly different slant, as he worked as part of the Spiritual Corinthians gospel group.
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In 1985 he returned to the blues, formed his stellar band The Bosstalkers, and signed to HighTone Records, which released five albums before Walker moved to PolyGram's Verve/Gitanes label, where he recorded six albums. Witness to the Blues is his debut release on the Stony Plain label.
Produced by fellow Stony Plain artist and award-winner Duke Robillard, Witness to the Blues features a scintillating duet by Walker and Shemekia Copeland in a reprise of the Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson R&B classic, "Lover's Holiday." Stony Plain Records is distributed in the U.S. by Koch Entertainment; in Canada by Warner Music; and this CD has been licensed for release in Europe by Dixie Frog.
With the stellar backing of Robillard on guitar, Bruce Katz on keyboards, Jon Ross on bass, Mark Teixeira on drums and a horn section of Doug James on sax and Scott Aruda on trumpet, Joe Louis Walker explores the many colors of the blues palette, including Delta and Chicago styles, Memphis soul, gospel and even rockabilly. More than half of the album's 11 tracks were written by Walker, and he adds his own distinctive interpretations to several covers, including "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and "Sugar Mama" (which includes special guest Todd Sharpville on guitar).
Joe Louis Walker is a true blues virtuoso whose skills as a singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer have earned him a dedicated legion of fans around the world. He's recorded with B.B. King, James Cotton, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Steve Cropper, Ike Turner and Branford Marsalis, among many others in a storied career that covers 18 solo albums, two live DVDs and a number of compilations and guest appearances. He's played on two Grammy Award-winning albums and won three Blues Music Awards (formerly known as W.C. Handy Awards). In addition to his hot-ticket shows in the U.S., Walker has become an international ambassador for the blues overseas, having played at countless festivals throughout Europe, South America, Australia, the Middle East and Asia.
One day back in 1970, a 20-year old Rick Estrin had the opportunity to play harmonica with Muddy Waters and his band at the Sutherland Hotel on 47th and Drexel in Chicago's South Side. During the break, Muddy called Estrin over, shook his finger in his face, and shouted, "You outta sight boy! You play like a MAN boy! You got that sound boy, I KNOW that sound when I hear it, that's MY sound!"
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Today, singer/harmonica player/songwriter Rick Estrin ranks among the very best harp players in the blues world. His work on the reeds is at once deep in the tradition of harmonica masters Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Walter Jacobs while at the same time pushing that tradition forward. The Associated Press called his harp playing, "endlessly impressive." The great guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. (who was schooled by Robert Johnson and who played on most of Little Walter's Chess recordings) told Estrin, "Little Walter would be very proud of you."
For more than 30 years and nine albums, Rick fronted the jumping, swinging Little Charlie & The Nightcats, featuring guitarist Little Charlie Baty. But now, with Baty's recent retirement from touring, Estrin -- along with the Nightcats longtime rhythm section of J. Hansen and Lorenzo Farrell and fiery guitarist Kid Andersen -- is ready to take the lead on his own. Rick Estrin & The Nightcats' sound, while still swinging the blues, is a harmonica-driven, rocking, guitar-fueled rave-up. The band performs the well-known, well-loved songs from Estrin's massive catalog, and will introduce plenty of new material along the way.
Mighty Mike Schermer has been a fixture on the Bay Area Blues scene for over 20 years. In that span of time he has carved out a solid solo career, with two critically acclaimed CDs, an award winning single and thousands of performances at festivals and nightclubs the world over. He has also become the "go to guy" sideman for such heavyweights as Elvin Bishop, Bonnie Raitt, Charlie Musselwhite, Maria Muldaur, Howard Tate, Angela Strehli, Sista Monica, Shana Morrison and many, many more. Oh yes…we may be judged by the company we keep, but when the spotlight shines a solo artist also must be able to bring the goods all on his own.
Mighty Mike Schermer delivers on all fronts.
Charlie Lange of Bluebeat Music writes "…equally at ease with hard-ass blues or the spare necessities of vintage soul, Schermer steps forward with clever tunes, sturdy vocals and loads of great guitar!" Paul Liberatore of the Marin Independent Journal calls him "… one of the most extraordinary guitarists of the new generation."
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Mike's musical journey started at age ten…fumbling around with guitar, trumpet and clarinet. He played in school and in various rock and roll bands throughout his teens, but everything changed one night in 1984 when he plunked down three dollars to see The Master of The Telecaster — Albert Collins. "Albert hit that first note," says Schermer” and it was like a door slammed behind me and another one opened up in front. That was the sound and the soul and the feeling I'd been looking for in music up to that point." He met Collins after the show and many times later until Collins' untimely death. "One time I went to see him at the San Francisco Blues Festival" Mighty Mike remembers, "and I got backstage and went over to his bus to say hello. I knocked on the door and heard a voice…'hey, I'm under here'…he was changing the oil!" That do-it-yourself, workingman's attitude is what has kept Schermer in the blues all these years. It is a tradition he carries out on stage each and every night. From Collins Mike also learned that one note can say more than a million; to honor your heroes but have your own sound; to play your ass off at every single show; and that every guitar player in the world should listen to T-Bone Walker."
When Albert Collins tells you to go out and get some T-Bone Walker records you RUN out to the nearest record shop and then get to work. Mike plunged headlong into the T-Bone Walker style and literally came up swingin'. Lee Hildebrand wrote in Living Blues that Schermer "…has thoroughly internalized the Walker vocabulary, which he uses as a jumping off point for his own highly personal improvisations…(he) stands shoulder to shoulder with Roy Gaines and Duke Robillard as a leading contemporary exponent of the Walker style."
From T-Bone Walker, Schermer expanded his vocal and guitar influences to include a host of blues, R&B and jazz artists like Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Smith, Charles Brown and Howlin' Wolf. Ears began to turn…the next thing you know Mike had attracted the attention of west coast harmonica master Andy Santana. Along with drummer June Core and bassist Steve Ehrmann they formed The Soul Drivers, a legendary Bay Area band that had the rare ability to either steal the show on their own or provide superb backing to better known artists such as Willie Dixon, Jimmy Rogers, Billy Boy Arnold, Luther Tucker, Snooky Pryor, Elvin Bishop and Tommy Castro. Texas blues belter Angela Strehli had recently moved to California and quickly tapped the Soul Drivers as her touring band. Strehli's "Deja Blue" (1998), with Mighty Mike as musical director and guitarist, was nominated for a California Music Award (BAMMIE) for Best Contemporary Blues Release. Schermer has more BAMMIE connections. The year before in 1997 the Soul Drivers were asked to be house band for the Bay Area Blues Showcase at the awards show where they backed up Bonnie Raitt, Booker T., Joe Louis Walker, the Gospel Hummingbirds and Strehli. Austin deLone was the musical director of the BAMMIES at that time. He and Mike have since worked together in several incarnations, including a big Tribute to R&B concert at Bumbershoot 2003 in Seattle, WA where they backed Bonnie, Howard Tate, Ruth Brown, Shemekia Copeland, Maxi Priest and more in front of 30,000 fans!
Willie Dixon told him, "Boy, you play your ass off," while Snooky Pryor lauded his "stingin' guitar." At a show at the legendary Sweetwater in Mill Valley, CA in 1996 Bonnie Raitt dubbed Schermer her "new favorite guitar player."
The Mighty Mike Schermer Band's debut release 1st Set (2000) received rave reviews and success worldwide and is still popular on the scene today, but it was the 2005 release of Next Set that introduced Schermer to the modern blues world as one of the genre's foremost songwriters. Propelled by the hit single "My Big Sister's Radio" Next Set climbed the Living Blues Radio Charts, scored three and a half stars in Downbeat magazine and was #1 on XM radio for well over three months. The song also found its way into the Carolina Beach Music scene, and in 2006 it was awarded the CMBA's National Song of the Year. Rising star Tommy Castro heard "Big Sister's Radio" and went crazy, told Mike he HAD to cover it on his next record. Castro's Painkiller won a 2008 Blues Music Award (Handy Award) for best contemporary album.
In 2006 blues/rock legend Elvin Bishop hired Schermer on as his lead guitarist. The blending of their two unique styles has proved a tough combination to beat. Elvin's recent release The Blues Rolls On (2008) puts Mighty Mike side by side with some of the best guitarists in the business including Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks and even the king of the blues himself — B.B. King! Mike's extensive discography also includes recordings with Angela Strehli, Howard Tate, Sista Monica, Shana Morrison, Terry Hanck and many more. Finedog Records recently released a long awaited compilation CD, Right Hand Man Vol. 1, which chronicles Schermer's career alongside many of these top artists. That CD debuted at #4 on the Living Blues Radio Charts.
He has toured through a host of festivals including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival, the Poretta Soul Festival in Italy, the Park Tower Blues Festival in Tokyo and as a hometown favorite at eight Santa Cruz Blues Festivals. He has performed in all 50 US states and in 19 countries around the world, and the journey is far from over!
Chris Cain's jazz-tinged, blues soaked guitar and deep, warm vocals have the maturity and authenticity of bluesmen many years his senior. His expressive style is the result of a lifetime of study and the relentless pursuit of music mastery. His passion and intensity are a blend of his mother's Greek ancestry and his father's soulful black heritage.
Cain was raised on stories of his father's childhood upbringing on Memphis' Historic Beale Street and attended his first B.B King concert at the tender age of three. Blues music played continuously on the home stereo and family outings were often trips to concerts. Cain recalls, "I remember when I was a kid, my Dad would be mowing the lawn with the stereo blasting Muddy Waters. When I look back, that was pretty cool! There was always music playing at our house, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King, all the greats."
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At the age of eight, Cain taught himself to play guitar and began playing professionally before he was eighteen. Chris studied music at San Jose City College, and was soon teaching jazz improvisation on campus. Over the next twenty years, Cain would also master piano, bass guitar, clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone. The combination of his blues upbringing and his jazz studies melded to form the searing guitar style that sets Chris Cain apart and has moved him to the top ranks of the blues music scene.
Cain's debut recording, Late Night City Blues (Blue Rock'it Records-1987) garnered four W.C. Handy Blues Award nominations, including Guitarist of the Year." Dan Forte of Guitar Player wrote, "An impressive debut album by a top notch guitarist." Cain's next two releases; "Cuttin Loose" (Blind Pig Records-1990) and "Can't Buy a Break" (Blind Pig Records-1992) collected a long list of awards and accolades. In August of 1995 Blind Pig released "Somewhere Along the Way" his 4th compilation of his unique brand of original music sophisticated blues, funk, jazz and gospel.
In 2003 Patrick Ford produced Chris's latest CD, "Hall Of Shame" (Blue Rock'it Records-2003). "...this is now the sixth Chris Cain solo release I have produced, not to mention his work with me on projects like the Ford Blues Bands' "In Memory Of Michael Bloomfield" CD, and I continue to be in awe of his incredible talent. As a guitarist/singer, Chris has been praised by mentors like Albert King and peers like Robben Ford."
Larry Nager (syndicated Scripts-Howard music critic) writes, "Nowadays most young blues players are Strat-wielding Stevie Ray Vaughan-a-bes. Not Chris Cain. With a voice that recalls B.B. King and a thick toned Gibson guitar sound reminiscent of Albert King, Cain is forging a unique style. With his own highly personalized songwriting, "Hall Of Shame" is a giant step in the development of one of the most compelling young bluesmen on today's scene."
Through his guitar mastery and remarkable songwriting ability, Chris Cain has established himself as a musical force to be reckoned with. And as San Jose Mercury News music reviewer John Orr writes, "more than anyone else, anywhere, Chris Cain represents the future of the blues."
When Laurie Morvan rips into a rockin' blues guitar lead propelled by the thumpin' backbeat erupting from her band, heads bob and bodies pulsate with the energy. This 2008 Blues Artist on the Rise Winner’s inspired guitar playing has earned her feature articles in 3 of the world’s biggest guitar magazines. “Stunning California axe slinger... exhilarating electric blues guitar style” (Modern Guitars). “Morvan singes the strings” (Guitar Player). “Fearless and fresh... Morvan plays with plenty of imagination” (Vintage Guitar). Not just a wailin’ guitar slinger, Laurie is a compelling lead vocalist and songwriter. She engages the audience in a passionate, no-holds-barred, heart to heart conversation, sharing songs she writes from personal stories filled with pain, triumph, and humor.
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Laurie Morvan Band concerts feature the beautiful 3 part harmonies of Laurie and backup singers Lisa Grubbs and Carolyn Kelley, as well as dueling solos between Laurie and 6-string-bassist Pat Morvan. Driving the train is drummer Kevin Murillo who lays down an intense and powerful blues rock foundation.
The Laurie Morvan Band was a Top 10 FINALIST at the 2008 International Blues Challenge. Clearly an audience favorite, Laurie and the band performed in the finals of the annual event, dubbed the “biggest event in blues”, held at the historic Orpheum Theater in Memphis, TN.
Cures What Ails Ya, the Laurie Morvan Band’s third CD, was named a Top 5 FINALIST in the 2008 Blues Foundation worldwide competition for Best Self-Produced CD. It was also selected as a House of Blues Radio Hour Blues Breaker. “It’s slammin’!” exclaimed Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd). The CD has also benefitted from incredibly positive reviews in both national and regional press. “Superior pop-blues” (Downbeat). “It’s about time the labels took notice of this blazing singing/songwriting guitarist" (Elmore).
Illinois Blues raves, “The Laurie Morvan Band is the most unique five piece troupe I have seen...I cannot wait for her Midwest return”. The Catalina Islander’s front page story reviewing the 2008 Catalina Island Blues Festival said, “Morvan, who can play rockin’ blues with the best of men and make it look easy… captured the hearts and ears of blues fans...a humble but powerful talent”.
Don’t miss this opportunity to see a world class rising star at Coloma Blues Live during the Laurie Morvan Band 2009 National Tour!
Mighty Mike Schermer 
Chris Cain
Laurie Morvan Band