Music Information
Get ready for a day of amazing music. Here's who's confirmed so far:
There’s nothing sad about the blues that Joey Fender and the 55’s play. Blended with Country and rockabilly, it has a happy spontaneity, with fast shuffles and epic guitar solos and lyrics that Fender sometimes concocts on the fly.
Returning to the Cook-Off for the sixth time, Joey will rock your socks off. If you've never stayed for the finale, you should plan to this year. Joey will make sure this final event at the Smith Ranch is the best yet. As a talented songwriter and musician, Joey bring pure heart to the stage. Joey is a true perfomer and constantly amazes the crowd with his music and his moves.
Joey Fender and the 55's have been playing off and on for nearly a decade now, but Fender is its only original member. He’s recorded four CDs, including his most recent, Don’t Fence Me In!, a live collection. He and his band have opened for B.B. King, Jethro Tull and other stars in Anchorage, Alaska (Joey's hometown) and they’re mainstays at the annual Anchorage Blues on the Green festival and Sturgis Bike Week.
Earl Thomas had never picked up a microphone in his life until he was nearly killed after losing his footing at the edge of a 50-foot ravine and slid all the way down, landing unconscious on a pile of broken glass and debris. Luckily, the 22-year-old dental student was only bruised, but not knowing the extent of the damage upon regaining consciousness, he reflected on his disappointment at not having pursued his dream of becoming a singer, and resolved to do just that if he survived. Nine years later, he recorded 1991's Blue...Not Blues, a record strongly influenced by his parents' love of blues and gospel music and his own affinity for '60s and '70s soul. His "I Sing the Blues" became a hit for Etta James, and he played European music festivals with such artists as Elvis Costello and B.B. King. His second album, Extra Soul, was released in 1994 on the Memphis International label, followed by a second for the imprint, Intersection, in 2005.
"Thug jazz," "pub-hop," "gangster jazz," "jazz mafia" — call it what you want, but the avant-garde style of The Shotgun Wedding Quintet is carving a new path for hip-hop in San Francisco.
Unlike traditional hip-hop and pop groups that tend to focus on a lead, The Shotgun Wedding Quintet emphasizes the importance of each instrument with respect to the group's overall sound. The result is a controlled chaos of rap, big band, electronic and symphonic music that vocalist Dave "Dublin" Payne-Schwirtz calls a "thinking man's hip-hop."
So much happens on stage at a Shotgun Wedding Quintet show that one has a hard time knowing where to look. Joe Cohen juggles the keyboard, flute and three different types of saxophones; Adam Theis alternately plucks a seven-string bass and pulls on a trombone. Gerald "P. Dub" Patrick plays various percussive instruments, including the electronic drums, and DJ/Producer "Aspect" McCarthy brings it all together electronically.
excerpt from Performer Magazine article by Lulu McAllister
