JOHNNIE BASSETT: BLUES SINGER/GUITARIST

The electric Bluesman, Johnnie Bassett released his last album, his 6th in 2009

THE GENTLEMAN IS BACK. The seasoned bluesman has worked for 5 decades perfecting his craft. The 75 year old Bassett, presents a fun blues filled album. His best release to date, with new material, some cover songs by music greats, and songs written with band members Chis Codish (keyboards) & Keith Kaminski (sax). Skeeto Valdez is the drummer for the group.
Bassett was primarily a session musician until 1990 when he went out on his own. He had previously backed notable artist like; Tina Turner, The Miracles, John Lee Hooker, Smokey Robinson & Jimi Hendrix, and many more in his career span as a session musician.

While he was a Rock n’ Roll musician, he grew up with the blues, and has done a bang-up job incorporating the Delta, and Jump blues into a R & B groove, with a sometimes jazzy feel in an album that comes together in a way the fits just right.

The easy going style of Basset may remind you of Albert King, or B.B. King. He feels the music he sings and plays, and says he is having fun, and will keep it up as long as he is having fun. Johnnie Basset is one of our National Treasures in the blues music sound of today and yesterday.
Bassett is not well known nationally, but he is a well known popular artist in the Detroit area. If ever in town, drop down to the 3rd Street Bar, for a weekly jam session with band members; Codish, Kaminski, and Valdez.

Blues enthusiast will enjoy this album. It’s the perfect album for sitting around a fire sipping a glass of wine, and tapping your toe for enjoyable listening. View the youtube video of Johnnie singing "A Women Got Ways",  from the album. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCpgl1Vz4Pk

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GOTYE: SINGER/SONGWRITER

Gotye (pronounced 'gore-ti-yeah') released their 3rd studio album in the US. August 19, 2011.


MAKING MIRRORS, The Alternative, Indie/Experimental Rock band comes to us from Australia.

Front man, Wally De Back, aka. Wouter (Walter) De Backer, was born in Belgium but moved to Australia at a young age. The multi-instrumentalist brings with him a fresh sound, blending his soothing vocals, spelling binding base, and haunting drums to create a sound appealing to a wide range audience. He is the modern day ‘Sting’, and sometimes a little 'George Michael'. See for yourself the innovative Gotye as you check out a couple of his videos that show his creativity and musical ability. His music is not the electronic dance craze, it is music electronically enhanced.

On YouTube from the album DRAWING BLOOD (2006) “Hearts A Mess”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnXFJOXvL_A&feature=related

From the current album MAKING MIRRORS “Somebody I used to Know”, featuring Kimbra.(Tasteful partial nudity)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

In 2007 DeBacker won the ARIA award for best Male artist, and in 2006 he won the  AIR ‘Most Outstanding New Independent Artist’

DeBack is a talented young artist on a roll, who could easily become an international pop star, performing all over the world as his music has mass appeal. No doubt we will be hearing more of Gotye.

Be sure to go to his website to see how he recorded the current album in his barn on his parent’s property in Melbourne Australia.

http://gotye.com/

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CHRISTIAN FENNESZ: SONGWRITER/GUITARIST/COMPOSER

Fennesz, the Austrian born guitarist released his 6th EP SEVEN STARS out July 22, 2011. Fennesz has 6 studio albums to his credit and SEVEN STARS is the latest recorded effort, since he began recording as a solo artist in 1997.

The multi-layered compositions of guitar textures, notebook computer enhancements, include underlayments of pop melodies. Its new age spinning a bold new musical language. Some of his music could easily be referred to as 'Trance Music'. Fennesz, a laptop composer, singer/songwriter, and guitarist was originally with a free form rock group ‘Maische’ performing in the Viennese underground during the 80’s. They incorporated sound techniques not generally accepted in the rock world at that time.

Fennesz records his own music sound, but also collaborates with various other artists in many genres, and releases solo albums every 2-4 years. He is an acquired taste but has a following for his electronic zonal sounds, both soothing, and  invigorating.
The following excerpt below describes him in shimmering detail:

San Francisco Bay Guardian Music Blog (USA): Using his patented Mac patches to splay, splice, and caress a Stratocaster, Fennesz produces layer upon layer of compressed guitar feedback and processed glitches that spread out like a beach blanket on the windy sands of the Mediterranean. When a few chords suddenly appear from the whirring microtonal din, the noise musician-turned sculptor conveys with a Proustian flourish something truly magical: the distant memories of aquamarine sunsets and tawny sand dunes seem to emanate from the speakers.

Fennesz’s greatest strength has always been in his keen ability to formulate soundscapes that capture equally the coldest blasts of alien feedback and the most summery mosaic of acoustic guitar strums, chimes, and keyboard drones. Or rather, his compositions are at their most transfixing when they seem to play in music’s littoral zones, where the shallow grounds of textural play might suddenly give way to vast oceanic harmonics. [Erik Morse]

http://www.fennesz.com/

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BRANDON ONEAL BAILEY: HARPBOXER

Brandon Bailey is a young man with an extraordinary talent.

The Tennessee harp player has developed his skill as a “Harpboxer” which is an international phenomenon of sorts. His first CD “MEMPHIS GROOVES, out July 2011 is a 13 song album featuring his loop based harp playing infused with beat-boxing. His has that  harmonica singing with the combinination of the looping pedal and beat-box, and he sings too! 

Although he is not the inventor of the Harpbox sound, he has infused refined blues riffs with beat box and perfected it to call it his own. Check him out on YouTube to see what it is all about. You will find it unique if not mesmerizing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u9lkpHVe6c

The pre-med student at the University of Memphis dedicates himself to school as much as he does to the harmonica. He is pursuing a musical career for now, but his ultimate goal is to become a Pediatric Neurologist.
In the mean-time "Brandon can do it all. On Memphis Grooves, he literally does it all... .Every single sound on this album is something Brandon produced with his mouth, harmonica, shaker, and thumping foot."

-from liner notes by Adam Gussow

"...astonishing skills…... . modern blues harp layered with groundbreaking ideas…... . an evolution of the blues by a teen musical master”."
-Yukari Shinagawa "Black Grooves


http://www.brandonobailey.com/

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