The bands 2010

The Bands 2010:

Our international acts this year are from the U.S., Australia, Norway and Malaysia.  Thai based bands represent Phuket and Bangkok. The bands consist of artists from more than a dozen countries all over the world. This Festival is a truly international affair.

Like so many great musicians, Charlie Musselwhite was born into a musical family. Having grown up in Memphis, Tennessee, where he acquired the nickname “Memphis Charlie”, he headed up the legendary Highway 51 to Chicago. Here he continued his musical education on the South Side, making the acquaintance of  legends including Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Big Walter Horton. Musselwhite immersed himself completely in the musical life, spending his time hanging out at the Jazz Record Mart at the corner of State and Grand and the nearby bar, Mr. Joe's, with the city's blues musicians, and sitting in with Big Joe Williams and others in the clubs. There he forged a lifelong friendship with John Lee Hooker; though Hooker lived in Detroit, Michigan, the two often visiting each other, and Hooker serving as best man at Musselwhite's wedding.

In time, Musselwhite led his own blues band, and released the legendary Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band album in 1966 on Vanguard Records (as "Charlie Musselwhite"), to immediate and great success. He took advantage of the clout this album gave him to move to San Francisco, where, instead of being one of many competing blues acts, he held court as the king of the blues in the exploding countercultural music scene, an exotic and gritty figure to the flower children. Musselwhite even convinced Hooker to move out to California.

Since then Musselwhite has released over 20 albums, as well as guesting on albums by many other musicians, such as Bonnie Raitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits and INXS.

In 1990 he signed with Alligator Records, and over the years he has branched out in style. His 1999 recording, Continental Drifter, is accompanied by Quarteto Patria, from Cuba's Santiago region, the Cuban music analog of the Mississippi Delta. Because of the political differences between Cuba and the United States, the album was recorded in Norway, where he has since toured and played the biggest blues festivals.

His past two studio albums, Sanctuary and Delta Hardware were released on Real World Records and Amazon.com named Delta Hardware the best blues album of 2006.

In 2002, Charlie was featured on the Bo Diddley tribute album Hey Bo Diddley - A Tribute! performing the song "Hey Bo Diddley" and he was also featured along with everybody who’s who in the blues world in Dan Aykroyd’s hit movie ‘Blues Brothers 2000’.
His latest is a 2008 Live album Rough Dried, recorded at The Triple Door in Seattle, WA.

During the course of his remarkable career, Musselwhite has collected a treasure trove of awards and accolades, including 24 W.C. Handy Awards and 7 Grammy Nominations. He has also been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Monterey Blues Festival, the Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and a prestigious Brass Note plaque on Memphis' Beale Street (prominently placed outside B.B. King's Club). The latest in this list is the Mississippi Trail Marker on the square of his birthplace in the small town of Kosciusko, Mississippi.

The band: Matt Stubbs - Guitar; Michael Phillips - Bass; June Core - Drums and Richard Duran - FOH Sound.

www.charliemusselwhite.com

is one of Australia's foremost singer/songwriters who emerged in the early 1970s as a talented and ambitious singer-songwriter in the "troubadour" style of artists such as Neil Young and Jackson Browne and who paved the way for three generations of songwriters to write about the experience of being Australian.
When he began his recording career in 1973, Australia was still in vice-like grip of the cultural cringe. He plunged into the deep water and in his wake followed the Skyhooks and Paul Kelly, Cold Chisel, INXS, Midnight Oil and hundreds of others.

Richard Clapton grew up in Sydney in the 1960s. He hopped a plane for London and then later to Germany where he wrote a first album, Prussian Blue (1973). It was the first major "singer-songwriter" album in Australia.
Clapton's commercial breakthrough came with the title song from his second album, "Girls on the Avenue". It was issued as a single in Jan. 1975 and was picked up by radio and became a major hit, reaching the #2 spot on the national Australian Top 40 in March 1975.
The Goodbye Tiger album (1977) was Clapton's most successful to date. The record was a new highpoint and was one of the most critically acclaimed albums an Australian artist had released, and a major commercial success, reaching #5 on the Australian album chart in November 1977. Many Clapton fans continue to regard this notably melancholic record as his masterpiece.
The 1980s saw Clapton consolidate his career in the music industry, and during the early 1980s he was acknowledged as a mentor to several bands emerging from the then-vigorous pub rock scene, in particular INXS.

In 1984 Clapton released "Solidarity" which embraced much of the electronic technology of the time, and was followed in 1987 by his most ambitiously creative album to date, Glory Road produced by Jon Farris from INXS. Throughout the 1980s he enjoyed significant success on FM radio playlists.

Ten years after his first release, Richard Clapton was a tribal elder to whom younger artists like Jimmy Barnes, INXS and Cold Chisel turned as a mentor.

In the 1990s Richard continued to write and record and tour. He counts 2003's Diamond Mine as amongst his best albums - and the critics unanimously agreed.

In 1999, Clapton was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. That year also saw the release of the Definitive Anthology, a compilation album, which became his biggest selling album ever.

To celebrate 35 years of performing, Richard Clapton held a one off concert at The State Theatre (Sydney) on June 28, 2008. The event was sold out in days and featured a star studded line up of Australian musicians who have played with him over the years. The atmosphere of this enormous event was captured in the release, in October 2008, of the live CD, Live At The State Theatre, which included fourteen of the standout songs from both the acoustic and electric sets that night.
Following the success of the 2008 State Theatre concert Clapton decided to showcase his pivotal 1977 album "Goodbye Tiger" once again at The State Theatre in September 2009. The first concert sold out in less than an hour, so a second show was added. The entire "Goodbye Tiger" album was performed as authentically as the original recording and an eclectic mix of old and new songs were played in the second set.  www.richardclapton.com

The band: Danny Spencer - Guitar; Chris Bekker - Bass; John Salerno - Drums and Jake Mason - Keyboards

Albums:

• Prussian Blue (1973)
• Girls on the Avenue (1975)
  
• Main Street Jive (1976)
  
• Goodbye Tiger (1977)
  
• Past Hits and Previews (1978)
  
• Hearts on the Nightline (1979)
  
• Dark Spaces (1980)
  
• The Very Best Of... (1981)
  
• The Great Escape (1982).
  
• Solidarity (1984)
  
• Glory Road (1987) 
  
• The Best Years of Our Lives (Live, 1989)
  
• Distant Thunder (1993)
  
• Angeltown (1996)
  
• The Definitive Anthology (1999)
  
• Up and Down The Glory Road (Live, 2001)
  
• Diamond Mine (2004)
  
• The Definitive Collection (2004)
  
• Rewired (2006)
  
• Live At The State Theatre (Live, 2008)
  

Rich Harper  and his blues band has wooed audiences wherever they have played on what is a real journeyman career. Unusually for an American band they have toured extensively around the world including the biggest festival in Australia and Europe too. Now they are coming to Asia for the fifth time. With the success of their debut CD, "Don't Think Just Play" (1997), the band’s name was popping up in blues magazines everywhere, and blues societies were urging their members to check out the exciting new group who were carving out a unique niche for themselves in the blues world. By the time the band released their second CD, "Bottled Up Blues" (1999), Europe had jumped on board by making the band the #1 selling artists in Switzerland on Amazon's charts. Radio stations worldwide welcomed the new CD with open arms and this time one of the cuts, "As She Moved In (My Guitar Moved Out)", topped Rolling Stone Magazine's "MP3 & More Blues Chart" at #1. The band’s CDs, including "On Break" (2001), the live “Onward…” (2004) and the 2008 release "Musician Standard Time" are available through their website,  www.richharper.com

Rich Harper is the only artist who has returned by popular demand to the Festival every year. Many say the Festival would not be the same without him, and we agree. Rich returns in 2010 with his fiery, electric show that has set blues festivals abuzz all over the world the last several years.

Andy Gonzales hails from Arizona and brings with him rough Texas blues with spicy Latin flavor.  A Bassist/Vocalist extraordinaire, he captivates his audiences around the world with his unique sound and hot, bluesy tone, a mixture for those who like it spicy... Andy is also a philanthropist dedicated to help the less fortunate through churches, schools and other institutions, raising funds as well as spreading his music to many who might otherwise never experience such.

Thailand is among the countries he visits as often as he can and where he with the help of like-minded individuals is establishing a foundation for children.

The Rockin’ Angels band, led by our own “Singapore Patt” and assisted by such talent as Lil' Wille provide a great backing for this Latino Maestro at the Festival. A performance not to be missed!

The Prodigal Sons is a blues/rock band from Norway consisting of five seasoned musicians with extensive backgrounds.
The band was formed during 2008 when the members met at various gigs around the country and subsequently played numerous domestic and international concerts and festivals.
The band’s backbone, The Hammond Doctor, as he calls himself, has during his 35 year career played with the likes of Eric Clapton and B.B. King.

He is already well known in Thailand for his long association with Carabao, a band he has recorded and played with for three decades. 

AkashA

KNiKi
The second OZ contribution to the festival this year is a beautiful lady from the city of Perth in Western Australia. Her name is KNIKI and she turned enough heads here last year that we felt compelled to invite her back for 2010. Her voice is grunty, strong and sexy, and backed up by her own band from Australia, performing a combination of Blues, Soul and Rock of mainly her own material, this Indie singer/songwriter will keep your eyes and ears glued to the stage!

And - last year she sold out of her new CD "JUST", so come early to secure your copy.
www.kniki.com.

The Groove Doctors & Friends

George Cordeiro (USA) and the Fai Jang Blues Gang is a 5-member group of diverse musical and ethnic origins. Their vocal flexibility, groove and performance appeal has brought them to stages around Asia, America, the Caribbean and the Middle East, performing with members of groups and artists as diversified as Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alex Taylor, Eldee Young, Eric Bibb to a host of international audiences.

The band returns to the 2010 Festival by popular demand.

RetroVision