Little Bobby Houle, 3 p.m.
Bobby Houle makes his home in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. He is a third-generation musician who was born on Red Lake Reservation and eventually followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, Robert "Bashful Bob" Houle - a member of the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame and National Rockabilly Hall of Fame - and father, Robert Houle Jr.
A self-taught musician like his elders, Bobby began playing guitar in high school. He wasn't exactly following in his grandfather's and father's footsteps of country music. Bobby said, "I don't know how I fell into the blues, but once I did I was hooked on it. I love playing the blues, because each performance will be different from the previous performance."
In 2005 Little Bobby released his first CD, Before the Storm. Later that year he landed a spot on the Last Ride Blues Festival in his hometown, and Buddy Guy was the headliner. What a way to kick off a blues career!
Since then Little Bobby has released Down, Dirty, & Mean (in 2007), I've Got a Woman (in 2008), and the live DVD A Night at the Empire (in 2009). At the end of 2009, Little Bobby joined with Nora Jean Bruso, and together they performed at concerts and festivals in the U.S. and Europe. The Chicago Sun-Times named Nora Jean & Little Bobby the number-one band to see at the Chicago Blues Festival. In 2011, the two put together the CD Good Blues, which Little Bobby played on, wrote, and produced. The album not only appeared on the blues charts but helped push Nora Jean to her seventh Blues Music Award nomination for Best Traditional Female Blues Performer.
Little Bobby's latest release, on Untouchable Records, is Life of the Blues, which Bobby produced, wrote, and played all the instruments on.
- Michael Livermore
Jamiah "On Fire" & The Red Machine, 5 p.m.
Jamiah "On Fire" & The Red Machine is a three-piece power trio composed of cousins: 19-year-old Jamiah Rogers on guitar and vocals, 15-year-old Jalon Allen on drums, and 12-year-old Kenyonte Dilworth on bass and vocals. The band has been together for five years. They have played the Chicago Blues Festival, three festivals in Canada, and Buddy Guy's Legends.
Winners of the 2010 Windy City Blues Society Chicago Blues Challenge Youth Showcase, they have since opened for Ronnie Baker Brooks, Billy Branch, and the Kinsey Report. They have recently released a CD titled Takin' the Stage; every song on the album was written by Jamiah and his dad Tony. John Vermilyea of Blues Underground Network said, "When I first started to listen to Takin' the Stage, I got a definite Jimi Hendrix feel, and sure enough when I looked on their Facebook info page, Jimi Hendrix was listed as one of their influences, along with Albert King, Bob Marley, The Isley Brothers, Freddy King, Carlos Santana, Willie Dixon, and John Lee Hooker."
The Red Machine enjoys playing blues, blues rock, and R&B. Jamiah, who leads the band, started performing at the age of three. The musical prodigy recorded his first CD at age six. He has studied numerous instruments, including electric guitar, violin, saxophone, clarinet, piano, djembe, congas, and drums.
This young band is my pick for the sleeper act at this year's festival.
- Hal Reed
Albert Castiglia, 7 p.m.
Florida's Albert Castiglia is a killer guitar player with a knack for writing songs that have universal appeal. I saw him perform at the Blues Music Awards and was impressed by the emotion that accompanies his technical pyrotechnics.
Albert Castiglia was born on August 12, 1969, in New York during the weekend before Woodstock. At the age of five, his family moved to Miami. He learned to play guitar at the age of 12 and soon realized that the passions in his heart were expressed best by his music. After he completed college, he worked for four years as a social-service investigator for the State of Florida. In 1990, he joined The Miami Blues Authority. After performing with the group as lead guitarist and vocalist for more than seven years, Albert in 1997 won the award for Best Local Blues Guitarist from the Miami New Times, and soon after he decided to pursue his lifelong dream of hitting the road as a blues performer.
Albert got an audition with blues great Junior Wells, and so impressed Wells with his playing and vocal style that he was asked in 1997 to become the lead guitarist in his band. With Junior, Albert performed in major Chicago clubs as well as clubs and blues festivals all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In 2001, Albert decided to work on his own material and began writing and working on his debut CD, Burn.
His 2008 CD, These Are the Days, included a tribute to his mentor Junior Wells, "Godfather of the Blues." These Are the Days' "Bad Year Blues" earned him a Blues Music Award nomination for Song of the Year. That track was also nominated for a Blues Blast Award, and this time Castiglia walked away a winner for Song of the Year - as well as being nominated for the Sean Costello Rising Star Award.
- Karen McFarland
Curtis Salgado, 9 p.m.
Soul singer Curtis Salgado was born in 1954, in Everett, Washington, and grew up in Eugene, Oregon. He started playing professionally in the late '60s. Curtis fronted his own band called The Nighthawks, was co-star of the Robert Cray Band, and toured with Roomful of Blues. While touring with Robert Cray, he found himself sharing the stage with icons including Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland, and Bonnie Raitt. His band played at the 1977 San Francisco Blues Festival to a standing ovation before backing up Albert Collins.
In 1977, John Belushi was in Eugene filming Animal House and, during downtime, caught a Salgado performance. Afterward, the two got to talking, and a friendship grew. Before long Salgado began playing old records for Belushi, teaching him about blues and R&B. Belushi soaked up the music and soon developed his idea for The Blues Brothers, first as a skit on Saturday Night Live and then as a movie, record, and concert tour. The album, Briefcase Full of Blues, is dedicated to Salgado, and it's no coincidence that Cab Calloway's character in the film is named Curtis. The Blues Brothers' set list was strikingly similar to the shows Salgado was delivering on a nightly basis.
Curtis released his first of eight albums in 1991, and continued to tour year after year, until serious health issues arose in 2006. Now fully recovered and in good health, Curtis has been touring the country and never giving less than 100 percent on stage. He mixes blues, funk, and R&B with a delivery that is raw and heartfelt.
Curtis has been recognized many times for his talent, including 2013 Blues Music Awards for B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, Soul Blues Artist of the Year, and Soul Blues Album of the Year for Soul Shot on Alligator Records.
(For a 2014 interview with Curtis Salgado, click here.)
- from CurtisSalgado.com
Tinsley Ellis, 11 p.m.
Tinsley is a high-voltage blues guitarist who was born in Atlanta in 1957 and spent most of his youth in southern Florida. He started playing guitar at age eight. In 1975, after high school, Tinsley moved back to Atlanta and joined a blues band named The Alley Cats (which included The Fabulous Thunderbirds' Preston Hubbard). In 1981, Tinsley co-founded The Heartfixers with Chicago Bob Nelson, and they recorded their first album on the Southland imprint. Then they signed with Landslide and released Live at the Moonshadow in 1983. Nelson ended up leaving, and the band was backing up Nappy Brown on 1984's Tore Up and 1986's Cool on It. Both albums were re-released by Alligator Records after Tinsley signed in 1988 as a solo artist. He released five albums on Alligator: Georgia Blue in 1988, Fanning the Flames in 1989, Trouble Time in 1992, Storm Warning in 1994, and Fire It Up in 1997. Tinsley released Kingpin in 2000 on Capricorn Records before it went bankrupt. Tinsley then signed with Telarc and released Hell or High Water in 2002 and The Hard Way in 2004. Tinsley re-signed with Alligator and released Live Highwayman in 2005, Moment of Truth in 2007, and Speak No Evil in 2009. Tinsley released the all-instrumental Get It in 2013 on his own Heartfixer Music label followed by his most recent release, Midnight Blue - for a grand total of 16 albums!
Averaging more than 150 live shows a year, Tinsley has played in all 50 states as well as Canada, Europe, Australia, and South America. Whether he's out with his own band or sharing stages with major artists such as Buddy Guy, The Allman Brothers, and Gov't Mule, he always digs deep and plays, as Guitar Player says, "as if his life depended on it." Last year, Tinsley was part of the Blues at the Crossroads II: Muddy & The Wolf tour with the Fabulous Thunderbirds featuring Kim Wilson, James Cotton, Jody Williams, and Bob Margolin.
(For a 2008 River Cities' Reader interview with Tinsley Ellis, visit RCReader.com/y/ellis.)
- Steve Heston
