Victor Wainwright

It had to be a train. The name of Victor Wainwright's new band - and the sleeve image of their debut album - is also the most fitting of metaphors. In music folklore, the train might have associations with the freight-hopping bluesmen of yore, but with this restless boogie-woogie innovator stoking the furnace, this project is a charging locomotive - surging forward, crashing through boundaries of genre, sweeping up fresh sounds and clattering headlong past the doubters. At a sweet-spot in his career, where most established stars would rest on their laurels, Victor Wainwright & The Train instead rips up all that has gone before. These twelve tracks are originals in every sense, written by Wainwright, pricking up ears in a sterile music industry and stretching the concept of roots in bold directions. The result is an album that walks a tightrope between scholarly respect and anarchic irreverence. On this white-knuckle ride, only The Train could keep the material on the tracks. "I ended up with a hit-squad of downright amazing musicians," he reflects, "that shared my curiosity for all corners of the roots genre. We wanted to capture how we feel performing, right smack-dab on this record, and I believe we've done that. Now I just try to keep up…"

Based in Memphis, Georgia native Victor Wainwright has a shelf full of Blues Music Awards and a Grammy nomination. Memphis Loud confirms the singer-pianist’s reputation as a dynamic performer and songwriter who’s expanding his roots music foundation in captivating directions…

When blues fans Jerry Del Giudice and Edward Chmelewski started the Blind Pig label as an outgrowth of the live venue of the same name in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1977, there was no way they could have known the home they were creating for blues and Americana music would have over the next four decades. The number of legends who have recorded for the label is staggering, and their fi nest moments are collected on the brand new Blind Pig Records 40th Anniversary CollectioN. With 34 classic tracks on 2 CDs, the collection spans 40 years of blues history.

When blues fans Jerry Del Giudice and Edward Chmelewski started the Blind Pig label as an outgrowth of the live venue of the same name in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1977, there was no way they could have known the home they were creating for blues and Americana music would have over the next four decades. The number of legends who have recorded for the label is staggering, and their finest moments are collected on the brand new Blind Pig Records 40th Anniversary Collection. With 34 classic tracks on 2 CDs, the collection spans 40 years of blues history. This wide-ranging compilation, which boasts more than 2 hours of music, is a study in the genre, from current titans like Popa Chubby, Albert Cummings and Victor Wainwright & The WildRoots winners of Best Band at the 2016 Blues Musics to no fewer than 13 legends enshrined in the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis, with James Cotton, Otis Rush, Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Otis Clay and Magic Slim among them, not to mention a classic live recording by the one and only Muddy Waters.