Since 2014, drummer/bandleader Robert Sput Searight and percussionist Nate Werth have led an incredible collective of musicians brought together as a groove-based funk, hip-hop and jazz group which has amassed a global audience. With Mustard n’Onions – the follow-up to 2018’s critically acclaimed Swagism – the band brings the funk to new levels with an album of originals featuring bassist MonoNeon (Prince), keyboardist Dominique Xavier Taplin (Toto), saxophonist/arranger Sylvester “Sly5thave'' Onyejiaka and more alongside special guest keyboardist and legend Bernard Wright.
Supersonic Blues Machine will be releasing their band-new studio album Voodoo Nation on June 24 via Provogue/Mascot Label Group. The album once again features another coming together of icons along with some of the most exciting names in blues; Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke), Eric Gales, Joe Louis Walker, Ana Popovic, Kirk Fletcher, King Solomon Hicks, Josh Smith & Sonny Landreth.
Zito's 16th album is descriptively titled Rock N Roll: A Tribute to Chuck Berry. This release finds him broadening his boundaries still further even as it marks a return to his roots. The album consists of 20 Chuck Berry classics performed by Zito and an impressive array of 21 guest guitarists, among them Joe Bonamassa, Walter Trout, Eric Gales, Robben Ford, Richard Fortus, Sonny Landreth, Luther Dickinson, Albert Castiglia, Anders Osborne, and, significantly, Chuck's grandson, Charlie Berry III.
Grammy-nominated powerhouse singer-songwriter Beth Hart has announced her new studio album, ‘You Still Got Me’, which will be released on 25 October via Provogue / Mascot Label Group. The album features appearances by Eric Gales and Guns ‘n Roses’ Slash.
If you have ever seen Beth Hart live or immersed yourself in her music, you know she puts every ounce of her being into her songs. Firebrands inspire; it's what attracts people to them. However, part of those personalities' makeup is that they do not wear a harness. They thrive on the freedom and space around them. But, with that comes danger; you need an emotional crash mat, and those save lives. It is something we all need at times throughout our lives.
We all have our "Me" when she sings "You still got me" - a loved one, a friend, a pet, a place, a memory…
Gary Hoey released his new blues album NEON HIGHWAY BLUES on March 15, 2019 on Provogue Records. Starting with 2013's DEJA BLUES and continuing with 2016's DUST & BONES, Hoey has tapped into his early musical influences and applied his own feral skills to take the format in a unique direction. He stays in the same lane on his latest endeavor, NEON HIGHWAY BLUES, steering its 11 tracks with the confidence and assuredness of a veteran and the freshness of someone who's still in the process of discovery and refinement – with the help of famous friends such as Eric Gales, Lance Lopez, Josh Smith and Hoey's 17-year-old son Ian.
For something less traditional but no less killing, try Melvin Taylor & The Slack Band’s Bang That Bell. A post-Hendrix exercise in funky-blue wah-wah wailing, this one has more allusions to Prince and the Isley Brothers than Muddy and the Wolf. In the course of a single tune (“Another Bad Day”) he can blend jazzy, Wes Montgomery-styled octaves with over-the-top wah-wah work and metalesque speed picking. But in spite of all the virtuosic six-string technique, Taylor can also get up into some nasty real-deal shuffles and earthy funk, as he proves so convincingly on “It’s Later than You Think,” which features some brilliant harmonica playing by Sugar Blue, and on a super-funky updating of the Earl King classic “Trick Bag.” And he digs into a slow blues, “A Quitter Never Wins,” with fangs bared. The closer, “Even Trolls Love Rock & Roll,” is a wild fretboard scorcher featuring guest guitar slinger Eric Gales. A tremendous guitarist and soulful singer, Taylor is a major versatile talent on the crossover blues-rock circuit that includes the likes of Robert Cray, Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
The Apocalypse Blues Revue - The new band from Godsmack’s Shannon Larkin and Tony Rombola announce new self titled album released on Provogue/Mascot Label Group. As the legend goes, Robert Johnson infamously started his career by meeting the Devil at the crossroads. By the same token, you could say Apocalypse Blues Revue began playing at the end of the world. Co-founded by Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola and featuring vocalist Ray “Rafer John” Cerbone and bassist Brian Carpenter, the quartet honors blues traditions, while etching their stamp on the genre in blood.
Supersonic Blues Machine have the form of a supergroup, but only their drummer, Kenny Aronoff, is well known. The other two members – bassist/producer Fabrizio Grossi and guitarist/vocalist Lance Lopez – are behind-the-scenes musicians but they're all united by a love of classic blues and classic rock. The latter is what initially brought Aronoff and Grossi together. The two musicians were playing in Goodfellas, a side project from Toto guitarist Steve Lukather. Not long afterward, Grossi was working with Lopez on an album by the guitarist and that turned into the band that became Supersonic Blues Machine. Several guests visited the studio during the recording of the band's debut – the biggest being Billy Gibbons, Warren Haynes, and Robben Ford – and the subsequent West of Flushing South of Frisco saw release in early 2016. The band's sophomore effort, 2017's Californisoul, featured guest spots from Gibbons, Steve Lukather, Eric Gales, and Walter Trout.