Artists
Curtis Salgado
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Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Gruenling
Get Your Back Into It! was produced by Moss and Mantovani and contains fourteen original songs -- twelve by Moss and two by Gruenling. Guests include saxophonist “Sax” Gordon Beadle and organist “Brother” John Kattke. The album is inspired by the electrifying blues sounds of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and is performed with taste, restraint, sly humor and pure joy. In addition to the expertly crafted lyrics, the album features three wild instrumentals that simply dare you to stay seated. “We're not reinventing the wheel," says Moss of the songs and performances on the new album, "but we like to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, and I feel like we accomplished that.”
Moss first made a name for himself playing bass for bluesman Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins. Dawkins encouraged Nick to unleash his fire and passion. From there, Moss was chosen by Willie “Big Eyes” Smith to join his Legendary Blues Band, but Smith insisted Moss switch to guitar. Blues icon Jimmy Rogers (whose best known songs included "Walking By Myself" and "Ludella") hired Moss as his touring guitarist, mentoring him on the blues lifestyle along the way. Today, Moss’ blistering fretwork, impassioned, soul-charged vocals and memorable original songs place him in a league of his own.
Dennis Gruenling, Moss’ friend of over 20 years, is considered among today’s most innovative and creative blues harmonica players. His high-energy, full-throttle reed work has earned him comparisons to many of the greats, including the late James Cotton. A self-taught player and a natural entertainer with seven solo albums and numerous guest appearances to his credit, Gruenling’s giant, fat-toned harp work, raw-boned singing and untamed energy are a perfect foil for Moss’ inspired guitar playing and straight-from-the-shoulder blues vocals. Vintage Guitar says, “Gruenling’s harp, along with the Midwestern intensity of Moss’ blues guitar, is pure ecstasy.”
The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling's first two Alligator albums, 2018's The High Cost Of Low Living and 2019’s Lucky Guy!, hit blues fans, press and radio by storm. Moss, Gruenling and the band received a total of five Blues Music Awards, with wins in 2020 for Band Of The Year, Song Of The Year (“Lucky ) and Traditional Blues Album Of The Year (Lucky Guy!), and in 2019 for Traditional Blues Male Artist (Moss) and Instrumentalist—Harmonica (Gruenling). Blues Music Magazine says, “Nick Moss is a major force in contemporary blues. Dennis Gruenling plays soaring harp...infectious and finger-snappin’.”
Lucky Guy! finished in the Top 10 on the Living Blues Radio Chart’s Top 50 Albums of 2019. Internationally, the album peaked on blues charts at #1 in Australia, #3 in France and #7 in the UK. Songs from Lucky Guy! were also prominently featured on BBC2 in Britain and CBC in Canada. The title track became one of the most played songs on SiriusXM’s Bluesville.
Now, with Get Your Back Into It! and upcoming North American and European tours in the works, The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling will bring their brash, exciting blues to old fans and new. Performing at clubs, concert halls and on festival stages across the country and around the world, the band ignites an irresistible, musical firestorm onstage. “When we get together, the music takes over,” says Moss. “We can’t hold back, and the energy just comes pouring out. We get carried away and the audience gets carried away with us.”
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Mark Hummel
Grammy Nominee, Blues Award Winner, Author, Harp Man Mark Hummel had a banner year in 2014. Grammy Nominated for his Remembering Little Walter CD he produced and performed on, Mark also won Best Blues CD and Best Traditional Blues CD at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, TN. Mark's The Hustle Is Really On climbed to #2 and stayed in the top five for four months on the Living Blues Radio Charts. Hummel's book "BIG ROAD BLUES:12 Bars on I-80" garnered rave reviews and was nominated for best Independent Book release.
Mark Hummel started playing harmonica in 1970 and is considered one of the premier blues harmonica players of his generation. Thanks to over thirty recordings since 1985, including the Grammy nominated 2013 release Blind Pig recording Remembering Little Walter (part of the Blues Harmonica Blowout CD series). Mark Hummel's Blues Harmonica Blowout™ started in 1991 and have featured every major legend (Mayall, Musselwhite, Cotton, etc.) on blues harp as well as almost every player of note on the instrument - a who's who of players.
Hummel is a road warrior - a true Blues Survivor. Along the way, he has crafted his own trademark harmonica sound - a subtle combination of tone, phrasing and attack combined with a strong sense of swing. Mark has been with Electro Fi Records since 2000, releasing five CDs. Thanks to Mark's earlier albums, constant touring and appearances at the major blues festivals, he's firmly established his solid reputation around the US and Europe.
Born in New Haven, CT but raised in Los Angeles till he graduated high school. Mark moved to the Berkeley at age 18 to pursue a career in blues music, where he felt the music was taken more seriously.
Mark started the Blues Survivors in 1977 with Mississippi Johnny Waters. By 1984 Hummel began a life of non- stop touring of the US, Canada and overseas, which he still continues at least 130-150 days out of each year. Hummel has toured or recorded with blues legends Charles Brown, Charlie Musselwhite, Lowell Fulson, Billy Boy Arnold, Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, Brownie McGhee, Eddie Taylor, Luther Tucker and Jimmy Rogers.
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Sweet Marta
Sweet Marta is the only female harmonica player on the blues harmonica scene in the entire Spanish state. She comes from Salt, a town in Girona located in the northeast of Catalonia. Her discovery of her genre is linked to that of the harmonica, at the age of 22, being a double passion and causing the artist to occupy a very prominent place in the field of state and international blues scene in a few years. Sweet Marta blows and stomps hard on stage, daring without complexes. That's why Sweet Marta has shared the stage and has been invited by great artists of the national and international blues scene such as Paul Orta, Greg Izor, Victor Puertas, Joan Pau Cumellas, Nico Wayne Toussaint, Knock Out Greg, Steve West Weston, Mark Hummel, Tony Holiday, among others.
Little by little, Sweet Marta is a referent for many harmonica lovers and receives good reviews from leading harmonica players that she herself follows.
Currently Sweet Marta is making her way through Europe and outside Europe.
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Mitch Kashmar
Born in 1960, Mitch started his band,The Pontiax, in 1980, just when “roots music” was to start enjoying new popularity (Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbords, Los Lobos, Robert Cray, George Thorogood, The Blasters etc). “People we knew were MAKING IT”, he says.The Pontiax fast became popular all around southern California both on their own and backing all the true Blues legends living in the area such as Big joe Turner, Willie Dixon, Lowell Fulson, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Pee Wee Crayton, Jimmy Witherspoon, Lou Donaldson, Joe Houston to name a few.
The Pontiax released their original album “100 Miles to Go” in 1989, touring the US, Canada and Europe in the euphoria that followed The Wall coming down also in 1989, playing clubs, festivals and Blues Society concerts that to date have taken Mitch to over 25 countries. Solo releases followed, Mitch was the very first artist signed to the brand new Delta Groove records (now Delta Groove Music) in 2005 releasing “Nickels and Dimes” that same year followed by: “Wake up and Worry” 2006, “Live at LaBatt” 2008, “100 Miles to Go” 2010, re-issuing the original Pontiax record with added new tracks from a reunion of the band in the studio. 2016 brought the classic “West Coast Toast” with a stellar band featuring the classic sounds of upright bass, acoustic piano and fat-bodied guitar.