Bluzapalooza

BOBBY RUSH
www.bobbyrush.net
Jackson, Mississippi

At a time when most of his contemporaries are resting on their laurels, Bobby Rush - a 50-year veteran of the stage - remains one of the most exciting and creative artists in the R&B/blues arena. Rush’s live shows are without parallel, replete with costume changes and comedic sketches acted out with the assistance of his lovely female dancers. In addressing a broad range of matters of the heart, Rush adopts various onstage persona - the adoring lover, the cuckold, the boastful stud - delivering all with a knowing wink that assures the audience that he’s in on the joke.

In the context of today’s all too predictable and sanitized blues market, it’s easy to understand why audiences new to Rush’s performances often find them novel or even bewildering. Unique they are, but Rush’s signifying, jesting, and double entendré jiving are at the heart of the blues, as exemplified by forbears such as Bessie Smith, Louis Jordan, and Howlin’ Wolf.

Bobby Rush - it’s pronounced as one three-syllable name - calls his music “folk funk,” an apt description for a blend that’s both decidedly modern and deeply rooted in tradition. Over the decades he has consistently updated his music by incorporating new styles - Chicago blues, soul, funk, reggae, and hiphop - into a fresh mix. At the same time, his original compositions often stem from his dipping into the well of folk wisdom, as exemplified by songs like “What’s Good For The Goose Is Good For The Gander Too.”

The son of a preacher man, Bobby Rush was born Emmet Ellis, Jr. in the north Louisiana town of Homer; he later adopted his stage name out of respect for his father. He built his first instrument, a primitive guitar or “diddley bow,” and by his early teens he was donning a fake mustache and appearing at Deep South juke joints. In the mid 50’s he moved to Chicago, where his bands included Freddie King, Earl Hooker, and Luther Allison, and on jaunts back to his family home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, he performed with artists including Elmore James.

Also early in his teens Rush began working as a bandleader once he realized that he could control his own destiny if he owned all the equipment. His entrepreneurial flair is legendary among fellow musicians, who fondly recall his earning double pay by working in disguise as the emcee on his own gigs, and his shuffling between three gigs a night at West Side nightclubs.

Rush’s popularity as a live performer in Chicago set back the development of his recording career, but he began to achieve national acclaim in 1971 following the success of his hit “Chicken Heads” on Galaxy Records. Over the next decade he recorded for labels including Jewel, Philadelphia International, Warner Brothers, and toured widely on the “chitlin’ circuit,” the decades’ old network of clubs that stretches in a rough triangle between east Texas, north Florida, and Chicago.

In the early ‘80s Rush moved to his current home of Jackson, Mississippi, where he recorded a series of albums for the LeJam, Ichiban, and Malaco labels, and gained the title of “King of the Chitlin’ Circuit” in the wake of hits including “Sue,” “Wearin’ It Out,” “Ain’t Studdin’ You,” and “Hoochie Man.” In 2003 Rush fulfilled his longtime dream of forming his own label, Deep Rush Records, recording the CD “Undercover Lover” and capturing the magic of his live show on DVD at the club Ground Zero in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The same year his showmanship was featured in Richard Pearce’s documentary film “The Road To Memphis,” part of Martin Scorsese’s film series “The Blues.”

Rush has also demonstrated his deep blues roots in the last several years through several special recording projects on Deep Rush. On 2004’s “Folk Funk” he revisited the funk era on a live studio outing with guitarist Alvin Youngblood Hart, and on his most recent CD “Raw” he strips his sound down to the basics, appearing only with his guitar and harmonica. Although he still maintains a busy schedule with his band, these sessions have inspired him to make occasional solo performances, which have been wonderfully received.

In the last decade Rush has gained new audiences through performances at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and on festival stages in Europe and Japan. But catch him on an average weekend and he’s just as likely to be playing to packed houses in chitlin' circuit clubs in places like Nesbit, MS, and Smackover, AR, before mostly black, working class audiences that conventional blues wisdom suggests no longer exist.

Success in the music business often entails leaving behind the people who sustained you during your early years, but that’s not a price Bobby Rush is willing to pay. As his career takes off in new directions, he’s determined to keep it real, presenting the same unadulterated show as he moves from Tokyo to Smackover. Or as he explains in what has become somewhat a mantra of late, “I want to cross over, not cross out.”

In 2007 Rush conquered a new frontier when he was honored by the Great Wall Foundation of China as the pioneer of African American original folk music. In August 2007 Bobby Rush performed in Yulin, China before more than forty thousand Chinese fans. This performance and the nine-day four city trip through China was captured on film and will be released in April 2008 as the feature-length documentary titled “Experience the Rush, Live at the Great Wall of China.” Rush has been named the Official spokesperson for the Great Wall Foundation in the US for 2008 and will headline a cultural tour in China, Russia and the US to be called the Great Wall International Art & Music Festival.

In April 2008, Rush will headline Bluzapalooza, the first ever blues concert tour for Armed Forces Entertainment visiting Kuwait and Iraq. Rush’s 2007 album "Raw" has been nominated for four Blues Music Awards:

· Acoustic Album of the Year
· Acoustic Artist of the Year
· B.B. King Entertainer of the Year
· Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year



JANIVA MAGNESS
www.janivamagness.com
Los Angeles, California

The story of award-winning vocalist Janiva Magness’ rise to the top of the blues world is a testament to the redemptive power of the music and the human spirit. Possessing a rich, soulful voice and absolute command over her material, Magness is an incredibly gifted performer who can lead her audience through a range of emotions, from sadness to joy. A survivor of an impossibly rough childhood, Magness’ life experience informs her music in a way that is brutally honest, emotionally moving and, above all, spiritually healing. Winner of the 2006 and 2007 Blues Music Awards for Best Contemporary Female Artist Of The Year, Magness has seven solo recordings to her credit and has made countless guest appearances on CDs from Kid Ramos, R.L. Burnside, Doug MacLeod, Jeff Turmes and others. She is nominated for a 2008 Blues Music Award for Entertainer Of The Year. Her presence on stage is legendary, as she performs 200 nights a year at clubs, festivals, and concert halls all over the world. She travels to Iraq and Kuwait in April 2008 as part of the Bluzapalooza concert tour to perform for American troops. Her still untitled new CD, her first for Alligator Records, is due later in 2008.

According to Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, signing Magness was a natural move for the label. “I’ve been watching Janiva over the last few years and seeing her mature into a major artist. Her deep, subtle understanding of blues and R&B music is obvious in every note she sings. Plus, her live performances simply captivate the audience. She’s going to be a wonderful addition to the Alligator roster, and prove to be one of today’s and tomorrow’s crucial blues voices.”

And Magness is equally thrilled. “I am so very grateful for all the gifts in my life. One of those gifts is joining the Alligator family. I’m very excited about this new chapter in my life. This is a huge step up for my career.”

Born in Detroit, Magness was inspired by the blues and country she heard on her father’s record collection and by the vibrant music of the city’s classic Motown sound. By her teenage years, though, her life was in chaos. She lost both parents to suicide by the time she was 16. She lived on the streets, was in 12 foster homes in two years, became a teenage mother who gave her baby up for adoption, bounced from city to city, and felt hopeless and desperate.

One winter’s night, Magness hitchhiked across Minneapolis to attend an Otis Rush concert, and for the first time saw her future. “It opened up some other place in me, like letting oxygen into a sealed crypt for the first time.” She began going to as many blues shows as possible, soaking up the sounds of her favorite artists, including Johnny Copeland and Albert Collins. She listened to James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, and all the other R&B greats.

It was music, particularly the blues, that sparked the young woman. Several years later, while working as an intern at a recording studio, she was approached to sing some supporting vocals on a track. Finding her voice, she soon began working regularly as a background singer. By the early 1980s, Magness made her way to Phoenix and befriended Bob Tate, the musical director for the great Sam Cooke. With Tate’s mentoring, she formed her first band, Janiva Magness and the Mojomatics, and within the year was named the city’s Best Blues Band by the influential Phoenix New Times. She moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and slowly began finding work. She married musician and songwriter Jeff Turmes with whom she recorded her first studio album, It Takes One To Know One, in 1997. After three more independent releases, Janiva signed with Northern Blues, and recorded Bury Him At The Crossroads in 2004 and Do I Move You? in 2006. Both CDs were co-produced by Magness along with Canadian roots star Colin Linden, and both garnered Magness a massive amount of critical and popular attention. Magness and Linden won the prestigious
Canadian Maple Blues Award for Producers Of The Year for Bury Him At The Crossroads in 2004. Do I Move You? was the #1 Blues CD Of The Year in 2006 on Living Blues magazine’s radio chart.

In addition to her musical accomplishments,
Magness is active in the Blues In Schools programs as well as being a National Spokesperson for Casey Family Programs promoting National Foster Care Month year round, a position she is honored to hold. She has reconnected
with her daughter, and is now the proud grandmother of a six-year-old boy. “I have a life today I never could have imagined,” says Magness. “The tragedies of my life no longer define me.”

What defines Janiva Magness is the strength, power and passion of her deeply soulful, emotionally moving music, sung with truth and soul-shaking talent. Magness is busy mapping out her upcoming Alligator debut while simultaneously barnstorming across the country. With the stars seemingly all lined up for her, Janiva Magness will continue wringing the truth from every note she sings, delighting fans old and new all over the world.



BILLY GIBSON
www.billygibson.com
Memphis, Tennessee

Billy Gibson first picked up the harmonica at a very young age. “It was cheap and I could easily make sounds with it.” After high school, Gibson’s desire for learning and improving as a musician took him to Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he played with blues guitarist Johnnie Billington and drummer Bobby Little in Billington’s group The Midnighters. “Johnnie and Bobby taught me how to make it in this business,”
Gibson recalls.

Like many before him, Gibson eventually left Mississippi for Memphis. “Beale Street was my university of blues,” recalls Gibson, referring to the lessons learned as a Beale Street performer. “For a young musician, all you have to do is look and listen and you can learn so much.”

Gibson’s talent and commitment have not gone unrecognized. He received an endorsement from Hohner, his harmonica of choice in 1999. He has made guest appearances on national recording artists’ CDs including Deborah Coleman’s “Soft Place To Fall” (Blind Pig 2000) and Michael Burks’ “I Smell Smoke” (Alligator 2003). Around the same time, Gibson received a BA in music from the University of Memphis.

Gibson’s career has been a constant progression and immersion into many genres of music, with blues being the foundation and primary inspiration of his artistic endeavors. He has five albums under his belt, of which the latest studio recording landed him a Blues Music Award nomination.

2006 Blues Music Award Nominee for Best New Artist
2005 Beale Street Entertainer of the Year – affectionately known as “The Prince of Beale Street”
2004 Listed in Top 20 Memphis Flyer regional music poll
2003 Recording Academy Memphis Premier Player Award for outstanding harmonica player honored
jointly with Blind Mississippi Morris
2002 NARAS Memphis Premier Player Award for outstanding harmonica player
1999 Endorsed by Hohner
1993 West Tennessee Bluegrass Harmonica Champion



TONY BRAUNAGEL
www.tonybraunagel.com

Tony started playing in Houston, Texas in the mid-sixties eventually making his way to New York, then London where he worked as a studio drummer for Island Records, and became a founder member of a band called Crawler.

In the early eighties Tony moved to Los Angeles where he found work touring and recording with the likes of Eric Burdon, Rickie Lee Jones, Bette Midler, and Bonnie Raitt.

In 2000 after several years of touring with Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band, Tony produced the Grammy award-winning “Shoutin’ in Key” and has since produced two records for Eric Burdon, “My Secret Life”, and “Soul of a Man”.

Tony also has a recurring role on the sitcom “According to Jim” and plays in a band called The Sacred Hearts backing Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi as The Blues Brothers.

As a member of the Phantom Blues Band with two of their own releases on Delta Groove, he continues to live and work in Los Angeles.



JOHN HAHN
Songwriter, Producer, and Manager

John Hahn is co-producer of BLUZAPALOOZA, the first blues tour ever to entertain U.S. troops serving in the Mid East.

John is also Shemekia Copeland’s manager and a well-known songwriter and producer. He’s written more than 40 songs that have been recorded by artists such as Koko Taylor, B.B. King, Ruth Brown, Son Seals, as well as half of Copeland’s repertoire. “Turn the Heat Up”, which he wrote in 1999, was nominated for the W.C. Handy Song of the Year. In 2006, he was nominated for a Blues Music Award for "Who Stole My Radio?"

In addition, Hahn co-produced Copeland’s first two CDs, one of which was nominated for a Grammy. He also produced the Polygram recording “Flyin’ High” for her father, Johnny Clyde Copeland, as well as “Belfast Breakdown” for Irish artist, Rab McCullough.

In 2003, John served on the Year of the Blues Advisory Board.And since 2004, he has also served on the Blues Foundation's board of directors as a vice-president of the Executive Board.

Beyond the blues, Hahn has been a VP creative director at two of the most successful advertising agencies in the world, BBDO and McCann-Erickson, where he wrote commercials for a variety of accounts ranging from Alka-Seltzer to AT&T. His work merited both a gold and silver medal from the International Film & TV Festival of New York, as well as an award from the Chicago Film Festival.

His commercial work featured a variety of musical guests, including Delbert McClinton, Art Neville, Ron Carter, Milt Jackson, David Sanborn, Lou Ann Barton, Chris Hillman, Paul Shaffer, and an eclectic list of others.