_400.jpg) Live Tribute to Honeyboy Edwards
The House of Blues - Boston
Friday, October 8, 2010, 7 PM
Ticket prices are
Regular Seating - $30
VIP tickets $120
(includes VIP Foundation Room,
Buffet, Meet & Greet with the Musicians from 6-7 PM)
directions to The House of Blues Boston
Tickets available at the boxoffice and at the door
and
available online through
LIVENATION ->link: TICKETS
The
Reel Blues Fest, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated
to helping musicians receive access to medical care and to
supporting the work of independent filmmakers. Proceeds from
events will be distributed to eligible 501 (C) (3) organizations
pursuant to the guidelines established by The Reel Blues Fest,
Inc.
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DAVID "HONEYBOY" EDWARDS - Guitar
David "Honeyboy" Edwards (born June 28, 1915) is a Delta blues guitarist and singer from the American South. As of December 2009, Honeyboy Edwards, at age 95, and his close friend Pinetop Perkins (age 97) are the oldest Delta blues players still touring the United States. Edwards received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on January 31, 2010, his second Grammy.
Edwards was born in Shaw, Mississippi. He was a friend to the musician Robert Johnson and claims he was present on the fateful night Johnson drank the poisoned whiskey that took his life. Even though Johnson is usually credited with writing "Sweet Home Chicago," Edwards' website claims that it was he who wrote the song. Folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Edwards in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1942 for the Library of Congress Edwards recorded a total of fifteen album sides of music. The songs included "Wind Howlin' Blues" and "The Army Blues".[2] He did not record again commercially until 1951, when he recorded "Who May Your Regular Be" for Arc Records under the name of Mr Honey. From 1974 to 1977, he recorded material for a full length LP, "I've Been Around", released in 1978 on the independent Trix Records label by producer/ethnomusicologist Peter B. Lowry.
Edwards is still touring the country performing, and is the author of one book, The World Don't Owe Me Nothin', published in 1997 by Chicago Review Press. The book recounts his life from childhood, his journeys through the South and his arrival in Chicago in the early 1950s. A companion CD by the same title was released by Earwig Records shortly afterwards. He has also recorded at a church-turned-studio in Salina, Kansas and released albums on the APO record label. Edwards claims to have written several well-known blues songs including "Long Tall Woman Blues" and "Just Like Jesse James".His discography for the 1950s and 1960s amounts to nine songs from seven sessions.
Edwards is one of the last original delta blues guitarists still performing. In October 2004, the last four original delta blues musicians gathered together in Dallas for a once-in-a-lifetime concert. The line-up consisted of: Honeyboy Edwards, Pinetop Perkins, Henry Townsend, and Robert Lockwood, Jr. But two years later in 2006, Townsend died (aged 96) and Lockwood died (aged 91). Perkins still continues to tour, mainly in the US.
Awards
- 1996: Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame
- 1998: Keeping the Blues Alive Award in literature for The World Don't Owe Me Nothing
- 2002: National Endowment for the Arts, National Heritage Fellowship Award
- 2005: Acoustic Blues-Artist of the Year (26th W.C. Handy Blues Awards)
- 2007: Acoustic Artist of the Year (The Blues Music Awards)
- 2008: Grammy Award; Best Traditional Blues Album for Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas
- 2010: Lifetime Achievement Award, Grammy; Mississippi Governor's Awards For Excellence in the Arts
- 2010: Lifetime Achievement Award, National Guitar Museum
.jpg) His albums White Windows, The World Don't Owe Me Nothin', Mississippi Delta Blues Man, and a recent album in which he appears with Robert Lockwood, Jr., Henry Townsend and Pinetop Perkins, Last Of The Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas, were all nominated for the W. C. Handy Award. The latter album also won a Grammy Award in 2008.
photo: Maurício Saldanha
Link to our Honeyboy Edwards Tribute Site
Our site includes biographical material, a discography with images, and historic photos.
Link to the official Honeyboy Edwards site
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 ROCKY LAWRENCE
The Delta is calling.... Come to the crossroads.... Rocky Lawrence heard that call when he put down his electric guitar, picked up his acoustic and started the odyssey into the songs, music and life of the founding father of Rock & Roll, Mr. Robert Johnson.
Rocky Lawrence had already made a reputation for himself as a brilliant electric blues guitarist on the East Coast and in the Midwest. A student of Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin and Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, Lawrence was no stranger to the blues scene. At the time of his musical rebirth, his band The Rocky Lawrence Project, was one of the top Blues bands in the Northeast.
For three years, fifteen hours a day, seven days a week, Rocky learned and relearned every note, every tuning, every vocal inflection of the fabled 29 songs. At times he almost gave up out of frustration. The songs had to be exact. They had to sound perfect. This was not Rocky's interpretation of the Johnson songbook that so many others had tried before him. These were Robert's songs played and sung as if Robert was alive today sitting on a stool at a Mississippi roadhouse.
After this time Lawrence emerged with the songs and soul of Robert Johnson. To start his task of educating the masses, Rocky played two shows at the Riverfront Blues Festival in Peoria, IL. He stepped on stage; suit, hat and Gibson in hand. When Rocky opened with "Steady Rollin Man" the festival erupted and for the next 70 minutes, thousands of people were swept into the voodoo. The spirit of Robert Johnson had taken over.
Rocky's first CD, "The Songs Of Robert Johnson As Performed By Rocky Lawrence", was recorded in April of 1999 at Highland Grounds in Hollywood, California. The 12 songs featured on the record are bright, clear recreations of the material. This is what Robert would of sounded like had he been recorded today. "If (Rocky Lawrences's) CD could be reissued on a scratchy vinyl album you would think you were listening to something made fifty or sixty years ago. It’s that authentic. This disc is a heartfelt and (dare I say) loving tribute to the music of Robert Johnson. If it was Rocky Lawrence’s goal to learn the intricacies of delta blues then he has succeeded tremendously. The twelve songs on this disc is just Rocky accompanied by only his mid fifties model Gibson LG-1 acoustic guitar." Bill Harriman
Mr. Lawrence currently tours the country educating University students on the historical significance of the Robert Johnson songbook as it relates to the history of popular music worldwide. Using Robert Johnson as the starting point, Mr. Lawrence traces the family tree of music through its triumphant climb over the last 70 years, and then drives the point home with a 60 minute performance that truly says it all. |
THE JAMES MONTGOMERY BAND
The Lineup:
 James Montgomery - Vocals/Harmonica. When blues legend James Montgomery plays the harmonica, he "brings it on home". Whether it's recording with Kid Rock, sitting in with Gregg Allman, or fronting his hot band of thirty years, Montgomery plays with authority. While growing up in Detroit he learned first-hand from the masters - James Cotton, John Lee Hooker, and Jr. Wells - at the legendary "Chessmate." Over the years, he's carried on in the tradition and continues to be a vital presence in Blues as one of the most dynamic performers on the scene.
In 1970, while attending Boston University, Montgomery formed the James Montgomery Band. His inimitable (oh yeah, he majored in English) harmonica playing combined with his incredibly energetic live shows led to the band's quick ascension on the New England music scene. Within two years, the James Montgomery band was among the hottest acts in Boston along with J. Geils and Aerosmith, and they were quickly signed to a multi-album deal with Capricorn Records.
Since that time, James has recorded six albums. His first, "First Time Out" has been remastered and re-released by MRG/Capricorn. Other include "James Montgomery Band" on Island Records which was number nine on Billboard's national playlist, "Duck Fever" with members of the David Letterman Band, "Live Trax," with the Uptown Horns (the Rolling Stones' horn section), and his release on Tone-Cool, "The Oven Is On."
Montgomery has toured with many major artists, including Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, the Allman Brothers, Steve Miller and others. He has jammed on stage with B.B.King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Jr. Wells, James Cotton, Charlie Daniels, Bonnie Raitt, Greg Allman, Laverne Baker, Patti LaBelle, and Peter Wolf among others, including an impromptu session with Mick Jagger at New York's "Trax".
 David Hull - Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals. David Hull is an American bass guitar player. A founding member of the power rock trio Fahrenheit, David has also played with The Buddy Miles Band, Joe Cocker, Ted Nugent. He is notable for being the substitute bass player for Aerosmith during a portion of their 2006 Route of All Evil Tour (from September 5, 2006 to November 29, 2006), while the band's normal bassist Tom Hamilton was absent while recovering from throat cancer. In the early 1980s, Hull was the bassist and background vocalist for The Joe Perry Project, a band formed by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, as well as local Connecticut bands named White Chocolate and later The Dirty Angels. Several of the songs on The Joe Perry Project's albums were co-written by Hull. David brings it like no other.
 George “Guitar” McCann - Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals. George is a longtime member of
the James Montgomery Band. McCann's career stretches back more than 25 years. He's been playing full-time professionally since 1997. You can also catch him on occasion with Wilbur and The Dukes and the Steven Tyler Band. Where other guitar players will wow you with flash and volume, McCann will also win you over with economy. "That's part of the lexicon of the blues," he says. "Otis Rush or Freddie King — whenever you hear them you are reminded of that power of simplicity. I love phrasing. Any musician that has really good phrasing and tells a story, I love that." George will be squeezing out the sparks with
his guitar.
 Seth Pappas - Percussion/Backing Vocals. In the past 25 years, Seth has performed with such stars as Linda Ronstadt, Dicky Betts, John Hartford and Charlie Daniels, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Marvellettes, Little Anthony and The Imperials, and many well-known Boston blues bands, touring extensively in the US and Europe. He has recorded with the Dillards, Earl Scruggs, and Barrence Whitfield and the Savages. He recently received a degree in electrical engineering.
Link to our James Montgomery discography
Link to the official James Montgomery site
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 MIKE CARABELLO - Percussion
Michael Carabello (born November 18, 1947) was one of three percussionists in Santana, along with Michael Shrieve and Jose Areas between 1968 and 1971, during the recording of their first three albums, Santana, Abraxas and Santana III.
In 1998, Michael Carabello was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the latin rock group Santana. |
 MICHAEL FRANK - Harmonica
Michael Frank took up the harmonica and blues record collecting in junior high school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After his college graduation he moved to Chicago to practice social work in child welfare and to meet as many blues musicians as he could. During the course of hanging out in a lot of blues bars, Michael discovered that many blues musicians who had made great records in the past were underrepresented in getting decent musical jobs and in making new records. So, starting in 1973 he began playing the harmonica with David "Honeyboy" Edwards as a duo and in a four piece blue band, managing and booking Honeyboy as well. He also booked and managed guitarist Jim Brewer until Jim died in May, 1989. Starting in 1976, the Honeyboy Edwards Blues Band played numerous Chicago and U.S. clubs, colleges, and festivals. including Elsewhere, B.L.U.E.S., University Of Illinois, and Chicago Blues Festival (three times), as well as festivals in Canada. In 1978, Michael Frank started the Earwig Music Company to record and book underrepresented blues musicians and to assist these artists in furthering their careers. He is a member of the Blues Foundation Advisory Board and the National Academy of Recording Arts And Sciences (NARAS). He is available for lectures on the blues, and on the music business. He holds a Master of Social Work Degree. In 2008 Michael received The Blues Foundation’s Keeping The Blues Alive Award as Artist Manager of Honeyboy Edwards.
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 BRAD WHITFORD - Guitar
Bradley Ernest Whitford (born February 23, 1952) is the rhythm guitarist for the hard rock band Aerosmith. He graduated Reading Memorial High School in 1970. After attending the Berklee College of Music, Whitford played in local bands Symbols of Resistance, Teapot Dome, Earth, Inc., and finally a band called Justin Thyme before joining Aerosmith in 1971, replacing original guitarist Ray Tabano. Aerosmith would go on to be one of the most successful bands of the 1970s. However, following a string of less successful albums in the late 1970s, Whitford left the band in 1981 to work on his own project with singer Derek St. Holmes, simply called Whitford/St. Holmes. Whitford briefly toured with The Joe Perry Project, featuring former Aerosmith band mate Joe Perry, before both Perry and Whitford rejoined Aerosmith in 1984.
Whitford also served as a producer for a well-known Boston band, The Neighborhoods, who were led by a rabid Aerosmith fan, David Minehan. When, in 1994, Whitford was forced to leave unexpectedly in the middle of an Asian tour due to family illness, Minehan was flown to Japan where he performed in Whitford's place for several days until Whitford returned.
In 2010, Whitford was announced as one of the guitarists to take part in the Experience Hendrix tour, playing songs performed and inspired by Jimi Hendrix along with other musicians such as Joe Satriani, Sacred Steel, Jonny Lang, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Ernie Isley, Living Colour, Hubert Sumlin, Chris Layton, and bassist Billy Cox.
Along with fellow Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, Whitford was included in the Guitar World book The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2007.
Links: Brad Whitford on Wikipedia
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 DOUG BELL - Guitar / Ukelele
Doug "The Professor" Bell is a singer-songwriter, plays guitar and ukulele, and he is the front man and bandleader of "Bellevue Cadillac" a band that Doug started in 1991. This band has been performing, recording and touring the world for 19 years. Their music is a mixture of Jazz, Blues, Swing, Soul, and Gospel on top of Rock & Roll.
Doug picked up the guitar and started playing at the age of 11. He has been in many bands including "The Merits" (1966), "Bitter Almond" (1970), "Bigbucks" (1972), and "The Numbers" (1977). When he started out he was a guitarist first, then turned songwriter, then returned to guitar to hone his skills into a lead guitarist.
The Professor was elected president of the "Boston's Blues Society" in 1996 and was the commentator for the Television Premier of A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, which featured Six Strings Down, a song written as a eulogy for Stevie Ray Vaughan. This show featured performances of Stevie Ray Vaughan's music by his brother Jimmie Vaughan and music legends Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Dr. John, Art Neville and others.
To date Doug's Bellevue Cadillac songs have been recorded on 23 CDs, have been used on TV Commercials, 18 Television Shows, used in Motion Pictures, heard in Broadway Plays, turned into digital Karaoke and covered by other music artists. As of 2009 Bellevue Cadillac has songs on 17 Compilation CDs being heard right along with such artists as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Louis Jordan, Sammy Davis Jr., Peggy Lee, Brian Setzer, Joe Jackson, Cab Calloway, Mel Torme, Rita Coolidge, Eva Cassidy, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and many others.
Bellevue Cadillac started in 1991 when Doug Bell was going through a multi-million dollar bankruptcy. The Real Estate empire that Doug worked in was in shambles and Doug had no creative outlet, so he dusted off his guitar and wrote a series of songs about what happens to people when they lose everything. After writing his new songs, he assembled some of his childhood musician friends to bring his songs to life, then he looked for a vocalist who could deliver the true emotion of his heartfelt lyrics.
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THE
UPTOWN HORNS
 The
Uptown Horns (Arno Hecht, Crispin Cioe, Bob Funk and recent
recruit Larry Etkin) are Rayban wearing, horn carrying professionals
whose credits read like a who's who of music. Their signature
horn riffs can be heard on the turntables of America on chart
toppers including Grammy-award winning James Brown's "Living
in America," the B-52's "Love Shack," Buster
Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot, "Joe Cocker's "Unchain
My Heart," Tom Waits' "Rain Dogs" LP, and Billy
Joel's "River of Dreams" LP, among numerous others.
Hundreds of additional recordings and touring credits include
names such as the Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Bruce Springsteen,
Robert Plant, Aretha Franklin, REM and the B-52's, to name a
few.
For nearly 15 years, this autonomous
unit has been revered as one of the most respected brass sections
in the world. Horn groups, on the whole, are an anomaly in the
music industry. "We knew that most horn bands break up
when members take solo projects both on the road and in sessions,"
says Funk. 'We adopted an all for one and one for all mentality."
These four classically trained musicians have outlasted the
few who have tried. Laughs Hecht, "The Uptown Horns are
an anarchist collective and our guiding principles are to make
great music while destroying any sense of law and order."
The original members of the Uptown
Horns converged on the NY session scene in the late 70s: Arno
from NY; Cioe from Michigan; Funk from Colorado; and former
member Paul Litteral from Kentucky. Etkin, a native New Yorker,
worked with The Horns off and on prior to taking over Litteral's
trumpet duties.
As session horn players, their
paths often crossed from one studio to the next. The members
of the Horns often played together on numerous recordings, jingles
and live performances. Their shared influences cover the waterfront
from punk to classical, jazz to rock, blues to avant garde/fusion.
As Chuck Berry says, "These
cats are cool."
Link: The Uptown Horns
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BARRY GOUDREAU
Barry Goudreau has
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 GRACE KELLY - Saxophone
Having studied saxophone since the age of ten, she is rapidly making her way up in the jazz music world. Grace’s talents far outstrip others her age. Now just sixteen, Grace has already recorded and/or performed with many notable musicians including Dave Brubeck, Hank Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Frank Morgan, and Harry Connick, Jr. among others.
Born Grace Chung in 1992 in Wellesley, MA to Korean parents, Grace moved to Brookline, MA when she was two years old with her mother and sister after her parents divorced. Grace’s mother married Robert Kelly in 1997 and adopted her (thus her name became Grace Kelly). She began with classical piano training but soon changed to jazz because she had the propensity not to stick to the notes on the page but wanted to make up her own melodies. Grace wrote her first song “On My Way Home” at age seven.
All public school students in Grace’s hometown are required to choose an instrument and take a year of school-sponsored instruction in fourth grade. Grace chose the clarinet. But she had already gotten hooked on another sound: the warm, almost-human voice of the saxophone. Her mom loved [saxophonist] Stan Getz and would play him at home when they had Sunday brunch. Grace always wanted to play saxophone, but they didn’t let you take it until fifth grade. So halfway through fourth grade she started private lessons on the saxophone. When Grace was 12 she met Ann Hampton Callaway, a renowned cabaret and recording artist and award-winning songwriter. Seeing what Grace had accomplished in -two short years, it is no wonder that when Callaway met Grace she declared that: “her sensitivity, control and focus as an alto saxophonist is impressive. When I played some songs of hers for the legendary drummer Victor Lewis [Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, etc], he said, ‘Wow, I love her sound.’”
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 DESIREE BASSETT
Desireé Bassett (born 1992) is an American rock music guitarist and recording artist. Considered a child prodigy, she has performed alongside mainline performers such as Sammy Hagar, Living Color, the Marshall Tucker Band and members of the Allman Brothers Band. She was named "Best Musician" by Talent America in 2005, has released two studio albums and has performed many times on both coasts of the United States.
Bassett considers herself primarily an instrumental player, citing the influence of Satriani's music on her. In Power & Force II, she sings on just three of the 10 songs — "Another Day," "Never Back Down" and "Love Her."; her third album will feature lyrics in about half of the 13 tracks. In their evaluation of Power & Force, the Russian online music magazine Darkside notes that Bassett's style of play "brings back some echoes of such masters of rock guitar, like Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page."
Bassett attended high school in Ashford, Connecticut, graduating in 2010. She has a brother, Justin and a younger sister Jessica, a multi-talented musician as well who occasionally acts as backup singer. Bassett has stated in interviews that after high school she intends to pursue her college education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts while continuing to perform, though she has applications in at other universities. Bassett also notes a fondness for riding quads and dirt bikes on her family's 12-acre property ever since she was five years old. Bassett owns fifteen guitars, one of which has been signed by Hagar, Satriani, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Anthony, formerly of Van Halen.
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 ERIN HARPE AND THE DELTA SWINGERS
"For those who love early Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, and Rory Block, Erin Harpe is a must! " - Rootstime, Belgium
Locals will know Boston's Erin Harpe as lead singer/guitarist of electro dance sensation LOVEWHIP. Growing up the daughter of Washington DC-area bluesman Neil Harpe, Erin has always performed and had a deep love of the delta blues. Joined by her new band, featuring Jim Countryman on bass (also of Lovewhip) and singing drummer Bob Nisi, Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers’ brand of “Charles River Delta Blues” has been taking off. Whether you fancy yourself a train hoppin’ hobo or a dandy, patrons are encouraged to dress up like the 1930’s and come enjoy some vintage Great Depression-era sounds!.
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VENUE: about THE HOUSE OF BLUES BOSTON
  House of Blues Boston is perfect for live music and dining experiences. In keeping with tradition, House of Blues Boston displays the "Crazy Quilt" and keeps a metal box of mud from the Delta Mississippi underneath its stage. The Boston Foundation Room (see photo below) provides a fireside lounge, sacred Prayer Rooms, elegant dining, and live entertainment.
VIP TICKETS INCLUDE THE BOSTON FOUNDATION ROOM, BUFFET, & MEET AND GREET WITH THE MUSICIANS. MEET AND GREET FROM 6-8 PM. CONCERT BEGINS AT 8 PM
15 Lansdowne Street
Boston, MA 02215
(888) 693-2583 (BLUE)
Direction to the House of Blues
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PHOTOS
photos coming after the event
copyright 2009
The Reel Blues Fest, Inc.
all rights reserved
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POSTER
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The
Reel Blues Fest, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated
to helping musicians receive access to medical care and to
supporting the work of independent filmmakers. Proceeds from
events will be distributed to eligible 501 (C) (3) organizations
pursuant to the guidelines established by The Reel Blues Fest,
Inc.
| For
more information call 508-495-FILM |
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