Blues Fest

Program 2011

The 20th annual New York State Blues Festival kicks off on Friday, July 8, at 5 p.m. with rides, games, food, beer and of course music, running through late Sunday, July 10. The Inner Harbor, located at the intersection of West Kirkpatrick and Solar streets, will have two stages facing each other across the grass, parallel to the dock and water. The New Times Stage will be near the bridge and the Dinosaur Bar- B-Que Stage will stand closer to Solar Street.

While the entire weekend is free, you can purchase VIP Blues Club Tickets for $60. Tickets allow holders access to a VIP tent area, food, beer, a T-shirt, the opportunity to rub shoulders with festival artists and a chance to support the festival, which welcomes contributions.

Coolers, alcoholic beverages, glass containers, grills, tents, unauthorized recording, skateboarding, unattended children, weapons and pets are not allowed at the fest. Lawn chairs, blankets, sunglasses, sunscreen, bug repellent, binoculars, “Lost Kid” I.D. tags for small children and designated drivers are all encouraged. For more information, visit www. nysbluesfest.com.

Get the Inner Harbor Blues Friday, July 8

Funky Blu Roots

New Times Stage: 5-6 p.m.

This Pompano Beach, Fla.-based funky blues rockin’ quartet released its sophomore album, Owasco Highball (Independent), in May. Songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Mikal Serafim, his wife, Auburn native Nancy Giannone on bass guitar, sax player Dave Prince and trumpet player Jason Rozner will be joined by Central New York friends for the Blues Fest set. Guests include drummer David Olson (two-time Grammy Awardwinner when he was with the Robert Cray Band); area blues legend, harmonica wizard and host of the long-running Sunday Night Blues on WAER-FM 88.3, Tom Townsley and percussionist Steve Reichlen (Mutron Warriors) who all appeared on Owasco Highball. Rochester recording studio owner and producer, Steve McNally will also join the band on Hammond B3 organ. The Funky Blu Roots will be making their way through CNY to Auburn, LaFayette, Oswego, Constantia, Skaneateles, Geneva, Sylvan Beach and more throughout the summer to promote Owasco Highball.

Mojo Myles Mancuso

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 6-7 p.m.

Mojo Myles Mancuso has been performing live since age 10. Now all of 15, Mancuso is a nationally recognized prodigy who fronts his own band, singing and playing guitar and key boards.

He’s been billed in New York City as “New York’s Youngest Working Bandleader.” In 2010 Mancuso played at one of the largest festivals in the country, Mountain Jam, and recorded a CD in Woodstock, N.Y., at Applehead Studios, where John Mayer also recorded some of his earliest tracks.

Along with his guitar playing, his organ and keyboard work have earned him an award at the Berklee College of Music along with a number of guest appearances with Grammynominated artists such as Slam Allen (James Cotton’s guitar player and lead vocalist on the 2010 nominated CD Giant (Alligator Records). Allen and Mancuso have joined for special performances on a number of occasions with Mancuso on organ and Allen on guitar and vocals. “This is a young man with some gifted hands,” Allen says of Myles’ abilities. His sound has been referred to as “rockin’ rhythm and soul,” and an updated funk-rock twist on a traditional American sound.

Sid Bernstein, best known as the promoter who brought The Beatles to America, said in an interview while promoting a show that featured Mancuso in New York City, “Myles is a bona fide prodigy who will thrill and captivate an audience.” The late guitar legend Les Paul said after playing with Mancuso, “He reminds me of myself when I was a young boy.” Levon Helm of The Band, who Mancuso has performed with often, said, “He may be a boy but he sure plays like a man.”

The Dana Fuchs Band

New Times Stage: 7-8:30 p.m.

Dana Fuchs arrived in New York City alone and broke at age 19. After her sister and first musical mentor, Donna, committed suicide, Fuchs made the wake-up call her motivation to reconnect with her passion for music and began hitting local blues jams with a vengeance. It was at one of these jams that she met Jon Diamond, an established New York City guitarist who had toured with Joan Osborne and Debbie Davies. Immediately recognizing a musical chemistry, they formed the Dana Fuchs Band.

She and Diamond began writing intensively, putting together a solid body of original songs. Not long afterward the producers of the off-Broadway hit Love, Janis, hearing raves about Fuchs from various cast and crew members, asked her to come in for an audition. Fuchs went in, sang a few bars of “Piece of My Heart” and, on the spot, was offered and accepted the role of Janis Joplin. Playing Janis four nights a week garnered Fuchs a whole new audience.

The songs she and Diamond wrote can be heard on the band’s debut CD, Lonely For A Lifetime (Q&W Music), which was released in 2003. Drawing from influences ranging from 1960s Stax/Volt rhythm’n’blues, Lucinda Williams and The Rolling Stones; Lonely for A Lifetime hints, lyrically, at Tom Waits and Bob Dylan. In 2007 she released the CD Live In NYC (Pepper/AKR). Her newest release, Love To Beg (Ruf Records), was issued this year.

The Super Delinquents

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 8:30-9:30 p.m.

Bringing blues, funk and roots together in tight-knit jams, The Super Delinquents find their place on the Blues Festival stage. With Michael DeLaney on guitar and vocals, Peter Cappelli on bass, Elizabeth Strodel on drums and vocals, former Kingsnake Pete McMahon on harmonica and vocals and Gerry Neely on organ and piano, the group’s mix of experience and talent makes for a compelling chemistry.

The group came together when DeLaney, Capelli and Strodel, who were playing as The Delinquents, saw McMahon perform at the 2009 Blues Fest with the Roosevelt Dean tribute. At the time McMahon was playing with Neely, both of whom decided to join the Delinquents to form The Super Delinquents. Contrary to the chaotic connotation of their name, the group’s grooves are smooth, laidback and a perfect local complement to the 2011 Blues Festival.

Hadden Sayers

New Times Stage: 9:30-10:45 p.m.

The cliché is to get successful, get money, get chicks, get drugs, get arrested and lose everything. Get a tattoo, get a facelift, get a new direction, get a book deal about recovery and get Jesus. Be welcomed back as a role model.

Texas blues troubadour Hadden Sayers didn’t follow the usual script. In 2004, Sayers was a successful musician in Houston.

Despite record labels that made impossible demands and deals that fell through Sayers plowed on, releasing his own records independently and playing 200 shows a year. But without the assistance of booking agencies, Sayers’ itinerary dwindled to less than 20 shows in 2006. Further, his uncle, Rick Frye, the band’s drummer, died after a performance in Virginia and other events combined to leave Sayers stung, discouraged and hurting.

He turned his back on music, left his Strat at home and moved to southern Ohio. But while there, an unlikely friendship with a retired stonemason revived Sayers’ resolve; he began writing and recording again and received a call from Grammy-nominated vocalist Ruthie Foster, who was looking for a guitarist. Sayers immediately began writing songs with Foster in mind. Their duet “Back to the Blues” became the cornerstone of Sayers’ new album, Hard Dollar (Blue Corn Music), released on June 21. The singer, songwriter, guitarist comes to Blues Fest with gritty, passionate songs backed by Mark Frye on bass, Tony McClung on drums and Dave DeWitt on keys.

Saturday, July 9

Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 1-2 p.m.

Country-blues singer-guitarist Erin Harpe moved from Washington, D.C., to Boston, where her Memphis Minnie influences got mixed up with some electro-booty-shakin’ attitude. Then came the solid bass of Jim Countryman, tasty drums and eerie vocal harmonies of Bob Nisi and the electrified sounds of longtime Boston harp dog Richard “Rosy” Rosenblatt. The result?

They call it Charles River Delta Blues, which combines delta soul and spirit with Boston’s rich blues heritage while bringing it to the 21st century. Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers have already made waves, including winning the 2010 Boston Blues Challenge, getting a Boston Music Award nomination for Blues Artist of the Year, as well as having the honor of opening for blues legends Honeyboy Edwards and James Cotton. The band has just returned from the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn., where they made it to the semifinals, and are currently working on their debut album.

Harpe is the daughter of bluesman Neil Harpe, who was her first teacher. As a teenager, she began performing as a solo artist at folk festivals, coffeehouses, bars and parties, where she honed her sparse renditions of vintage blues songs. Since moving to Boston in the late 1990s, she has performed at venues such as the original House of Blues, the Middle East and Harpers Ferry, and done far-flung festival dates in New York state and Austin, Texas. Harpe released two acoustic blues albums, her debut Blues Roots (Juicy Juju Records) and Delta Blues Duets (Juicy Juju Records), which have received rave reviews and airplay across the United States, Europe and Japan.

Ben Prestage

New Times Stage: 2-3:30 p.m.

Ben Prestage’s musical background began before he was born. . . even before his parents were born. His great-grandmother was a vaudeville musician who toured with Al Jolson. Her daughter—his grandmother—was a boogie-woogie pianist and painter who played for Prestage when he was growing up. On the other side of the family tree, his grandfather, a Mississippi sharecropper, turned Prestage on to the sounds and culture of Mississippi and the blues in general.

In his early teens, Prestage was introduced to the banjo by a neighbor and heard bluegrass music for the first time. He learned how to finger-pick and became fascinated with the instrument. Later while living in Memphis, Tenn., Prestage became a busker (street performer) on historic Beale Street. This is where he perfected his drum kit.

“I played out there a few times with nothing but a guitar and my voice. Once people heard me they liked it, but it was hard to get them on my side of the street with all the other music going on down there. There were some other guys out there who played drums with their feet, and they always got people’s attention. I started playing drums with my feet as an attention-grabber but soon found out that the drums played with foot pedals actually enhanced my music dramatically. Not only were people listening and buyin’ discs, they were now dancing and hollerin’ to boot. Now I am to the point where, if you close your eyes, you would think there was a professional drummer with a full-size drum kit behind me.”

Prestage returned to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge, the world’s largest gathering of blues musicians, and in three consecutive years he took fourth, third and second place. He is also the only two-time recipient of the Lyon/Pitchford Award for Best Diddley-Bow Player. His interesting approach to instrumentation with finger-style guitar, harmonica, banjo, lap-steel, fiddle, resonator guitar, foot-drums and vocals, and his awardwinning original songwriting have earned him invitations to perform across North America, Europe and as far as North Africa.

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Mike Roberts

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 3:30-4:30 p.m.

Mike Roberts was 13 when he scavenged through his basement to find his father’s old Les Paul guitar. Within the first few moments after taking that guitar out of its case he realized what his life would become. Just a year after he started playing he hit the local music scene. He sold out bars and clubs and started gigging frequently around the Syracuse area.

Roberts spent afternoons and evenings practicing, listening and studying the music of blues and rock legends such as B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Duane Allman, Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall II, Jimi Hendrix and Derek Trucks. Amazed with the soul of the old blues and roots music, but moved by the power of 1960s-era rock, he would soon manufacture his own sound compiling all of these influences.

The year 2009 saw the creation of The Mike Roberts Band, consisting of brothers Brett and Corey Hobin, the sons of 1970s local rock icon Todd Hobin. The band’s first self-titled EP was produced over the summer of 2009 for release on iTunes and later received a Syracuse New Times Syracuse Area Music Award (Sammy) nomination for Best Rock Album.

Roberts attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston for three semes ters before taking a leave after he found success with sound engineering. Now 18 and owner of Mike Roberts Audio, he is staying busy recording and mixing for a long list of artists on many major recording labels. Playing with the band is still very much a passion for Roberts, which is why he makes sure to have the best musicians behind him. Added to the original blues trio is Erika DeSocio on lead and background vocals, as well as Mike Frisina sharing his talents on guitar, keyboards and vocals. The expanded band is packed with energy, and ready for Blues Fest.

JW-Jones

New Times Stage: 4:30-6 p.m.

The 29-year-old JW-Jones brings energy and excitement to his live shows, which have taken him from the United States to Canada, Europe, Australia and Brazil. He’s been called “one of this country’s top blues guitar stars” and has played with artists including The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Little Charlie & The Nightcats, Rod Piazza, Anson Funderburgh with Sam Myers, The Mannish Boys and the legendary Hubert Sumlin.

His new record Midnight Memphis Sun (Ruf Records) features Hubert Sumlin and Charlie Musselwhite, while past CDs have had world-class musicians David “Fathead” Newman, Little Charlie Baty, Junior Watson, Colin James and multi-Grammy nominee Kim Wilson, who appears on two discs and produced My Kind of Evil (NorthernBlues Music) in 2004.

Their music has garnered radio play worldwide and features on shows such as the internationally syndicated House of Blues Radio Hour. The musicians that tour with Jones—Jeff Asselin on drums and the heavy grooves of Jesse Whiteley on organ—add a powerful energy to the stage.

The buzz this band has created over the last decade has earned them a national award, the Maple Blues Award for Electric Act of the Year, and rave reviews throughout the globe.

2 Kool 4 Skool

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 6-7 p.m.

2 Kool 4 Skool is a five-piece collaboration of musicians playing an eclectic blend of classic and contemporary rhythm’n’blues and New Orleans funk. With some of the best classic rock standards sprinkled in, always in a very refreshing way. Collectively the group has worked with Central New York musicians including Bernie Clarke and the Rhythm Sharks, The Melons, The Critics, Roosevelt Dean, The Swivel Rockers, Tom Townsley and the Backsliders and Built for Comfort among others. 2 Kool 4 Skool consistently amps up the excitement of their shows and communicates effectively with the crowd to create an interactive experience for both the musicians and listeners alike.

Bryan Lee

New Times Stage: 7-8:30 p.m.

Muddy Waters once told Bryan Lee, “Bryan, stay with this. One day you’re going to be a living legend.” Lee’s reaction? “I went home and cried.”

Lee has become one of the most recognizable modern blues players. He lost his eyesight at age 8, but persisted in learning the blues. He began playing guitar at 13 and listened avidly to the blues on AM radio, but often found himself unwelcome in the blues community.

Promoters weren’t used to seeing a white man play the music.

“I’m a blind person, I don’t see any color,” Lee says. “I got drawn to this music by the feeling, not by the color of somebody’s skin. Attitudes have changed. Now I go up to Chicago. . . and I pack the house. And it’s a good feeling.”

Lee’s lack of one sense has heightened others, including his ability to focus and hone his skills as a blues artist. He says, “I can focus deeper. I don’t have any physical distractions. That’s the grace of God. Yes, I don’t have eyesight, but the good Lord gave me the gift of music and I run into a lot of people that are emotionally blind. Eyesight or insight, it’s kind of an easy choice to make.”

Mark Doyle and The Maniacs

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 8:30-9:30 p.m.

When an artist as acclaimed as Mark Doyle decides to focus his musical energy in one direction, you’d anticipate a major force as the result and there’s no disappointment here. The clarity of his focus on the British blues era of the 1960s that took him from jazz and classical piano to the electric guitar resonates deeply and drives The Maniacs.

With a stellar lineup featuring some of the area’s most respected and accomplished musicians, including Frank DeFonda on drums and percussion, Michael P. Ryan on bass and vocals and Terry Quill on harmonica, guitar and vocals, this outfit is downright armed and should be considered dangerous. As Doyle has said, “I couldn’t have surrounded myself with a better band.”

With the metronome-like timing of DeFonda driving the band combined with Ryan’s rumbling bass lines, they create a springboard for Doyle to dive into his signature solos. Quill’s guitar and harmonica help color the scheme punctuated by Ryan, Doyle and Quill, combining to create some solid blues.

Doyle’s uncompromising fluidity changes gears from slow and easy to straight technical speed, fast as lightning, dirty and driven and back to clean and crisp throughout the tunes. Together this band rocks, rolls, directs, produces, cajoles and expects you to respond.

Magic Slim and the Teardrops

New Times Stage: 9:30-10:45 p.m.

Singer and guitarist Magic Slim holds a special place in New York State Blues

Festival history as the headliner of the first festival way back in 1991 and is a living blues legend who migrated from the South to Chicago during the 1940s. Slim plays raw, intense blues, a style that uses no pedals on the floor.

Slim has been busy traveling from the juke joints in Mississippi to the nightclubs in Chicago and to concert stages throughout the world. He has built up a die-hard fan base and with his release Raising The Bar (Blind Pig), he’s received immensely positive reviews and overwhelming recognition. Slim and The Teardrops’ performances have become legendary as they play the blues with an undeniable intensity.

“If you want to play the blues, play the blues; if you don’t feel the blues, leave it alone,” he says, “’cause you can’t be playin’ it if you don’t feel it.”

Sunday, July 10

Danielle Miraglia

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 1-2 p.m.

Raised just outside of Boston in Revere, Mass., Miraglia grew up listening to a variety of popular music, from her parents’ Motown records to classic rock influences like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and that led her to learn to play guitar at 13. A passion for the arts and an outstanding gift for writing led her to Emerson College in Boston. After graduating with a degree in creative writing, she put her writing skills, originally intended for novels, toward songs and began performing at open mike nights in the Boston area.

This set in motion what would become a fulltime career in music.

In 2001, she released her debut EP Bad Poetry (independent), followed by Just Wrong Enough (Silent G) in 2002. From there, the songs poured out and the gigs flowed in. Since 2002 she has headlined some of the most renowned blues and folk music venues in Boston and toured major cities from North to South and beyond, while earning street cred busking the streets of Harvard Square.

On her latest release, Nothing Romantic (7not Records), the songs range from heartfelt as in “Moment by Moment,” a gospel-like promise to live in the present, to thoughtprovoking as in “You Don’t Know Nothin’,” which Jon Sobel of Blogcritics.com describes as “One of the best new folk songs I’ve heard in years.”

Dave Fields

New Times Stage: 2-3 p.m.

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and producer Dave Fields mixes his Southern upbringing with his famous father—virtuoso pianist and world-renowned producer, arranger and composer, Sammy “Forever” Fields— in his music. Influences drawing from 1950s rock’n’roll, Broadway, jazz and more all find their way into Fields’ eclectic music.

Although Fields had an immediate love of Jimi Hendrix and guitar, his father was sure to provide his son with piano lessons, starting when he was 8. As a result, Fields mastered both keys and strings and began playing with his father when he was 15. At 16 he composed his first big band score. He went on to study performance and composing-arranging at Berklee School of Music in Boston.

Fields moved to Manhattan following his education and focused on arranging, composing, producing and playing in the studios for several labels and began mastering Dobro, steel guitars, mandolin, drums and Hammond B-3 organ. He performed with U2, founded Fields Music Services in 1996 and has since performed with Hubert Sumlin, Richie Havens and Aretha Franklin.

Fields recorded Time’s A Wastin’ (FMI Records) in 2007 and All Wound Up (FMI Records) in 2008. His emotional and intense sets show off his experience and talent as a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist and make for an exceptional live show.

Corn-Bred

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 3:30-4:30 p.m.

Corn-Bred, Curtis Waterman on harmonica and vocals, Jerome Lazore on guitar and vocals, John “J.B.” Buck on bass and vocals, and Todd Minard on drums, hails from the Onondaga Nation, with Morris Tarbell on guitar and vocals representing the Mohawk Nation. This means that they are Central New York’s only all-Native American blues band.

The group started in 1999 with a slightly different lineup, they switched drummers four years ago, and practiced for at least a year before securing their first gig at Molly’s Place in Syracuse. They had such an immense turnout, the venue was filled to capacity, and the band was quickly invited back.

The group has performed at New York state casinos, president Bush’s Inaugural Ball, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Harley-Davidson 100th anniversary party, Iron Workers Union Local 60 100th anniversary gala, past local blues festivals and the Syracuse New Times Sammy Awards. They have also opened for such national recording artists as The Beach Boys, Diamond Rio, Jana, Martha Redbone and Los Lobos.

Peter Karp & Sue Foley

New Times Stage: 4:30-6 p.m.

Peter Karp and Sue Foley each built successful solo careers before they teamed up and released one of the top blues albums of 2010, He Said, She Said (Blind Pig). Karp is an articulate roots-blues artist with two fine solo albums to his credit, while Foley is a renowned female blues artist with nine solo albums on her discography. The project is based on correspondence the two shared through letters that were written over a year. These letters started as a casual exchange between two committed performers sharing their common bond of loneliness on the road, the pain of separation from family and home, and the drive to make music. As time went on the letters became more poignant and revealing. They were each working on solo albums when they saw merit in the letters as songs and decided to record them together. The results are He Said, She Said.

Whether they’re performing as an acoustic duo or with their electric band, the music encompasses elements of folk, jazz, flamenco and blues, resulting in a show that is romantic, rocking and exciting.

Jose Alvarez with Los Blancos

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 6-7 p.m.

Alvarez moved to Syracuse from Mexico City in the mid-1990s. He joined Roosevelt Dean and The Spellbinders and played on the albums Live At The Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (Z- K Records) and Blues Heaven (Z-K Records). He studied with Ronnie Earl and appears on three of Ronnie’s albums, Eye To Eye (Audioquest Records), I Feel Like Goin’ On (Stony Plain) and Now My Soul (Stony Plain). In 1997, Alvarez, Colin Aberdeen, Steve Winston and Paul Rohrig formed Los Blancos, a band that has transformed over the years and become one of Syracuse’s favorite live acts.

After leaving Los Blancos, Alvarez joined Terrance Simien & The Zydeco Experience, appearing on two albums, Across The Parrish Line (Aim Records) and Live World Wide (Aim Trading Group Pty, Ltd.). Alvarez released his first solo album Diggin’ In (Toluca Rocket Records) backed by Los Blancos in 2010 and the CD was nominated for a Syracuse New Times Sammy in the Best Blues category.

The show promises to bring the usual talent and chemistry of Los Blancos together with Alvarez’s well-traveled and perfected guitar abilities. Between Aberdeen’s honest, bluesy voice, Mark Nanni’s versatility on the keys and the solid bottom by Mark Tiffault and Winston, the depth and experience bursting off the stage is bound to be a festival highlight.

Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience

New Times Stage: 7-8:30 p.m.

Grammy Award-winning Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience will be making their return to the Blues Festival. Bringing his infectious, lively Zydeco/Cajun music to thousands, Simien has performed more than 5,000 concerts in more than 40 countries throughout his 25-year career and still delivers with the same relentless vigor.

Simien was influenced early on by artists including Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and the Meters as well as Zydeco pioneers Chenier, Delafose, Chavis, Ardoin and Fontenot. Simien was only 18 when he began touring and at 20 he was sharing stages with Fats Domino and Sarah Vaughn at the Bern Jazz Festival, after which is career exploded.

His multicultural and boundary-breaking music comes across like a celebration rather than a performance, with beads flying and children often invited to the stage. Simien’s interest in music education is obvious through his various projects including “Creole for Kidz & The History of Zydeco,” a program designed to teach kids about the culture and music and the HBO documentary film The Music in Me: Children’s Recitals from Classi cal

to Latin, Jazz to Zydeco. With seven fulllength albums and dozens of compilations and guest appearances under his belt, Simien’s set is sure to be lively, tight and interactive for listeners young and old.

Soul of Syracuse (SOS)

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage: 8:30-9:30 p.m.

The Soul of Syracuse is an all-star group of Central New York musicians who have come together to help support the New York State Blues Festival. The lineup is multifaceted: guitarist Mark Hoffmann, vocalist Carolyn Kelly, keyboard player Dave Liddy, harpist and vocalist Pete McMahon, keyboardist Gerry Neely, guitarist Phil Petroff, harmonica players and singers Skip Murphy and Tom Townsley, and drummer Lenny Milano. In this case, all-star band may be an understatement.

Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters

New Times Stage: 9:30-10:45 p.m.

When Ronnie Earl, born Ronald Horvath, first began piano lessons at age 10, he quickly rebelled because he hated practicing. But after he picked up a guitar in college and attended a Muddy Waters concert at the Jazz Workshop, a small club in Boston, Earl was ready to catch up with the world musically.

Since then, he’s been recognized as a twotime (1997 and 1999) W.C. Handy Blues Award winner as Guitar Player of the Year, has served as an associate professor of guitar at Berklee College of Music, has played alongside greats including B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner, Otis Rush, Earl King, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, and has established himself as a solo artist and leader of Ronnie Earl and The Broadcasters.

Named after his first Fender guitar, The Broadcasters formed in 1988. The group experienced various lineup and musical changes, including when they became the first completely all-instrumental blues group with the release of Still River (Audioquest Records) in 1993. Amid a busy touring schedule and an extensive recording catalog, the group released The Colour of Love (PolyGram) in 1997, produced by Tom Dowd, known for his work with Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton, and Healing Time (Telarc Distribution) in 2000, which featured “Little” Anthony Geraci (organ and keyboard), Mark Greenberg (drums) and Michael “Mudcat” Ward (bass).

Today Earl plays with Jimmy Mouradian (bass), Dave Limina (organ) and Lorne Entress (drums). New York State Blues Festival guitarist Jose Alvarez will also likely join the stage with Earl and noted in a pre-festival interview, “I think people should come to Blues Fest to hear Ronnie Earl play. He’s one of the few blues masters left with a distinct and unequivocal sound. Ronnie stopped traveling years ago. He’s the kind of artist people travel to; not the other way around. That he is coming to Blues Fest is extremely special.”