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make you laugh out loud. He tours Eric Ramsey
Gretchen
widely in north-central Pennsylvania
from his home near Balls Mills.
Bostrom Duo
Phoenix Blues Society
Eric Ramsey believes that the
Massachusetts
blues are everywhere, that the
Blues Society
Doug Skoog and blues are a universal truth, transcending
class, culture, and gener-
Brian Feist Duo
ation. He is honored to be a part of
South Sound Blues
Association
the International Blues Challenge.
Doug Skoog and Brian Feist are
award-winning blues musicians Franc Robert
from Washington state. Skoog is
Suncoast Blues Society
from Tacoma and Feist is from
Centralia, just a bit farther south. Based on the north side of Tampa
Skoog’s piano playing is funky, Bay, Florida, for 25 years, Robert
tight, complicated playing that has been paying his dues playing
you could expect to hear with the blues! His 2014 album Ride
any top national act. His soulfulness
is heavily influenced by Delta Records received critical praise
the Iron Road on Blue Chihuahua
blues, Chicago blues, and gospel and extensive airplay across the
piano styles. Feist possesses expert
songwriting talent. His virtu-
has been touring throughout Flor-
U.S. and around the world, and he
oso blues guitar stylings and his ida and the Southeast and even
stalwart singing, in a style all his up to Canada in support of the
own, epitomize the blues. Skoog album. His sound draws on the
and Feist have played together off raw, deep-down Mississippi Delta
and on for the last six years and blues, with a more modern sense
Greyhound George
are co-founders of the award-winning
Blues Redemption Band. in new directions. It ain’t pretty
and Andy Grünert
of arrangement taking the blues
and polished, more like rough and
Baltic Blues
unadorned, and while Robert’s
Down in the Roots blues draws on the past, by no
Wyoming Blues and means is it a copy. He calls it “original
blues for the 21st century.”
Jazz Society
When you think of Wyoming, blues
is not the first thing that comes
Graham Guest
to mind—but don’t be fooled, this
duo authentically rocks the blues.
Edmonton Blues Society
Bob Greenspan is one of the better
electric blues/rock guitar playham
Guest is a veteran of numer-
Maple Blues Award nominee Graers
out there. Add in his stomp ous music projects. He is a pianist,
board, his smoky vocals, and singer, songwriter, producer, and
Mama T (Teresa Bollermann) holding
a steady, low-down groove group of artists who advanced to
radio host, and was one of a select
on the bass guitar, and what you the final round at the International
get is a sound that will make you Blues Challenge in 2013. Guest’s
want to get up and dance. Born album Relief, which charted on
in Chicago, Greenspan spent his CKUA radio in Canada, is a hybrid
formative years playing in blues of urban styles veering in and out
clubs there with many blues legends.
He is a published songwriter form. For Guest, sometimes throw-
of blues yet always rooted in the
with both Polygram-Universal ing down boogie-woogie piano is
and EMI, and had a song that the feeling for the day; sometimes
went to No. 1 on a French internet
radio station in 2006. tion with the audience by sing-
making a very personal connecing
one of his own songs is the
way to go. The bottom line is finding
the music in the moment and
the colors between the keys.
134 H SOLO/DUO The Blues Foundation • blues.org
Gretchen Bostrom and Tom Carroll
are fixtures on the Boston, Massachusetts,
blues scene. Bostrom is
a songwriter/solo artist as well as
co-founder and lead singer for the
popular Boston rhythm-and-blues
band the Juke Joint 5. Berklee
College of Music graduate Carroll
plays in several Boston-area blues,
rock, and country bands, and has
taught guitar, ukulele, and banjo
for the past 10 years. Together
they perform blues-influenced original
music as well as their interpretation
of the “B sides” of blues,
rockabilly, early rock–and-roll, and
rhythm-and-blues records. It’s
the music you might’ve heard in
the early ’50s on a distant, staticcrackling,
late-night radio show.
Greyhound George and Andy
Grünert are a German acoustic
duo whose music ranges from
Delta country blues to modern
Chicago-style and soul. Their performing
style has a back-porch
intimacy that draws you in and
a driving energy that makes you
want to dance all night and hope
the sun never rises. Greyhound’s
mastery of the Delta slide guitar
is matched by his delicate
Piedmont picking. Grünert’s harmonica
licks give power to Greyhound’s
Chicago-style songs, and
mellows out with his acoustic
playing to accentuate the authentic
old-time feel of Greyhound’s
slide-guitar work. Greyhound’s
original songs, from autobiographical
to bitingly topical, show that
the future of blues is secure.
Hat and Matching
Suitcase
The Blues Alliance of
the Treasure Coast
After 20 years together keeping
the groove going from Key West
to Montreal, bassman Deny Rowand
and drummer Rich Corricelli
come to Memphis to share
their insight into the blues from
the rhythm section’s perspective.
Using guitar, bass, and a vintage
Samsonite suitcase, they
give you a feel-it-in-your-gut, frontporch-style
blues where you can
imagine that once the party got
started, whatever was close at
hand to thump on became part of
the music. It is blues you feel in
your hips more than in your head
or heart. Providing you with “blues
to go,” the duo Hat and Matching
Suitcase fits just right, makes
you move in your seat, and gives
you a laugh or two along the way.
Idan Shneor
Israel Blues Society
Idan Shneor is one of Israel’s
leading young guitarists. Moving
from backstage to the front in
the last couple of years, Shneor
performs all over the country
with his original music, reaching
out and touching all audiences.
His music is intimate and
haunting; he combines traditional
grooves with contemporary
licks and modern singing, uniting
them in a fresh 21st-century
blues you certainly should hear!
InnerVision
Columbus Blues Alliance
InnerVision is the duo of Westerville,
Ohio, natives and Ohio State
School for the Blind grads Genene
Blackwell and Sam Shepherd.
They are proud to represent
the Columbus Blues Alliance in
the 2016 International Blues Challenge.
They are lifelong friends,
and spent the first months of life
together at Children’s Hospital recovering
from extreme prematurity
that robbed them of their sight.
32nd International Blues Challenge
SOLO/DUO H 135