Ghost Town Blues Band

 

Horns, harmonies and homegrown instruments combined with an energetic and roots rich festival set makes Ghost Town Blues Band one of the “must see live bands on the festival scene today.” Both Andrew McNeill behind the drums and Matt Karner on the bass guitar are a punishing rhythm section behind multi-instrumentalist/frontman Matt Isbell with raunchy cigar box guitar licks and raspy "Dr. John-like, whiskey and gravel-soaked vocals." With the addition of Trombonist Suavo Jones, Cedric Taylor on B3 and Taylor Orr on lead guitar, the grooves go from fresh to funky as the band gains more notoriety in the blues festival and jam circuit. Ghost Town Blues Band has performed all across US and Canada at over 100+ festivals and will perform more than a half-dozen international tours in Canada and Europe in 2019.

 http://www.ghosttownbluesband.com/

The Juke Joint Pimps

T-Man and Mighty Mike live in the Cologne area in Germany. They had been playing blues for years in various bands before joining forces in the Silvertones in 2003, playing Chicago blues with an attitude. They recorded an album in Belgium and played two tours in Russia. It seems impossible to clearly define just exactly when the Juke Joint Pimps came into being. Maybe some time in '04. Mike and T-Man had been teaming up with an upright bass player to rock some private students parties, got hired for a couple of shows in local bars, picked up hitting the drums while losing the bassist along the way and suddenly they were there, two blues guys wearing white pin stripe suits, red shoes and jewellery, blasting rough juke joint music for everybody who cared to dance or listen. A two-man band with drums, harmonica, guitar and a voice that can shatter glass – pretty much all you really need to play music sounding like Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, North Mississippi Hill Country Blues and Reverend Charlie Jackson. Within very little time the Juke Joint Pimps have evolved into a unique act. "Black" enough sounding to cater to a traditional blues audience while being so wild, loud and raw that the punk rockers and garage freaks dig them just as much. And they're really truckloads of fun to watch!

 http://www.juke-joint-pimps.com/

 

Savoy Brown

 

Savoy Brown was formed in 1965 by guitarist Kim Simmonds in London, England. Simmonds has been the group’s guiding hand from the first singles released in 1966 through the band’s newest effort, their forty-first album “Ain’t Done Yet” to be released August 28, 2020.

 

Energetic blues has been the calling card of the band from the beginning. Blues Rock became the catch-all phrase in the late 1960s to describe the band’s music along with that of contemporaries including Cream, Fleetwood Mac, and Jimi Hendrix.

 

In fact, in the 2013 movie, “Jimi Hendrix: All Is By My Side,” a Savoy Brown song co-written by Simmonds was included in the soundtrack.

 

Many of the band’s singles and albums have appeared on the Billboard charts. Through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980’s songs such as “I’m Tired”, “Train to Nowhere”, “Tell Mama” and “Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone” became Hot 100 entries.

 

Two of the band’s albums in the 1970s, “Looking In” and “Hellbound Train”, appeared on the Billboard Top Forty charts. This pattern continues today, culminating with “Witchy Feelin’,” the band’s 2017 album, reaching #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart.

 

Along the way, Savoy Brown has toured continuously, making it one of the longest running blues rock bands in existence. Through the years, the band has headlined concerts at many prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, the Fillmore East, the Fillmore West, and London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall.

 

Savoy Brown, having established national status in the 1970s, provided other groups opportunity. Kiss opened the bill on a Savoy Brown national tour as did ZZ Top, The Doobie Brothers and many, many more acts.

 

Former members, having cut their teeth under Simmonds’ leadership, have gone on to complete their careers with other bands. Among others, these include singer Dave Walker with Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath, Bill Bruford with King Crimson, Andy Pyle with the Kinks and Paul Raymond with UFO.

 

Many familiar names have recorded and toured with the band including Hughie Flint (original Blues Breaker with John Mayall) Miller Anderson, Stan Webb, and Dave Olson (Robert Cray Band).

Three other band alumni – Lonesome Dave Peverett, Roger Earl, and Tony Stevens, went on to become the founding members of the multi-platinum act Foghat.

 

A resident of the USA since 1980, bandleader Simmonds has received many accolades himself. These include placement on the front cover of Guitar Player magazine, enshrinement on the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame and acceptance in many regional “Halls of Fame” in the USA and Canada.

“I have always opted for a non-mainstream, yet complimentary, music route,” says Kim – “one that would allow me personal and artistic freedom. In the end, it seems I’ve had the best of both worlds.”

Savoy Brown helped spawn the 1968 UK Blues Rock boom and later opened the eyes of many 1970s American teenagers to their own home territory blues artists.

 

More than 50 years later, Savoy Brown remains a formidable, progressive Blues Rock force. The three- piece line-up includes Kim Simmonds on guitar and vocals, Pat DeSalvo on bass and Garnet Grimm on drums. This trio has established itself as the longest-running consistent line-up in the band’s history, now going strong for more than 10 years. Their legacy continues with the coming 2020 release of “Aint Done Yet” released by the Californian-based record label, Quarto Valley Records.

Savoy Brown and Kim Simmonds have a body of work that is matched by only a small portion of musical artists. As they continue to tour the world, young and old find inspiration in their timeless music, classic style, and performances.

 

 https://savoybrown.com

Tami Lynn

 

Tami Lynn was a singer known throughout New Orleans and the world, recently passed away on June 26, 2020. She attended R.T. Danneel #2 Elementary School, where she studied music and learned to sing with the likes of former classmates and greats, Allen Toussaint, and Ellis Marsalis, Jr. As a youngster, she sang spirituals with groups like the Clara Ward Singers, and appeared on WMRY Radio,” Dr. Daddy-O’s Sunday Gospel Show,” where she was heard by legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who predicted Lynn would grow up to be a “fine singer” one day.  While in High School, she landed a part in the Broadway musical “Showboat” but actually wanted to grow up to be a speech therapist for children with special needs. 

Lynn’s career in R&B started quite by coincidence. She began her professional career singing at the Joy Tavern when a regular singing artist didn’t show up for a few gigs. Red Tyler, the manager of the performing band at the Joy Tavern requested Lynn to audition.  After some encouragement by her mother, Tami auditioned, got the gig, and began singing nightly with Red Tyler’s band.  After successfully packing the house night after night with her soulful singing, Lynn signed a contract with the A.F.O. (All For One) record company and recorded Baby, a song written for her by Red Tyler. Tyler, Harold Battiste, and Melvin Lastie, A.F.O.’s Founders became her mentors. Taking her under their wings, Tami began touring with the band, A.F.O.  Lynn then went on to New York to perform at the famous Birdland (a New York jazz club) in the 60’s where she opened on several occasions for John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Ella Fitzgerald. During the 70’s she sang a few gigs at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood.

Soon after Lynn met Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, when she sang at a DJ convention, who immediately upon hearing her sing signed her on Atlantic’s recording label. Lynn occasionally worked with A.F.O. executives on projects, including King Floyd’s first album, as a backup singer for Sam Cooke, and several of Dr. John’s albums. She also did some background session work for television shows like” Starsky and Hutch” and a few commercials such as for the Plymouth car company’s Road Runner advertisements.  She had a breakthrough in the early 1970s when John Abby at Mojo Records in England discovered “I’m Gonna Run Away” and re-released the song, which went to the top of the charts in Britain, where she once opened for Al Green. “In 1971, “I’m Gonna Run Away” was released as a single, with “The Boy Next Door” as the B-side, on Mojo and Atlantic, where it became a hit in the UK among devotees of Northern soul. The tune hit number 4 in the UK Singles Chart in 1971. A full-length album, Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone, followed in 1972, produced by John Abbey.

Lynn’s I’m Gonna Run Away” remains a hit and is still played throughout the UK. She went on the road with Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) and his then bass guitarist, Randy Jackson of “American Idol.” She sung at several New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festivals, and was the featured backup singer on the Rolling Stones album, “Exile on Main St., which was later voted “Best Album of All Time.”   

During her career, Tami Lynn shared the stage, sung, or recorded with Wilson Pickett, Sonny and Cher, Billy Joel, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Lionel Hampton, Irma Thomas, Ernie K-Doe, Eric Clapton, George Benson, Ringo Starr, Joe Cocker, Willie Bobo, Mark Isham, and many, many others. 

Tami Lynn died on June 26, 2020. A longtime collaborator and co-vocalist on Dr. John albums and signee to AFO Records, Lynn worked with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Sonny & Cher and Wilson Pickett, and shared stages with Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Jim Dan Dee

 

 

Racing along the thin, permeable line between blues and rock is the high octane, precision-crafted, musical muscle car driven by Canadian power blues quartet Jim Dan Dee. On the way to delivering their much-anticipated second full-length album, they’re stopping just long enough to drop a hot and heavy appetizer, their searing new single “Bleed Me Dry” — available now!

  

At the fiery crossroads where Thorogood, the Fab Thunderbirds, and the Stones meet you’ll find Jim Dan Dee’s “Bleed Me Dry” revving up and running the red. It’s a raw, hard-rocking lament about giving it all that revels in those desperate, after midnight moments of total careless abandon.

  

I need a break cuz it’s never enough

Knock ‘em down and they jump back up

What happens next, I don’t know

Caught between a spoonful and diggin’ a hole 

  

Featuring Jim “Dan Dee” Stefanuk on vocals/guitars, Bobby Sewerynek on saxophone, newcomer Dwayne Lau on bass, and Shawn Royal on drums, this Southern Ontario-based four-piece has a tight, interlocked sound only a multitude of live shows can foster. Their recordings, including this one, give the listener that heady sense of ‘being there’ as all that good stuff was laid down from the stage, not the studio.

  

“Nothing is more important to us than our live show, and that energy is what we tried to capture on this record,” notes Stefanuk. “The band recorded with the same amplifiers and instruments we use on stage to keep our performance and tone authentic.”

  

Authentic blues infused with a modern rock swagger is what will be found on the band’s upcoming second album Real Blues — set for release May 13. Real Blues follows the group’s self-titled first album released in 2018, and an EP, Five Stiff Shots, that introduced the band in 2015. 

  

“Bleed Me Dry” is the lead single from Real Blues’ dirty near-dozen tales of struggle, loneliness, love, and lust, with co-writes by Stefanuk, Sewerynek, and Royal. A rugged, brawny cover of Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones’ “The Things That I Used to Do” sets the tone for the rest of the tracklist that creates the feeling that you just heard, felt, and saw a killer live set from the group.

  

“We tried for a no overdubs approach whenever possible; listeners will get about as close as they can to the live band experience without leaving their homes,” Stefanuk explains. “We really wanted this album to breathe; all the squeaks, breaths, clicks, and buzzes remain on record, so the quiet moments have a life of their own. You’ll understand when you hear it.”

  

Listeners will also understand that this raw and honest creative statement from Jim Dan Dee was formed from the unprecedented and life-shaking experience we’ve all experienced during two years of dealing with a global pandemic.

  

“Real Blues comes out of a dark and unprecedented time for most of us on planet Earth,” says Stefanuk. “Fighting an unseen enemy in a battle that lasted years instead of weeks, we’ve lost careers, mobility, hope, and sometimes even the people we love.”

  

Turning to the innate healing power of music was a natural response for the group, who’ve shared major festival stages with Canadian legends such as Big Wreck, I Mother Earth and The Trews. 

  

“Music may be one of the only ways to describe the individual battles we all fight within our own minds, and it may have saved more than a few lives.”

  

Jim Dan Dee, which takes its name from the expression “everything is just Jim Dandy,” is a foursome of survivors, thrivers, and prolific creatives. The 10 original tracks they chose to record for Real Blues were picked from a pile of sixty songs and span the full spectrum of dark to light subjects and emotions. 

  

“Over the ‘damndemic’ we got to know the dark sides of ourselves a little better. We lost some people. We strengthened some bonds. It was a war of self-awareness and patience.”

  

With Real Blues, the band also wanted to pay reverence to the 100-plus-year-old music genre that has been the foundation and framework of their own music.

  

We hope the album can bring Blues fans great joy and remind them at least a little of the incredible giants whose shoulders we humbly sit on.”

With the May 13th album release date quickly approaching and a summer of shows starting to pile up in Ontario and the Maritimes, so far, Jim Dan Dee will get many chances to show off their prowess at paying tribute in their own, exciting and unique style.

  

“Real Blues has 11 stories, some relate to this viral prison we've lived in, and some are a beautiful distraction that harkens to better times in the past and a future that is opening up…fast.”

  

Opening up fast for Jim Dan Dee and the whole world of music.

  

“Bleed Me Dry” from the forthcoming Real Blues is available now!

 

 http://jimdandee.com/

 

The Yohawks

 "The Yohawks stand forever a band caught in a freeze-frame of unrelenting sonic assault. Convened by Jeremy Gluck out of various Swansea bands including his beloved Superczar they enabled precious moments in which to single-mindedly detonate explosions out of his unique readings of classic

garage punk and New York noise. Further it allowed him to revisit one more time glories from ‘I Knew Buffalo Bill’ and ‘Burning Skulls Rise’. I recall The Yohawks one time raising the cacophony in an upstairs room in Leytonstone; it burns in the memory. Did it last? Did it fuck! But as we see traces remain, and here gathered you can happily access the echoes." 

 

Nick West, Bucketful of Brains Formed in 2006 by Jeremy Williams, co-founder of ace Swansea combo

Superczar, The Yohawks provided Jeremy Gluck, Barracudas’ frontman and established cult solo artist, with a band to perform reinventions of songs spanning his time. Named after a Sixties from gang from Gluck’s hometown of Ottawa, along with Williams, the band featured players from The Death of Chapman Baxter – guitarist Matt Ellis, bassist Liam S. wolf, and drummer Ray Boothby – making The

Yohawks live performances, as described by one devotee, “a cross between The Patti Smith Group and Ornette Coleman”, were never adequately captured in the studio. 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcmfvLu89bk

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-2oLGoWO4

 

Alpha Pegasi

 

Some musicians start out as shy, self-conscious, social misfits who only later bloom into passionate, creative, and confident people. Mitch Melodia is one of them.

 

After playing hundreds of shows, performing at festivals, and recording with numerous bands in New England, he moved West and started his own “band” Alpha Pegasi. For his project’s upcoming releases, hundreds of original songs were distilled into a select few for a four-part series of EPs. The first one, titled Love Sex Money Part I is due for release on 8/26/22. The first single from LSM I, "Give Some, Get Some," was released on 4/20/22.

 

“Making Music, Making Love, Making Money is probs gonna be the title of my future autobiography," Mitch says. "Personally, those are three of the most important things I feel like I can do to have a very happy, healthy, wealthy, and fulfilling lifestyle. The more money I earn, the more money I can give. And for the first two, well, they're pretty really great to be able to do."

 

A cohesive blend of danceable, sexy, and upbeat grooves come together for a tasty rock/pop/alternative stew. Influences run from Jam-band giants like Phish, the Grateful Dead, and the Allman Brothers Band, classic rock, and more pop approaches like Tame Impala, Beck, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads, and the funkier side of Khruangbin. 

 

“Alpha Pegasi has a Tame Impala-ish approach in the studio and a Phish-ish mentality for live shows,” he says. “Improvisation is a staple of every show but when recording, I keep it concise. It’s fun for me to play and arrange every instrument on record, but I’m also stoked for future collaborations with other musicians on AP studio songs.”

 

Beyond creating incredible and fun-fused music, Mitch also aims to work with non-profits and health-based organizations. A main financial focus for Alpha Pegasi is to donate 5% of all profits to groups like San Diego EarthWorks. Mitch aspires to use his music and art as a vehicle to support environmental and health-improving causes, including mental-health practices.

 

“I’ve had a few therapists over the years to get help with personal issues,” he recalls. “Every counselor has been very helpful, but sessions can be expensive. Down the road, I want to create Alpha Health to make holistic based mental-health programs more accessible and affordable.”

 

In these twisted and trying times, Love Sex Money Part I offers glimmers of light, enjoyment, and good vibes. “Through the music I make, I want to bring people together and create an ever-growing community through great shows and great music. Through such a community, we can raise a lot of money and support for non-profits who do a lot of good work for people and the planet.”

 

 https://alphapegasimusic.com/