Michael Burks

Like a freight train rolling through the night, guitarist/vocalist Michael Burks plows through the blues with relentless power and a full head of steam. Combining his remarkable talent with an intense dedication to his craft, Michael has earned well-deserved national recognition and become one of the blues worlds’ fastest rising blues stars. Although he was a W.C. Handy Award nominee for Best New Artist 2000, Michael is a seasoned veteran in every sense. His first gig came at the age of six, when, during a family trip to southern Arkansas, the fledgling Burks took the stage with his cousin’s band and thrilled an unsuspecting audience. Today, each live performance is a testament to Michael’s thirty-plus years of playing the blues. His hard-driving fretwork and captivating showmanship have ignited a legion of fans, as audiences from coast to coast can’t help but jump on the Michael Burks train.

Lurrie Bell

Bell started playing guitar at the age of six, and in his teens he polished his skills playing with the legends of Chicago blues scene including Eddy Clearwater, Big Walter Horton and Eddie Taylor. In the mid 1970s, he went on to join Koko Taylor's Blues Machine and he toured with the band for four years. He made his recording debut in 1977 appearing on his father's album Heartaches and Pain and also on Eddie C. Campbell's King of the Jungle. It was around that time that he formed The Sons of Blues with musicians including Billy Branch on harmonica. Three tracks of the band's recordings were featured in the Alligator Records compilation Living Chicago Blues Vol. 3 released in 1978. In 1989 he released his first solo effort, Everybody Wants To Win, on JSP Records. Though Bell's career appeared to be headed in the right direction, drawing attention of the blues fans around the world as a young prodigy of the blues, he battled emotional problems and drug abuse for many years, which kept him away from performing on regular basis. He began a comeback in 1995 with the well-received album Mercurial Son, his first of several from the Delmark label. A series of albums followed thereafter, and he started to perform more frequently in the Chicago club and blues festival circuits. Bell is featured on Gettin' Up - Live at Buddy Guy's Legends, Rosa's and Lurrie's Home, a 2007 CD and DVD release from Delmark, where he plays with his father Carey. Soon after this release, Carey died and this became his last recorded effort.

Bernard Allison

Bernard Allison totes the same smokin’ six string shooter that his late father Luther Allison assaulted the blues with. And he is blessed with his father’s soulful voice, spiritual devotion, and a musical freedom which experiments with the blues. Born in Chicago on November 26th, 1965, the youngest of nine children Bernard was first introduced to the roots of black music and the art of the electric guitar by his father, the late great Luther Allison. Like Ken Griffey Jr. hanging out in baseball locker rooms as a youth, Luther’s son was the kid running on-stage throughout the band’s set. Experiences like that profoundly effect one’s aspirations. “That’s when I decided I wanted to be up there like him. I think I was seven.” “In order for anything to expand, you have to take a risk,” says Bernard. “Blues is about experimenting and getting your feelings across to someone else. And if you want to keep it going, people are going to have to give it all a chance because we’re losing all our creators. Because I’ve been taking risks on every album I’ve recorded, this record is just a logical progression from everything else I’ve done. Instead of playing rippin’ 12 bar blues guitar over and over, there are bluesy songs, soul, funk, R&B songs and a couple of rock things which shows the overall musicianship of Bernard Allison.” Amid all the daily pop culture pressures to be the next American Idol why does Bernard stay rooted in the blues? “The blues is my roots. Regardless of how far outside of the blues I reach for tones, I can’t ever leave the blues. Whenever I play, all those guitar parts are Luther Allison coming through me. My dad was the same way, he wasn’t all blues. He loved Otis Redding or Chuck Berry. I’m just showing where my influences come from. And respecting the people who got me to this point.”

Sherman Robertson

Sherman Robertson is already considered a young master of zydeco, hard-swinging Texas electric blues, R&B and swampy Louisiana blues. Robertson often surprises audiences with his ability to play R&B, zydeco and blues with a rock edge. "I use that driving, road-cooking type zydeco groove, and put blues on top of it," says Robertson. It's basically rhythm and feel." In June 2000, Robertson played at the Pioneer Valley Blues Festival in Massachusetts. Alligator president, Bruce Iglauer, was in the crowd. "He was always good,” he says, "but when I saw him in June he was on fire. He ruled the stage, had the audience in the palm of his hand, and his just plain physical showmanship reminded me of Albert Collins. As Soon as he walked of the stage I started talking about signing him. He's got that Texas energy, great guitar chops, and is a wonderful, soulful singer." The word on Robertson's talent began to spread. Paul Simon needed a guitar player to add some sounds to his Graceland album and he chose Robertson. Soon after, legendary British producer Mike Vernon (John Mayall's Bluebreakers with Eric Clapton, Freddie King, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie) signed Robertson to Atlantic Records. Robertson's first solo recording, 1993's I'm The Man (Atlantic1994), was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award. His second Atlantic release, Here And Now, was released in 1996 to more critical acclaim. But convinced he would have more promotional support and artistic freedom from an independent label, Robertson weighed his options. In early 1998, producer Joe Harley, with the help of Robertson's manager, Catherine Bauer, assembled a first class back up band for a project for the AudioQuest label, including two charter members of Little Feat, keyboardist Bill Payne and drummer Richie Hayward. They all gathered at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood for the sessions that resorted in the album, Going Back Home. Blues Revue loved the release. " Potent singing and sizzling guitar…Robertson is unstoppable."