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Vintage Trouble

About: Vintage Trouble

Ty Taylor (vocals) and Nalle Colt (guitar) formed Vintage Trouble after setting up a basic home studio in Venice Beach. They invited their mutual friend Rick Barrio Dill to play bass for the band, and then recruited Richard Danielson to play drums. "We got together in 2010," Taylor told Billboard. "It was one of those experiences where everything was lined up. We had all been friends, and had known each other before the band started up. We had known each other in different arenas. I had known Nalle Colt for about fourteen years, and we had tried to play with each other for so long. We were in one right before Vintage Trouble, and things just weren't working out. So, we left, and decided we wanted to do something a little more raw and down to earth." Taylor has said that the line-up of Colt, Danielson, Barrio Dill and himself developed a good chemistry: "It just felt like we were in a family of people that were going to challenge us."

The band then began creating material in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. After just two weeks of rehearsals in early 2010, the group began playing local area shows and late night speakeasies. Aiming to emulate mid-century soul music and to use the recording techniques of that era, the band spent a three-day session recording complete takes, turning out 12 new songs for the album "The Bomb Shelter Sessions". Such singles as '"Gracefully", "Nancy Lee", "Still & Always Will" and "Blues Hand Me Down" aimed to produce a sound reminiscent of the days of vinyl records and juke joints, and the essence of the original soul movement. The album was produced by Peter McCabe and co-produced by Vintage Trouble themselves. The album was mixed by Rogers Masson.

How and where the band launched their career in earnest is an important part of their story. They initially took their music outside the USA, as part of a strategy conceived by legendary manager Doc McGhee. "If you look at the history of people like Amy Winehouse, Duffy, or James Blunt, they came [to America] first and didn't make it. Then, they went back over to England, and blew up. We just decided to go to Europe first, and when they were accepted there, we would have a story to share here. That's basically what happened." McGhee wanted to get them in front of as many people as possible, and the strategy worked. "It was pretty simple. The concept was to get all the tastemakers together, and those people spread the word. We got Brian May to give us some dates, and also some stadium shows with Bon Jovi. It's just hard work by these guys. They just get up in the morning, and go conquer," he said.^[

After three shows in the UK in early 2011, the band returned in April of that year to appear on Jools Holland's late night TV show Later... with Jools Holland. The band became the 6th most trending topic of the day on Twitter, attained the #13 best selling digital album on iTunes, and had the #5 all around best selling digital album on Amazon UK, beating out both Rihanna and the current Glee (TV series) albums. Additionally, VT had the #2 best selling digital Rock album on Amazon.com UK, and the #1 best selling R&B digital album on Amazon UK. On the 24th April 2011, they appeared on The Late Show with JoAnne Good, (Sunday Night Sessions segment) on BBC London 94.9.

The band joined Brian May (guitar player of rock band Queen) and Kerry Ellis for a tour starting in early May 2011, and in June 2011 supported rock band Bon Jovi on the UK leg of their The Circle Tour.

The band played for Paul Stanley on January 20, 2012 at his 60th Birthday Party and Paul sang "You Shook Me" by Led Zeppelin.

On April 24, 2012, "The Bomb Shelter Sessions" was released in the U.S.

They are the opening act for The Who on that band's first North American tour in four years.

They are the opening act for Dave Matthews Band at Oak Mountain Amphitheatre in Pelham, AL. on April 6th, 2013.

Contact: http://www.vintagetrouble.com/contact.html

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About: Rising Appalachia

Sisters Leah and Chloe tear into sound with sensual prowess as stages ignite revolutions and words light up spirit fires. Listen to their beautiful sound for poetic harmonies, soul singing, spoken word rallies, banjos, fiddles, many beats of drums, kalimbas, washboard rants, groove, and community building through SOUND. Joined by Imhotep on the New Orleans bass drum, Abram on contra bass, and Forrest on the beats, their style redefines performance. With a host of versatile collaborators on board expect anything from trumpet to beatboxing, poets to trapeze, and circus to burlesque. Rising Appalachia uses sound as a tool to spark a cultural evolution and birth a new movement, creating soul sounds for us all....

Having toured over 14,000 miles across the United States and gracing many stages around the world, Rising Appalachia’s vision and sound is quickly proving to be contagious to everyone it touches. Their shows have included and array of community-run venues and collective events, as well as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, National Public Radio All Songs Considered, The School of Americas Vigil, Nunez Arts Festival New Orleans, Emory University Schwartz Center, The Floyd Festival, The Beacon Theater NYC, The Lake Eden Arts Festival, Radio Popular Italy, Guerilla Radio Amsterdam, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Highlander Center 75th Reunion, and many more

Their prolific self-sculpted career has included 4 independently released full length albums which have sculpted a path for the new generation of music aficionados and created a new lens to understand the impact of global sound on the world at large. Having been raised in the American South soul music for breakfast and Appalachian lullabies at night, sisters Leah and Chloe have drawn great inspiration from their global family. Their mother and father claimed art and music as a fully expressed part of their lives and the girls have been shaped by the sounds of the South. They and their dedicated musical comrades have continued to use those powerful roots to find musical connections and community around the world…

"Music is the tool with which we wield political prowess. Melody for the roots of each of us...spreading song and sound around the globe. Music has become our script for vision, not for aural pleasure, not just for hobby, but now as a means to connect and create in ways that we aren't taught by mainstream culture. We are building community and tackling social injustice through melody, making the stage reach out with octopus arms to gather a great family. It is taking its own personality, carrying us all along the journey down the damp and strange alley ways and cryptic coded pathways to poetic observations, social change, lyrical messages, political rage, symphonic coercing, ferocious bantering, bicycles and train tracks, primal will, fresh air intoxicants, harmony and alliteration, noise and something sweeter than words can ever touch. " Leah.

Rising Appalachia has been voted “Green Album of the Year” by the Huffington Post, “Atlanta's Best Folk Act” by the Creative Loafing, and have been written about in Paste Magazine, The New York Times, Performer Magazine, Dirty Linen, Sing Out, Anti-Gravity, Maverick and more. Their tours have taken them across Europe, through the Caribbean, into Central America, into the Indian subcontinent, and across the United States- making sacred sounds and elaborate stages wherever they go. They are creatively committed to keeping their work accessible at the local street level as well as expanding to larger audiences abroad, and have continued to maintain autonomy by self-managing, recording, producing, creating, and directing their work. They are greatly honored to do the work that they do.

Contact: http://www.risingappalachia.com/contact

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About: Arnold McCuller

Arnold McCuller is an American vocalist, record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. While establishing his own career as a singer, and working as a very busy session musician, McCuller has become best known for his work as a back-up singer for famous artists with long careers, including Phil Collins, Beck, and Bonnie Raitt, and Todd Rundgren. He has toured for thirty years with James Taylor and is an audience favorite for his featured vocal parts on the songs "Shower the People", "I Will Follow", and "Is That the Way You Look". He has also toured extensively with Collins and is one of the main lead vocalists on the live version of "Easy Lover". McCuller has had numerous acting parts in films; in particular he has gained notoriety in movies with musical roles. In 2010 McCuller joined the Troubadour Reunion Tour supporting James Taylor and Carole King.

Film:

McCuller appeared in the film The Sum of All Fears singing the "The Star-Spangled Banner". Although he did not appear onscreen in Duets with Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow, his vocals were blended with those of actor Andre Braugher to make a composite singing voice for the character "Reggie Kane". In the film, Reggie Kane sang with Paul Giamatti on "Try a Little Tenderness" and performed a acapella version of "Freebird".

McCuller also performed the song "Nowhere to Run" for the 1979 film The Warriorsand was one of the four singers in the "guitar duel sequence" on the 1986 film Crossroads.

Discography:

Part of Me That's You (1984) with David Benoit
Exception to the Rule (1990)
You Can't Go Back (1999)
Exception to the Rule (2000) reissue (with fewer songs)
Back to Front (2002)
Live at the Baked Potato (2002)
Circa 1990 (2003)
Hairspray [Soundtrack to the Motion Picture] (2007)
Sabor (2009)
Soon as I Get Paid (2011)

Contact: http://www.arnoldmcculler.com/contact

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About: Art Bell

The blues genre and form is omnipresent, and like a womb it has nurtured and given birth to distinct genres and sub-genres urban styles, delta blues, Chicago blues and boogie-woogie, to name a few. Many musicians are known to play a form, or a sub-genre, that has spawned from the blues, but very rarely do you stumble across a true blues musician, like Art Bell, who embodies the genre and form of the blues in its entirety.

Art Bell has had music in his soul since he was five-years-old. At the age of 12, after cutting grass all summer, Art saved up enough money to purchase his first guitar from a jazz musician, named Fleet Green, who owned a music store. I never go anywhere without a guitar these days, says Art while sitting across from me in a local Thai restaurant, in Charlotte, NC. Art has since lain to rest his first guitar and now performs with three friends he likes to call, Miss Fender, Miss Gibson and Miss Rickenbacker. Besides for being a guitarist, Art is also an accomplished vocalist, bassist, percussionist and keyboardist.

I have been a performer for about 45-years, and through the years I have become a better listener and a well seasoned musician, song writer, lyricist and composer, says Art who has composed over 300 original tracks.

Influences: Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, to name but a few.

Contact: joekubatnick@gmail.com

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About: Tinsley Ellis

Hard-rocking blues-soaked guitarist/vocalist/song-writer Tinsley Ellis sings and plays with the energy and soul of all the great Southern musicians who have come before him. Ellis attacks his music with rock power and blues feeling, following in the tradition of Deep South musical heroes Duane Allman, Freddie King, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes. His live shows feature extended fretwork filled with melodic and rhythmic experimentation, in the spirit of jam bands like his friends Widespread Panic and The Allman Brothers. Atlanta Magazine declared Ellis "the most significant blues artist to emerge from Atlanta since Blind Willie McTell."

Since first hitting the national scene with his Alligator Records debut, GEORGIA BLUE, in 1988, Ellis has toured non-stop and continued to release one critically acclaimed album after another. His stellar guitar work, always a staple of his live shows and CDs, is matched by his strong songwriting and powerful, soulful vocals. Tinsley's hometown paper, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, calls his music, "a potent, amazing trip through electric blues-rock."

Ellis made five critically acclaimed albums for Alligator between 1988 and 1997 before recording for the Capricorn and Telarc labels. His high-energy LIVE-HIGHWAYMAN, the long-awaited live album his fans have been demanding for years, marked his return to Alligator records. "Tinsley is one of the finest younger generation blues rockers. He's made great albums for us in the past, and we're excited to have him back in the Alligator family. He's great in the studio, but even better live, so I'm really excited about this recording," said Iglauer.

Ellis' latest release on Alligator, MOMENT OF TRUTH, captures all the power and energy of his legendary live performances. His vocals reach new heights of soulfulness and expressiveness; his guitar playing is ferocious and relentless, but, when the mood calls for it, gentle and moving. What really sets the album apart, though, is the depth of Ellis’ songwriting. The material deals in matters both personal and universal and runs the gamut of human emotions. MOMENT OF TRUTH is Ellis’ most wide-ranging and inspired recording.

Born in Atlanta in 1957, Ellis grew up in southern Florida and first played guitar at age eight. He found the blues through the backdoor of the British Invasion bands like The Yardbirds, The Animals, Cream, and The Rolling Stones. He especially loved the Kings--Freddie, B.B. and Albert--and spent hours immersing himself in their music. His love for the blues solidified when he was 14. At a B.B. King performance, Tinsley sat mesmerized in the front row. When B.B. broke a string on Lucille, he changed it without missing a beat, and handed the broken string to Ellis. After the show, B.B. came out and talked with fans, further impressing Tinsley with his warmth and down-to-earth attitude. By now Tinsley's fate was sealed; he had to become a blues guitarist. And yes, he still has that string.

Already an accomplished teenaged musician, Ellis left Florida and returned to Atlanta in 1975. He soon joined the Alley Cats, a gritty blues band that included Preston Hubbard (of Fabulous Thunderbirds fame). In 1981, along with veteran blues singer and harpist Chicago Bob Nelson, Tinsley formed The Heartfixers, a group that would become Atlanta's top-drawing blues band. Upon hearing LIVE AT THE MOONSHADOW (Landslide), the band's second release, The Washington Post declared, "Tinsley Ellis is a legitimate guitar hero." After cutting two more Heartfixers albums for Landslide, COOL ON IT (featuring Tinsley's vocal debut) and TORE UP (with vocals by blues shouter Nappy Brown), Ellis was ready to head out on his own. Ellis sent a copy of the master tape for his solo debut to Bruce Iglauer at Alligator Records. "I had heard COOL ON IT," recalls Iglauer, "and I was amazed. I hadn't heard Tinsley before, but he played like the guys with huge international reputations. It wasn't just his raw power; it was his taste and maturity that got to me. It had the power of rock but felt like the blues. I knew I wanted to hear more of this guy."

GEORGIA BLUE, Tinsley's first Alligator release, hit an unprepared public by surprise in 1988. Critics and fans quickly agreed that a new and original guitar hero had emerged. "Dazzling musicianship pitched somewhere between the exhilarating volatility of rock and roll and the passion of urban blues," raved the Los Angeles Times. Before long, Alligator arranged to reissue COOL ON ITand TORE UP, thus exposing Tinsley's blistering earlier music to a growing fan base." The Chicago Tribune celebrated the release by saying, "Ellis takes classic, Southern blues-rock workouts and jolts them to new life with a torrid axe barrage."

Tinsley's next release, 1989's FANNING THE FLAMES, further expanded the guitarist's hero status. By now his talents as a songwriter equaled his guitar prowess. Guitar World shouted, "Ellis stands alongside Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Winter, and that ain't just hype." 1992's TROUBLE TIME added guests Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and keyboardist Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones), and brought even more critical acclaim Ellis' way. The song >Highwayman received airplay on commercial rock radio stations across the country. "Alive, kicking and drenched in sweat," declared The Washington Post.

1994's STORM WARNING was Ellis' true breakthrough. Recorded live in the studio with his road-savvy band and produced by Eddy Offord (John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Yes), the album was a tour-de-force of smoking guitar workouts and radio-friendly blues rockers. Features and reviews ran in Rolling Stone, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and in many other national and regional publications. His largest audience by far came when NBC Sports ran a feature on Atlanta's best blues guitarist during their 1996 Summer Olympic Coverage viewed by millions of people all over the world.

FIRE IT UP followed in 1997. Produced by the legendary Tom Dowd (Allman Brothers, Ray Charles), the album featured Ellis' blazing guitar playing and expressive, soulful vocals in better form than ever. With Dowd's deft production touch--along with Tinsley's fiery road band and a host of talented musicians, including famed bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn on seven songs--Ellis reached new heights, coming up with some of the best performances of his career. The Associated Press called the CD, "A solid heaping of blues...a mixture of well-written originals and covers all held together with scorching guitar and a big voice to carry his sharply written lyrics."

A move to Capricorn Records in 2000 saw Ellis revisiting his Southern roots with KINGPIN. Unfortunately, the label folded soon after the CD's release. In 2002, he joined the Telarc label, producing two well-received albums of soul-drenched blues-rock, HELL OR HIGH WATER and THE HARD WAY. All the while, Ellis never stopped touring. "A musician never got famous staying home," he's quick to note.

Ellis has played in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Europe, Australia and South America. Whether he's out with his own band or sharing stages with The Allman Brothers, Robert Cray, Koko Taylor or Widespread Panic, he averages over 150 performances a year, bringing his fast-moving, high-energy, guitar-drenched performances to fans all over the world. Live, there's simply no one better at igniting a crowd, jamming with focus and purpose...

DISCOGRAPHY
Moment of Truth 2007 (Alligator)
Live-Highwayman 2005 (Alligator)
The Hard Way 2004 (Telarc)
Hell Or High Water 2002 (Telarc)
Kingpin 2000 (Capricorn)
Fire It Up 1997 (Alligator)
Storm Warning 1994 (Alligator)
Trouble Time 1992 (Alligator)
Fanning The Flames 1989 (Alligator)
Georgia Blue 1988 (Alligator)
Cool On It 1986 (Landslide/reissued on Alligator)

Contact: http://tinsleyellis.com/booking.html

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About: Eddie Martin

With 12 rave-reviewed CD releases and constant globe-trotting since turning professional in 1995, London-born Martin has been called "The Ambassador of British Blues". As adept on acoustic instruments as electric, and as a soloist or band leader, he ranks amongst the most successfully versatile bluesmen in the world.

Nominated best UK Blues Guitarist, Best Harmonica Player, Best Band, Best Acoustic Artist and Best Blues CD release many times, his songs have made it onto TV and film soundtracks and to the song stable of Alligator Records. He has been broadcast live on international radio and TV with 3 sessions for BBC Radio 2, including at the famous Maida Vale Studios.

He is now touring internationally with Trio and Big Band to promote his new rave-reviewed cd "Looking Forward Looking Back" ("this album is special" Blues and Soul "Excellent" Blues News) featuring Pee Wee Ellis (ex James Brown) and the Little Big Horns (ex Mick Jagger), and as a one man band to promote his 11th cd release "Folk and Blues", ("Superb" fROOTS, Brilliant" GUITARIST, "masterpiece" by Blues in Britain).

There is no doubt that Martin's quarter century career of recording and performing has established his reputation as one of the most exciting and accomplished Blues Men alive today. He has invested most of his life in studying and contributing to the blues legacy. The impressive fruits of his considerable labors are plain to see – and hear - for those interested, but his determination to remain his own master, releasing his work only on his own label (Blueblood Records) may have kept his name below the radar for many.

Martin honed his skills touring the US, and lived for a while in Texas. Following his first acclaimed USA tour he was befriended by the Dallas/Fort Worth Blues community and toured and recorded with the "Texas Blues Kings" formerly with Smokin’ Joe Kubek. Cutting his playing teeth on the "chitlin circuit" he has had one-man band residencies on Beale St in Memphis and in the Jook Joints of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

As well as being recognized as a leading acoustic and electric guitarist he was also lauded as an Innovator for his rack-harmonica skills by the World Harmonica Festival in Germany where he performed solo, held a Master-class and judged the World Blues Harmonica Competition.

He continues to record live and studio sessions for National Radio program’s (BBC Radio 2 in the UK) of his own music. He has also been in demand as a guest session player, for example he played National Steel Slide guitar on the WC Handy Award-nominated “Blues and Beyond” cd by Dick Heckstall-Smith. (A founder member of John Mayalls’ "Blues Incorporated", Dick Heckstall-Smith described Eddie as “the hottest blues musician to come out of Britain since the 60s”). He has also been a guest harmonica player on live shows with the-late Honeyboy Edwards, Guy Davis and Larry Johnson.

His live performances have always attracted accolades, for example. "The stuff of legend" said Guitarist Magazine last year, "a live act not to be missed" said Blues Revue USA.

His acoustic style has developed into a percussive blend of traditional blues slide and fingerpicking styles. These he combines with rack harmonica playing and foot percussion in the style of the one-man-blues bands such as Duster Bennett, Joe Hill Louis and Dr Ross and is considered “the leading one man band in the UK” by the European Blues Association.

His Electric and Slide guitar-playing has seen his cd work commended by the Guitar Press all over, receiving "excellent" tags from "Guitar" "Guitarist" in the UK, “Vintage Guitar USA”, and "Guitar and Bass" in Germany.

A master songwriter, acoustic and electric guitarist, harmonica player and powerful singer, Eddie Martin has been described as "the most remarkable blues man of his generation" by Blues in Britain.

The biggest circulation blues magazine in the world, Blues Revue, concurred: “One of the UK’s best, whether solo/acoustic or loud/electric, he’s a master of both…years of experience separate him from pretenders. An exceptional guitarist he’s also been gifted with a most expressive blues voice. His greatest skill, however is his slide-playing. Add to that standalone harp skills and Mr. Martin’s ability to coin a phrase and build a song, distinguishes him from others. Songs like the haunting “Kind Lady Moon” underline his storyteller abilities…completing the spell with his guitar mastery.”

Contact: info@eddiemartin.com

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About: Magic Slim & The Teardrops

Magic Slim is a living blues legend who migrated from the South to Chicago during the 40s and 50s. Slim plays raw intense blues, a style that uses no pedals down on the floor, just him. Slim has paved the way for rock as well as modern blues. Slim has been busy traveling to 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 within it, and with his release on Blind Pig, "Raising The Bar," on CD, it has been receiving immense reviews and overwhelming recognition. Slim and The Teardrops performances have become legendary, and they play the blues with an undeniable intensity that will leave you out of breath on the floor and in need for more. This is a look into a man that's from the country and plays to audiences on stages all across the world.

This big man of the blues was born Morris Holt in Torrence, Mississippi on August 7th, 1937. His mother and father were sharecroppers; they lived on a farm and they all would get up early in the mornings and slop the hogs, feed the chickens, catch the mule and go out into the fields. "I still had to go to the field until I got age enough to leave home. I got little jobs around there when I was 13 and that was when I got my hand hurt. I hurt it in a cotton gin. I was at the gin and my hand got caught on a piece of wire going up in there, and I grabbed it and before I could turn it loose, I lost my little pinky finger." Slim showed his musical talents early, singing in his church choir and playing piano. After his accident he couldn't play the piano anymore because he didn't have that little pinky finger so he picked up the guitar. He made his first guitar out of bailing wire from a broom, which he nailed to a wall. "My Mama whopped me when I tore up her broom," he said, "but she let me keep on using it. My Mama said later that if she had known what I'd be into later, she wouldn't have given me a whopping."

It was in 1955 when Slim made his first trip to Chicago, to play for Magic Sam, a friend of his from home. Magic Sam also gave Slim tips on playing the guitar, and it was Sam who called his bass player "Magic Slim," because back then Slim was lean and tall and he learned from Sam quickly. Sam told Slim to develop his own guitar style. "Magic Sam told me, don't try to play like him, and don't try to play like no one else; he said get a sound of your own." Slim did get a sound of his own; his guitar tone is tough and cutting, united with a virbato formed by his fingers against the strings to reproduce the sound of a slide guitar while still being able to bend the note. Slim said, "I slide with my finger. I use nothing on my finger, a lot of players try to get a sound like me and I play the same guitar everybody else plays."

Slim's take on writing songs. "I just think of some words and write them down, think of some more and write them down, and then when I get enough words together I take out some and put some in there and make them rhyme together and then I learn them, then I put music to them." "My songs are either telling a story or asking a question. It's just a feelin'." I understand you do not practice or rehearse. "No, I don't." How do you make up your set lists for your shows? "I see what kind of crowd it is, I play a few songs and see how people react and just see if they are a dancin' crowd or an older crowd and go from there." Do you have a favorite CD? "No, I like them all." What about a song to play? "I don't know, I like to play all of them." "And I like to listen to blues, jazz, bluesgrass and country and western." Some of Slim's favorite places to play are Brazil, Paris, Russia and here at home in the U.S.

What accomplishment stand out in your mind? "I've done so many things that make me proud, for one I like to make the people happy when I''m playing on stage and two, when I won the Handy for "Best Blues Band."

Where do you think the blues is headed? "I think the blues is coming back now, there are a lot of these kids reading up on the blues and now they know where the blues came from. Some of them can play too; I don't know how they feel, because the blues is a feelin'. You have to feel the blues to play it." What advice do you have fo aspiring young guitarists? "If you want to play the blues, play the blues. If you are goin' to play rock, play rock. I didn't say not to learn everything else, whatever you want to be, be that."

Magic Slim is a man that came from the country; he was slim and tall trying to play the blues, now he can play the blues. And like Slim says, "If you want to play the blues, play the blues, if you don't feel the blues, leave it alone, cause you can't be playin' it if you don't feel it."

Contact: http://www.magicslimblues.com/contactinformation.htm