|
Singer-songwriter Jeff Lang has built up a reputation for startlingly original performances, working without a set list, allowing the unique energy of each night to shape the songs. While Lang will talk of his admiration for the elemental blues of Skip James, the raw gospel of Blind Willie Johnson, the devastating guitar work of Jimi Hendrix, the masterful slide guitar of Ry Cooder, and the sublime songwriting of Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson, comparisons to these artists fails to paint an adequate picture.
Jeff Lang is critically acclaimed as a truly great guitar player. The unusual thing is that the guitar playing never gets in the way of the music, nor overshadows his gift for hauntingly poetic songwriting. As a live performer Lang is only satisfied when something truly inspired takes place. This restless striving for the sublime pays great dividends for audiences that join him for the ride.
Email:
CDs: www.jefflang.com.au
Listening to the ball wrenching vocal performance of Dallas' debut solo recording, Acoustic Slide Groove, can give you a good indication of why she is where she is today.
Dallas comes from a background of singing with roots bands. She began singing at the Saphire Coast town of Pambula, N.S.W, with some friends jamming. Re-locating back to her stomping ground, (North East Victoria), she worked rotating 12 hour shifts as a Lab. Technician for nearly 6 years on and off in her home town of Wangaratta. In almost solitary confinement for 12 hours a day, she learnt to sing by listening to vocalists on the small transitor radio in the lab.
Frasca's distinctive, gutsy, heart-felt vocal style is of uncommon strength and her finger pickin / slide guitar grooves are earning her respect from fellow musicians and been wowing crowds all over Australia in the past few months. In just six months she has achieved more than most musicians could hope for in a lifetime.
Email:
CDs: www.dallasfrasca.com
Bob Brozman Today
Redefining musical diversity worldwide, Bob Brozman is a remarkably prolific artist whose wit, energy, and musical technique combine powerfully to create an unforgettable live performance. A master of slide, fingerstyle, and percussive guitar, Bob's exhilarating show spans the global and musical spectrum, and keeps audiences enthralled, begging for more of his endearing, infectious energy.
Bob's familiarity with diverse world music cultures produces a novel blending of rhythmic and timbral influences, unparalleled in today's musical environment. His rhythmic dexterity resonates with elements of blues, jazz, Gypsy swing, calypso, sega, and even the most modern hip-hop and ska beats.
Email:
CDs: www.bobbrozman.com
Jan can best be described as Australia's "Queen of the boogie woogie piano." Her stunning ability as a boogie, honky tonk and ragtime piano player, is matched by a richly resonant voice and a joyful and communicative stage personality.
Jan is enormously popular on the festival circuit, having played more than 40 festivals throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Europe in the past 3 years. She has won 4 Best Female Blues Artist and Blues Artist of the Year Awards, is a regular ABC and RNZ radio performer, and has sold out concerts from the tip of Australia to the very South of New Zealand in main centres and tiny regional towns.
Jan has a way of fully engaging the audience in her shows, and her mastery of the boogie woogie, barrelhouse and honky tonk piano style, leaves listeners in raptures.
Email:
CDs: www.janpreston.com
When the house is rockin' with the big horn section and Cowan's soulful vocals and keyboards are right out front, this is killer stuff.
(Jeff Glorfeld - The Age Entertainment Guide)
His songs and style reach back into the very heart of Blues and Soul. Cowan shows himself to be a great songwriter and musician.
(Ed Nimmervoll - Music Australia Guide Magazine)
One of Australia's most experienced and talented singer/songwriter/pianists in the Soul-Blues idiom, Andy has been described justifiably as the "King of the Keys". He ripples, rolls and rocks through original compostitions with passionate and soulful vocals, wrapping the audience in his energy and weaving an emotional and spellbinding magic. Andy has evolved into a refined and sophisticated songwriter/performer, arriving at his music after a long and winding journey - the resulting confidence, maturity and taste are well earned and deeply embedded.
Andy's musical career began in Melbourne, Australia, growing up in a household surrounded by music. Following classical piano studies, he began exploring improvisation, and absorbing musical ideas from soul, blues, and folk artists developing his very own signature style that has matured over time.
In his late teens Andy played and recorded with many well-known Australian and overseas musicians, as well as piano and keyboard arrangements on many film scores - including the cult movie Stone .
Email:
CDs: www.andycowan.com.au
James Southwell
James was asked up to play with Kevin Borich, Phil Manning and Aussie Legend rhythm section Mark Kennedy & Harry Brus when he was 13. A year later he was asked up on stage to play with Chain and Phil Manning handed the lead over for James to play the solo on Black & Blue. His first album, “DARK ANGEL”, was recorded at Kevin Borich's studio in December 2005. Mark Kennedy, Harry Brus & Kevin played on Dark Angel. Phil Emmanuel & Mal Eastick featured on the cover of Stevie Wright’s “GUITAR BAND”.
Since the release of Dark Angel by MGM in June 2006, the James Southwell Band has been in constant demand playing almost 200 shows all over Australia including Major Festivals, Blues Clubs, Dedicated Music Venues as well as Pubs & Clubs from the top of WA all the way down to the bottom of TAS. During 2006 James also played three shows with Angry Anderson as lead guitarist and two for Stevie Wright.
In 2007 JSB has a 70 show “ROCK’N THE BLUES” National Tour with 21 of these show in WA alone, playing Headline shows for both the Perth Blues Club & West Coast Blues Club. 2008 is looking great for JSB with an All Star line up Headlining the Entertainment at SUMMERNATS 21 in Jan. Then it's off to this festival at THREDBO.
Email:
CDs: www.myspace.com/jamessouthwell
Jim Hocking
Jimi Hocking is a songwriter, singer and guitarist of the highest calibre. He struts the stage playing his showy guitar style while pulling all the classic stunts... behind the head... the duck walk... even the splits! Always working on multiple recording projects, Jimi’s 10th album as far back as 2006 was a re-make of his first independent acoustic album, featuring all new recordings of original songs and bonus tracks. Look forward to the current projects and tracks Jimi has for Thredbo in 2008.
Email:
CDs: www.jimihocking.com
Phil Manning
A founder and continuing member of the now legendary ‘Chain’, Phil Manning has long been regarded as the most effective blues guitarist produced in this country as well as a fine session player. (Chain are the only blues band to ever have a number one (‘Black’n’Blue’), they also had a number two (‘Judgment’).
As well as headlining his own shows he has toured with a remarkable number of artists including Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Albert Collins, Freddie King and dozens of others to the most recent Doobie Brothers Down Under Tour this year.
Tours of Ireland, UK and New Zealand in recent years have begun to reveal his original take on blues/roots music to a much wider audience. Manning received great radio accolades from the south of the USA to the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Israel, Portugal and Italy.
Phil Manning is best witnessed in live performance. It is here the sheer artistry of his work shines through & it is for this his audience loves him. “…an Australian national treasure…can play the hell out of an acoustic instrument so good that it leaves you breathless…” – Folk Roots magazine, U.K.
Email: philman_rid@bigpond.com
CDs: www.philmanning.com.au
The Others
In the world of Rock’n Roll, surviving 10 years is unusual, 20 years is a massive feat, but to keep going for as long as The Others have is staggering, to say the least! Ahead of their time, The Others were strutting their original stuff while most of their contemporaries were simply mimicking whatever style was in vogue at the time. For more than 40 years the band have played all around the country, in cities
and towns, stadiums, pubs, clubs and dives with a consistent enthusiasm and obvious passion for their craft. The Others have always done things their way and this independence and self belief still shines through.
Email:
CDs: www.theothers.com.au
Harry Brus Band
Dr. Harry Brus, the phenomenal bass player who has shared the stage with the likes of Jeff St John, Blackfeather, Kevin Borich, Matt Taylor's, Russell Morris, Leo Sayer, Renee Geyer, Chain and the Foreday riders to name but a few returns again to Thredbo this year with his own band.
Email:
CDs: www.myspace.com//harrybrus
Ray Beadle and his Band
Ray Beadle and his band are a regular on the Australian Blues Festival Circuit and has played at premier venues such as The Basement in Sydney. Ray incorporates his own style of jump/blues with many popular swing tunes. Chris Cain has said, “Ray is unquestionably one of the finest musicians I have come across. His song writing has a harmonic and emotional depth that many strive for but few capture. Ray’s guitar works well, lets just say this cat is VERY dangerous.”
Email:
CDs: www.myspace.com/raybeadle
Ward’s Xpress
Ross Ward’s on-stage career began in the late sixties, and as a young professional side-man he played both bass and guitar behind many of the era’s leading artists and bands. Ross, and his brother Warren, formed the band ‘Stonehenge’ with Nigel Macara (drums) and guitarist Tim Gaze, also something of a child prodigy himself at age sixteen. In 1995, Ross moved to the Byron Shire on the far north coast of NSW, and set about establishing himself in the area as an acoustic-based soloist, before hitting the road solidly from 2000 onwards, presenting both his band, Ward’s Xpress, and his solo music along much of the east coast. The idea for the band WARD’S XPRESS was first conceived during the 1995 East Coast Blues Festival, when a number of Byron Bay musicians were drafted to form the backing band for the Bentley/Reed Blues Review. After subsequent festival appearances as lead guitarist for the Blues Review, Ross Ward formed Ward’s Xpress The players: Ross Ward, Guitar,vocals, Greg Lyon, Bass Guitar, Steve Russell, Keyboards, Dave Sanders, Drums.
Email:
CDs: www.rossward.com
Pete Cornelius Band
The boys have toured extensively in Australia and performed at all the major Festivals. The band also toured the USA playing at The Prairie Dog Blues Festival in Wisconsin, Eddy Clearwaters " Reservation Blues " Chicago, " The Slippery Noodle " Indianapolis, " House of Blues " Chicago, plus various shows in and around Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas and then rounded out the first tour with a performance at the Official Harley Davidson 100 year celebrations at Guse's City Hall Milwaukee.
Pete Cornelius and the DeVilles have also released three full length albums. "Live@Narooma" which was recorded at the 1999 Great Southern Blues and Rockabilly Fest when Pete was just 15 years old. "Gotta' Live" released in 2001 received many rave reviews, national awards and international airplay. The boys also recorded "Freerange" in a matter of a few days with Steve Arvey (USA), released in 2005. Their new album "Creatures of the Night" is now avaliable. .
Pete Cornelius also performs solo acoustic at shows all around Australia and in the UK and US. Make sure to catch the band at Thredbo.
Email:
CDs: www.petecornelius.com
Kate Meehan & Skip Landy
Kate Meehan is one of the most powerful blues singers on the Australian scene. She has recorded three albums of classic and original blues, and has earned acclaim and awards for the quality of her singing and song writing. Recently she has turned to the great American songbook revisiting songs discovered in her childhood but now more thoroughly explored with the accompaniment of Skip Landy’s piano.
Skip Landy has been playing piano in bands since the 1970s. His main influences come from the great New Orleans rhythm and blues piano players and this can now be heard in the style that he and Kate have fused into their current repertoire as a premier blues duo. Collectively they mix up boogies and second line shuffles as well as providing pin dropping moments with exquisite ballads.
Email:
CDs: www.katemeehanandskiplandy.com
Kerri Simpson Band
Kerri Simpson's newest project "knockin at the backdoor” follows her highly succesful "Sun Gonna Shine" CD, her sixth independent release in ten years. The new CD features long term musical associates Dean Addison, Ron Tabuteau, Mark Grunden, Ray Pereira and Ben Grayson. "Sun Gonna Shine " featured Kerri's sultry soulful blues, field hollers, chants and gospel delving back into the rythmns of Africa and the deep south. The album spent nine weeks in the alternative roots music charts and in 2005 Kerri won the National Female Blues Performer of the Year Award and Chicago radio station WRMN aired an hour long special on her music. Kerri’s career goes well back into the 90’s taking in performances all over the World.
Email:
CDs: www.kerrisimpson.com
David Churchill
David Churchill is one of Australia's leading steel string flat top guitar makers, established over 30 years. All guitars are hand built by David Churchill, using only aged timbers and specializing in cedar tops with Indian rosewood back and sides. Used and played by some of Australia's finest musicians such as Jeff Lang, Darren Jack, David Ross Macdonald (Waifs), Hat Fitz, Adam Hole, Matt Fagan, Ray Beadle, Don Neander, Shannon Bourne.
Email:
CDs:
Marji Curran Band
The Marji Curran Trio formed in 2004. Marji Curran and Adam Hole had been performing with various musicians for a while, but when Phoebe Juskevics joined them on drums and percussion the combination meshed perfectly into the unique sound that they have today. Marji has been wowing audiences up and down the East Coast of Australia. Her Trio deliver songs with a powerful edge and an engaging stage chemistry that is luring crowds across Australia. The Trio connects with each other when they play and this dynamic feel and spontaneity is projected to the audience leaving them feeling at one with the music.
Marji’s music has been described as mesmerizing with a voice that is both angelic yet powerful. Her songs are given an edgy, punchy feel with Adams slide playing and stomp box, and Phoebes drums and percussion add a raw tribal layer to top it all off. If you are after roots and blues that is original, raw and unique then The Marji Curran Trio are for you!
Email:
CDs: axeplayer.freepgs.com/marji/html/index.php
Steve Edmonds Band
Playing guitar professionally for two decades, Steve has gained a reputation as one of Sydney's most exciting and fresh "axe" men. Coming from a deep musical background, his professional playing stints with many of the country's top live and recording artists has secured his position as one of the more talented and reliable session players, sidemen and performing artists to date. He has played overseas throughout Asia on numerous occasions, including a three month residency in Manila.
Studying privately under many tutors including the late Ike Isaacs, Rob Brice (B.M.Ed) and Phil Emmanuel, Steve continues to progress as a contributing musician.
The good news is The Steve Edmonds band is back and working in TRIO form and packing in more great guitar and funky groove into the set than ever before! With a set full of HENDRIX, STEVIE RAY, ROBBEN FORD, ROBERT JOHNSON, ERIC CLAPTON and featuring "unplugged acoustic' and Slide Guitar tunes, the Steve Edmonds Band is finally in its own spotlight.
Email:
CDs: www.steveedmundsband.com
Mojo Webb Band
Utterly fresh and unique but steeped in the tradition of real, authentic blues, Mojo's music is truly world-class. Equally at home with a band or in solo performance, Mojo has a rare singing talent. People stop and stare when Mojo starts singing. "Where the hell did you get that voice from?" is a very common question put to him!
Having lived and studied all styles of blues guitar full-time for almost twenty years, he uses what he's learned from all those years of smoky, heartfelt gigs to create sounds that perfectly mesh with his voice and his often explosive performance style. Gut-wrenchingly self-therapeutic, he cries, shouts, laughs and boasts his way into the souls of his crowds.
A very accomplished, first-rate blues harmonica player in the tradition of Chicago's golden blues era, Mojo puts all his unique phrasing and feeling into this demanding instrument. Drums, bass and saxophone also sit in Mojo's resume. Check out his album "The Burden" - Mojo plays every instrument on the entirely self-penned fourteen-song collection!
Email:
CDs: www.mojowebb.com
|
