The James Cotton Blues Band w/ Jr Krauss and The Shakes + The Delta Generators

Saturday June 29, 2013 @ 7:30 PM

The New York Daily News calls Cotton "the greatest living blues harmonica player." The New York Times adds, "Cotton helped define modern blues harmonica with his moaning, wrenching phrases and his train-whistle wails."

Cotton Mouth Man proves James Cotton's high-compression blues harmonica playing is a true force of nature, while his songs and stories are a living history of the blues. As The San Francisco Examiner says, "James Cotton is an inimitable blues legend. His wailing harmonica blows them away. His improvisations on the blues are full of fun and good humor. The blues don't get much better."

Cotton's history is now the stuff of legend. Born on a cotton plantation in Tunica, Mississippi on July 1, 1935, he learned harmonica directly from Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) as a small child. He toured with Howlin' Wolf, recorded for Sun Records, and spent 12 years with Muddy Waters before stepping out on his own. Leading his own band, he rose to the very top of the blues and rock scenes, touring non-stop and earning his reputation as one of the most powerful live blues performers in the world, a man who could literally suck the reeds out of the harmonica from the pure force of his playing.

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Jr. Krauss and The Shakes is a CT based blues band. This 4 piece group came together in 1999, formed by veteran musicians with a common desire to play blues and jump of the original stars of the postwar blues renaissance. - In the tradition of stars like Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Horton Heat, Otis Rush, Big Walter Horton, NRBQ, The Paladins and a whole lot more. This band lays it down with conviction and tone.

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The Delta Generators have accomplished a lot since forming in 2008. They won the Boston Blues Society’s blues challenge in 2008, which earned them a spot in the International Blues Challenge held in Memphis in 2009. The band finished as a Top 10 Finalist out of over a hundred bands in Memphis. The Delta Generators also won an Independent Music Award for Best Blues Album category for their debut, Devil in the Rhythm in 2009. They also won Best Blues Band in Worcester Magazine for 2009 and were nominated for Best R&B Act in the Boston Phoenix in 2010. Hard River to Row has been selected by the Blues Foundation as a Top 5 Finalist (out of 55 entries worldwide) in the best self-produced CD competition at the International Blues Challenge in 2011.

“Great Songs! Great Licks!” – David Z, Producer (Buddy Guy, Etta James, Johnny Lang)

“The Delta Generators provide…the big blast of fresh air the blues-and-roots scene in the Greater Boston metropolitan area has needed for years.” -Frank-John Hadley, DownBeat columnist

“It’s immediately obvious why they stand out among regional blues acts” – Jay N. Miller, Patriot Ledger

Links:

Tickets:

$30, $40