Line Up
If our line up for the 18th Annual Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival on Sat., May 21, 2011, doesn’t impress or excite you, perhaps a visit to the artists’ Web sites will. Many of their sites feature interviews and sound clips.
Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue
Verve recording artist Troy ‘Trombone Shorty’ Andrews is a rare artist who can draw both the unqualified respect of jazz legends and deliver a high-energy blues and rock show capable of mesmerizing international rock stars and audiences alike. Andrews is the kind of player who comes along maybe once in a generation, and his 2010 release Backatown is the latest, clearest proof that his artistry is as singular as his raw talent.
Raised in New Orleans’ 6th Ward, Troy got his nickname at four years old when he was observed by his older brother James marching in a street parade wielding a trombone twice as long as the kid was high. Equally adept on trombone and trumpet, Andrews plays a variety of other instruments as well. Surrounding Andrews is his band, Orleans Avenue – Mike Ballard on bass, Pete Murano on guitar, Joey Peebles on drums, Dwayne Williams on percussion and Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax – virtuosos every one. Their devastating live performances have earned Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue a rabid and ever-growing following almost entirely by way of word of mouth. Even though we have had roster after roster of great music and musicians at Blind Willie, we think its fair to say that we’ve never had an artist who’s live show is generating so much national and international attention
Troy’s rarefied talents and immense promise inspired the organizers of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to pick him as the subject of the fest’s annual Congo Square official poster. In 2009, at 23, he became the youngest artist ever to be pictured on a poster – the next youngest was Wynton Marsalis, who was featured at age 41. Said Marsalis of Andrews, “Shorty possesses the rarest combination of talent, technical capability and down-home soul. I’m his biggest fan.” High praise indeed!
Marcia Ball
Pianist/vocalist/songwriter Marcia Ball brings an incredible spirit to every concert she plays and every song she records. Her music is mixed with equal parts of simmering soul fervor and two-fisted piano pounding. Between her deeply emotive vocals and her incisive, often poignant songwriting, Ball is in a class by herself. Ms. Ball, a four time GRAMMY Nominee, including her last three albums: Peace, Love & BBQ (2008), Live! Down The Road (2005) and So Many Rivers (2003), is no stranger to the McTell Fest. She closed our show a few years back, and starred with John Hammond in a concert that the festival put on at the Imperial Theatre in nearby Augusta. She is also the winner of eight Blues Music Awards – four wins in the last five years for Best Piano Player of the Year, plus recent wins for Best Contemporary Blues – Female Artist of the Year (twice), and once each for Contemporary Blues Album of Year for So Many Rivers, and Blues Album of the Year for Presumed Innocent.
Her groove-laden New Orleans R&B and driving Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite of music fans all over the world. Born in Orange, Texas, in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. She began taking piano lessons at age five, playing old Tin Pan Alley tunes from her grandmother’s collection.
Since she’s played McTell fest, she’s performed on National Public Radio’s A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, WORLD CAFE and WHAD’YA KNOW?, Public Radio International’s STUDIO 360, the nationally syndicated MITCH ALBOM SHOW, and the PBS-televised version of MOUNTAIN STAGE. She’S also appeared on AUSTIN CITY LIMITS and THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN.
Sonny Landreth
Sonny Landreth is one of the most underrated or “below the radar” musicians working today….or so says none other than Eric Clapton! Landreth is a guitarist’s guitarist — a wizard of the slide guitar. His music encompasses Mississippi Delta blues, zydeco, and Southern rock. If you listen to Landreth, you hear the unmistakable sounds of Acadiana in his music.
Though Landreth was born in Mississippi, his father moved the family to Lafayette when Sonny was young. That’s where he began to drink in the music of South Louisiana. He heard it on the radio and jukeboxes and in clubs like the Blue Angel Lounge. He heard Cajun, zydeco, swamp pop and rock ‘n’ roll. Landreth learned to incorporate what he was hearing and eventually went on to hold the distinction of playing with songwriter and Cajun rocker Zachary Richard, the Grammy-winning Cajun supergroup Beausoleil and the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier. Landreth was in his late 20s when he became the first white member of Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana Band. That, Landreth says, was the beginning of his real musical education.
For 35 years, Landreth has mostly been known as a sideman — contributing his distinctive sound to other people’s bands and other people’s albums. But he’s also released nine CDs of his own. The most recent, from the Reach, features such guest stars as Eric Clapton, Vince Gill and Jimmy Buffet. The album briefly hit No. 1 on Billboard’s blues chart — to the extent that it is blues.
“Sonny’s difficult to find a category for. He’s unique,” says Tony Daigle, a Grammy-winning recording engineer from South Louisiana who’s worked with Landreth for years. “He has this Creole-Cajun influence, but yet it’s 60s and 70s kinda good rock ‘n’ roll. And he’s such a unique guitar player, nobody else does what he does.”
Jimmy Hall
This is musician Jimmy Hall’s first visit to Thomson and we could not be happier to present him in this format, with the Prisoners of Love, featuring Jack Pearson.
At the age of 20, he moved from Alabama to Macon, Georgia with his newly formed band, Wet Willie, and was signed by Capricorn Records. Hall shared the studio and stage with artists such as The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jeff Beck Group, Grand Funk Railroad, and a host of others while Wet Willie gained the reputation as one of the hardest working bands on the road. Gregg Allman once said that Hall “…is the hardest man to follow on stage that I ever worked with”.
In the 80’s Hall worked with Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks, and Chuck Leavell. It was on his featured vocals in 1986 on the critically acclaimed Jeff Beck album Flash that Hall received his greatest accolade: a Grammy nomination for Best Male Vocalist.
In 1981 Hall moved to Nashville to raise his family, and during this time Hall has worked as bandleader, vocalist, saxophonist, and harmonica player for Hank Williams, Jr. Hall formed the Prisoners of Love with top Nashville musicians, including Pearson on guitar and recorded the outstanding Rendezvous CD. Hall has a great following in Georgia and he’ll be a natural for our loyal patrons who come year in and year out…and hopefully, some newcomers as well.
Jack Pearson
As we put together this year’s line-up and were working with Jimmy Hall’s management, we were quite keen to put on stage, the sound that Hall put together on his great disc, Rendevous with the Blues. To us, Jack Pearson was one of the keys to that sound. Singer, studio musician, songwriter, producer…these words only begin to describe Pearson. But guitarist is what comes to most people’s minds when they hear his name.
According to the Nashville Scene, he has “quietly earned a national reputation as the guitarist of choice when someone needs a mature, tasteful picker with a broad knowledge of blues, jazz, and soulful rock.” Rolling Stone Magazine brags on his “light touch and fluid, jazzy style…and dynamic slide playing.” And Real Blues Magazine hails him as “one of the best blues/rock guitarists on the scene today.” I guess one of the greatest compliments any guitarist could be paid would be to get asked to join in alongside Dickie Betts in the Allman Brothers (1990’s), filling in the vacant “Duane slot”.
He’s been influenced by many styles of music and his versatility and musicianship are astounding. He’ll play a solo set on acoustic guitar as well as hold down the guitar duties in the Prisoners of Love with Jimmy Hall.
Mark Miller and Travelin’ Shoes
Our commitment to gospel music is solid. When we can, we try to showcase gospel’s place in the pantheon of Southern music. Singer Mark Miller is a great Georgian newcomer to our festival, yet we think his style of gospel playing is gonna win some new fans over here on May 21. He’s put together a crackerjack band of players, who helped him record “Ain’t It Grand…the Gospel Songs of Blind Willie McTell.” They’ll be performing cuts from that disc, along with other southern blues and gospel tunes. The band consists of Parrish Ellis (Guitar), Todd Parrott (Harmonica), Bill Hatcher (Slide Guitar), Tyrone Jackson (Piano) and Joe Reda (Bass).
The Georgia Horns, featuring Chris Crenshaw and Marcus Printup
“Swinging the Blues” with the Georgia Horns is what we are calling this combo, put together especially for McTell fest. They’ll be led by Thomson’s Chris Crenshaw on trombone and Conyers native Marcus Printup on trumpet.
Both these fellows have regular jobs…as part of the “Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra,” led by Wynton Marsalis! We’re especially happy to be broadening our musical approach with such talented people…from right here in Georgia. Heck, from right here in Thomson! Click the links to learn more about them and watch our Facebook page to get the latest on ‘em as we get closer to May 21.
Crosstie Walkers
Thomson’s Crosstie Walkers will be back in 2011 to occupy their familiar slot as openers for this year’s afternoon of great music. These guys have been involved in the fest from the very beginning and have a great following in this part of the State. So come on early, get a good seat, a bite of lunch, something cool to drink and listen to some Crosstie originals as well as their unique arrangements of obscure tunes…tunes that they make their own.
