News
God’s Tattoos advance copies now shipping!
God’s Tattoos, the latest album from William Lee Ellis, has arrived from the duplicator and we’re shipping advance copy orders now! Produced by Jim Dickinson at his North Mississippi Zebra Ranch, God’s Tattoos is an aural dreamscape where blues, gospel, acoustic pop, roots rock, and even a rhumba beat merge to explore “the indelible ink of experience”, or the psychic and emotional scars we all acquire in our lifetimes. Read the press release (PDF) here.
- More details and sound samples
- Mark your calendar… Memphis CD Release party 7/28/06
- Album shipping now! Visit the Order page to get your copy.
- Update! Giant list of reviews posted here…
Chris Cotton on tour!
Chris Cotton recently returned from a nationwide tour of live performances, taking him through fourteen states in five weeks – from his west-coast base of San Francisco to the east coast of Florida and back. He’s written a blog about the trip entitled 14,000 miles in 28,000 words – check it out on Chris’ myspace site: www.myspace.com/cottonchris.
The past year has been an eventful one for Cotton as he was nominated for Artist of the Year in BluesWax magazine’s readers poll, and is profiled in an article in the Spring issue of Frets magazine.
And last month, we received our 100th Anniversary edition of Blues Revue magazine in which Chris is featured in a 2-page article as one of “Ten Artists to Watch” representing the future of the blues. We love Chris’ “callout” quote, set in large type: “The Blues is choking on this image of instrumentalist-driven bands: loud guitar players, loud harmonica players, 10-minute solos.”
Music Week in Memphis
After you finish watching Fats Domino closing out JazzFest on Sunday May 7th, head right on up to Memphis for another fantastic week of music! On May 8, 9, and 10 are “3 insane nights of rock and roll” at the 5th Annual Ponderosa Stomp, held this year in Memphis. The Ponderosa Stomp is an American roots music festival dedicated to recognizing the architects of rock-n-roll, blues, jazz, country, swamp pop, reggae and soul. The Stomp exists to celebrate, pay tribute to, and teach the cultural significance of the unsung heroes and heroines of rock-n-roll, rhythm & blues and other forms of American roots music while they are still alive.
And don’t forget that the Blues Music Awards (OK, we still like calling them the “Handy Awards”) are on Thursday May 11. At the Memphis Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis. With nearly 50 nominees confirmed to attend and perform, it’s definitely a night of “all you can eat” blues to remember!