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ARTIST BIOS

Walter TroutBorn in 1951 and raised in a music-loving home in Ocean City, New Jersey, Walter Trout felt the calling to music at a young age. His first instrument was trumpet, playing in the school band. A chance meeting with the mighty Duke Ellington catapulted Trout’s pursuit of a professional music career – what Walter terms “a turning point” in his life – when the Walter’s mother orchestrated a meeting with jazz legends Ellington, Cat Anderson, Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves for the youngster’s tenth birthday. The seed was planted about a career playing music.

In the mid-1960’s Trout’s instrument of choice switched to electric guitar after hearing an album which was to change his whole appreciation of music. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band featuring Mike Bloomfield cemented Walter’s musical ambitions towards the blues genre and the electric guitar. In those vinyl grooves, Walter heard the guitar speaking to his soul, expressing what words could not.

In his late teens and early twenties, Trout played in numerous New Jersey bands, competing at the time for rank with “Steel Mill” featuring a young Bruce Springsteen. In 1973, he packed up his belongings in a VW Beetle and drove cross-country to the west coast, arriving in Los Angeles with only a few changes of clothes, a trumpet, a mandolin and his guitars.

By 1981, Trout’s reputation led to the invitation to join venerable blues rock band Canned Heat, where he remained through 1984. In Canned Heat he quickly learned the ways of a touring musician, traveling the US and abroad, further refining his already stunning abilities playing night after night, and confirming his reputation as a top flight lead guitarist.

When the call came to join the legendary John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Trout jumped and found himself sharing the spotlight with fellow guitarist Coco Montoya. Trout and Montoya lifted the band to a new level, as Mayall’s Bluesbreakers enjoyed unprecedented album sales and high profile tours in the US and abroad.

Breaking away from the Bluesbreakers in 1989, he formed The Walter Trout Band, a move that quickly segued into immediate extensive touring of Europe, playing large venues and music festivals, and his music was heard on mainstream radio. In the early 1990s Walter had several radio hits in Europe and charted with his unique style of blues rock. Throughout the decade, he continued a non-stop touring pace, releasing eight recordings, steadily each lifting his profile higher.

The self-titled Walter Trout, released by Ruf Records in 1998 was his first “official” domestic CD. Shortly after, the band renamed as Walter Trout and The Free Radicals and began an extensive touring pace state side, steadily building a fan base and bringing their high energy, impassioned live performances back home. Since then Ruf Records has released half a dozen CDs in the US and Walter effectively continued his frequent touring, splitting time more evenly between continents.

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Deanna BogartDown Beat magazine describes Deanna Bogart as "an extravagant entertainer"-- and entertain is what Bogart does best. The Maryland-based blues and boogie pianist / saxophonist combines the energy of 1930's style boogie piano blues with contemporary blues sounds emanating from places like New Orleans, Chicago and Memphis. "The goal when we play live," says Bogart, "is to create a fusion of all these different musical styles with the blues and boogie genuinely at the core."

Bogart began to develop her unique style as a sideplayer in Cowboy Jazz, a Maryland-based group that dedicated itself to the sound of 1940’s western swing music. She joined the group at age 21 as vocalist and spent several years learning and playing the cowboy rhythms that are central to western swing. As her musical appetite grew she spent nearly two years playing R&B with the Washington D.C.-based Root Boy Slim. Bogart combined these disparate influences in her own original compositions that blend elements of boogie music with modern jazz and rock. After getting her own band off the ground in 1988, she began playing throughout the mid-Atlantic region and the West Coast, slowly building a following and a reputation. After hundreds of live shows, Bogart made her recording debut in 1989.

Whereas for years her fans accepted as an article of faith that none of Bogart's recording ventures could match up to the experience of live performances, that assumption has been transformed since the release of her last two CDs, The Great Unknown and 2002’s Timing is Everything. While home listeners will be deprived the pleasures of Bogart's peripatetic piano style–these new recordings reflect a decided turning point in Bogart’s writing and playing talents. While continuing to utilize her musical roots in the blues, her musical sensibilities have ventured into other textures, her voice has developed an increasingly emotional force, and her songwriting has expanded into a growing breadth of complexity and lyrical subtlety. A woman who has managed to balance middle-aged single motherhood with the vicissitudes of life leading a successful band for 15 years on the road has now begun to create music that reflects a similar synthesis of the traditional and the non-traditional. Bogart is philosophical about striking out in new directions. “Nothing hurts creativity like safety” is her credo, “in art as in life, you can't have magic if you're not willing to risk the train wrecks.” Addressing an increasingly broad range of personal subjects and life experiences, Bogart has become much more than a splashy unforgettable performer–she has established herself as a unique artistic spirit.

Despite the power of her recordings, Bogart still loves performing live with her band. “Musicians play for 'one of those nights.” For me, that means the moment I’m at the place where all past and present, pain and joy, meet as one. For lack of a better term, I call it “Deannaland.” And it’s a place that both audiences and other artists never tire of visiting along with her. Bogart has appeared on stage with the likes of BB King, Brian Setzer, Buddy Guy, James Brown, Doctor John, They Might Be Giants, Spyro Gyra, Ray Charles, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and the Neville Brothers. The recipient of no less than 20 Washington Area Music Awards–the “Wammies”–her most recent album, Timing is Everything, helped garner her five awards in one year, including Best Blues Vocalist, Best Group, Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year, and Musician of the Year.

The Deanna Bogart Band since 1995 includes Mike Aubin on drums, and Eric Scott on bass.

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HarperPart harmonica wizard and part rhythmic explorer, Harper is a fiery artist who blurs the lines between rock, blues, soul and world music. His latest Blind Pig release, Day By Day, displays his trademark virtuoso harp performances, distinctive instrumentation, deeply soulful grooves and instantly memorable songs and provides another prime example of why his unique roots music style occupies a category of its own. Harper has been described as "a singer with the deep soul of Motown, a harmonica player who can graft Sonny Boy II and Little Walter with John Popper, a songwriter who tells his own compelling stories in an unhurried, J.J. Cale-like manner, and a musical visionary who is unafraid to mix the didgeridoo, an important part of his Australian indigenous culture, with infectious modern percussive rhythms." His skill lies in the fact that he is able to tap into the kindred spirits running through his traditional and modern influences, borrowing from western and world music to develop a highly original take on the roots genre. He also takes the harmonica beyond its assigned place. Harper’s innovative use of electronic enhancement and feedback breaks the traditional boundaries of the harmonica, giving his music its distinctive harmonics and effects.

Born in the United Kingdom, Harper’s musical journey began early, performing in brass bands playing the trumpet and euphonium. At the age of ten, his family moved half way around the world to Perth, Western Australia, and his father introduced Harper to the harp. In Perth, one of the most isolated cities in the world, there was a thriving blues and folk scene. The blues had a rawness, an honesty and a passion of the soul which spoke to Harper deeply. Then, like every blues lover, Harper began his journey backwards to discover the deeper roots of the music.

"I think Muddy Waters really hit me hard. There was something incredibly special about his sound, his powerful voice and his songs. I would sing his songs constantly. I also really dug Sonny Boy Williamson II as well. I loved his rhythmic use of his harp. I was also inspired by a pretty wide range of players and styles like Little Walter, Sugar Blue and Stevie Wonder who guide me in my playing. "But Harper did not stop his search with the blues. It was a chance meeting with a Hopi "Dan Running Bear" in Silverton, Colorado, that led him down the path to rediscovering the music of his homeland. Fascinated with the spirituality and culture of the American Natives, he found the same qualities present in the Australian Aborigines of his homeland. On adding the native didgeridoo to his music, Harper says "It is a sound I grew up with, so it seemed natural to add it to my songwriting particularly when the lyrics related to the plight of the Aborigines in Australia. When I added the didgeridoo to the more traditional blues instruments, it worked. The deep woody qualities and its haunting drone seemed to enhance the emotional quality of my stories. The didgeridoo is a spiritual and healing instrument, and it seemed blues music accepted it with open arms."

Prior to his introduction to American audiences, Harper released six albums to great acclaim in his homeland of Australia. In 1994 he moved to Melbourne, Victoria and released his first album, Tears of Ice. This was followed by Yesterday Is Over in 1996 with his band Blue Devil and Live At The Soup Kitchen in 1997 as a soloist. In 2000, he released Glass on The Stepping Stone and Live At St. Andrew’s in 2001. In 2003 he released Way Down Deep Inside, for which he received two harmonica awards and “Album of the Year” honor from US Magazine's Guide to the Best of the Blues Harmonicas & Beyond. Over the years Harper has received multiple Australian Blues Awards for “Male Vocalist of the Year,” “Song of the Year,” and “Acoustic Artist of the Year.”

Harper’s first Blind Pig release and American debut, 2005’s Down To The Rhythm, won accolades from the press for its unique sound and virtuoso performances, coupled with Harper’s compositional skill. Harper’s latest release from Blind Pig Records, Day By Day, showcases the results of steady touring over the past several years, and his always unparalleled songwriting.

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Eden BrentBoogie-woogie piano and gutsy vocals have established Eden Brent as a Mississippi favorite. Whether booked as a solo artist or bandleader, her performance is fresh and spontaneous, often filled with audience requests and participation.

A native of Greenville, Mississippi, Brent is the solo winner of the Blues Foundation International Blues Challenge 2006 and is the 2005 Mississippi Delta Regional Blues Challenge solo winner. She received the Greenville Arts Council Greenville Honors Its Own Artist Award in 2004 and was a 2004 Greenville Blues Walk inductee. Listed on the Mississippi Arts Commission Artist Roster since 1994, Brent is currently listed with SouthernArtistry.org, an adjudicated web-based roster of Southeastern artists maintained by the Southern Arts Federation.

Brent enjoyed a sixteen-year apprenticeship with duo partner, the late Boogaloo Ames (1918 - 2002), who dubbed her "Little Boogaloo." Although she achieved a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Texas, Brent credits Ames with teaching her to play piano. "Music school taught me to think, but Boogaloo taught me to boogie-woogie," she says.

Together with Ames, Brent starred in the 1999 television documentary, Boogaloo & Eden: Sustaining the Sound. The award-winning feature, which aired nationally on PBS affiliates, explores the bond between mentor and protégé. Under Ames's tutelage, Brent performed not only across Mississippi, but also at the Gibson Showcase Lounge in Memphis, the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, and the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

The pair's final appearance was in the 2002 South African television production, Forty Days in the Delta, a blues documentary series taped in Mississippi shortly before Ames's death. The program spurred Brent's 2002 solo tour in South Africa, and a second solo tour and the release of her debut album, Something Cool, followed a year later in 2003.

Dedicated to Ames, Something Cool reached number two on the South Africa Rock Digest chart, and Brent's balladic tribute to that country, "South Africa," reached number three on the singles chart. About the song, Brent reflected, "I had spent so many years with Boogaloo, and I was a little lost without him. So, in the months after his death, traveling half way around the world by myself was liberating, and I wanted to express that joy to the people there."

Five years after Ames's death, Brent has secured her place in Mississippi Delta music, allowing her own style to evolve while continuing Ames's legacy.

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Delta HighwayIn a generation that has forgotten its musical roots, Delta Highway breathes youth and energy back into the blues. With strong guitar sounds reminiscent of Muddy Waters and R.L. Burnside, combined with a progressive harmonica sound, this Memphis band has developed a style that is all their own and sure to please new and veteran blues fans alike.

Delta Highway was born in the piedmont region of North Carolina, founded by twenty four year old vocalist / harmonica player Brandon Santini and twenty six year old Justin Sulek in 2003. The two moved to Memphis later that year to absorb the sounds and history of the delta region where the blues runs wild. The Delta Highway sound is similar to a massive freight train splitting the tracks left behind with an engineer and brake man high on Jack Daniels’.

Frontman Brandon Santini was inspired while in his mid-teens by the sounds of John Popper’s harmonica but quickly learned about the real blues from heavyweights such as Paul Butterfield, Little Walter, Kim Wilson, and Junior Wells. His playing style is a bit more progressive some might say. Santini brings youth to the instrument and presents his thick, distorted tones with his fiery quick runs that seems to grab the attention of younger music fans as well as satisfying traditionalists. He has also developed into a very soulful vocalist while he brings a rather unique but traditional style to the mic.

Guitarist Justin Sulek began playing guitar after hearing his father’s blues records throughout his childhood. He remembers hearing the blues played by legends such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, and Lightnin’ Hopkins and becoming inspired by the pure honest playing styles by each of the bluesmen. Speaking of pure, that’s what you get with Sulek’s playing style. He delivers fiery licks and continues to amaze audiences with his bottleneck solos.

The band’s rhythm section consists of veteran musicians Tom "Slim" Louis (Jason Ricci Band) on bass and Keven Eddy (Mojo Buford Band, Blind Mississippi Morris & The Pocket Rockets) on drums. The two are the perfect fit for a rhythm section and were seemingly tailored to handle backup duties for Brandon Santini and Justin Sulek.

These four men are well respected by veteran musicians and lay down one of the freshest blues sounds in years. Currently a favorite on world famous Beale St. in Memphis, TN, the band represented the Memphis Blues Society in the 2006 International Blues Competition by winning the Memphis Blues Society’s Battle of the Blues. With the release of their debut album Westbound Blues which will surely win over a new generation of focus and satisfy traditionalists, the band takes listeners on a trip to major blues towns and regions like Chicago, Texas, the delta, and the hill country region of northern Mississippi.

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