Bad News Blues Band
The Bad News Blues Band is the pride of Tucson Arizona, where they got together in the mid 90's. After representing Arizona in the 1997 International Blues Talent competition, the 5-piece outfit has gone on to win the 2000 TAMIIES (Local area music awards) for Blues Band of the Year, Male vocalist of the year, and others.

The group has recorded seven albums in the short span of time they have been together, including four on the independent ARV label. In November 1999 they began tourin with Texas bluesman Long John Hunter. In December of last year the band finished a five-week tour of turkey, Romania and Russia.

Brent Parkin Band with Rusty Reed
Winnipeg native Brent Parkin has been playing the blues for over 3 decades and is considered one of the best electric blues guitarists in Canada. Parkin has worked long and hard on the Western Canadian blues circuit to earn the respect and admiration of blues fans of all stripes.

Likewise, Edmontonian Rusty reed has worked hard to earn respect. For the past couple of decades, Reed has been honing his craft is a variety of formats, accoustic and electric, down home blues to the more esoteric.

Dr. John
Born Malcolm Rebennack in New Orleans in 1942, Dr. John began his career as a session guitarist and pianist during the heydey of 1950s R&B in New Orleans. His work was featured on numerous sides recorded for Ace, specialty, Rex and Vin. After moving to Los Angeles in the early '60s to work for Phil Spector, he began a solo career. Dr. John's first Grammy came in 1989 with the release of In A Sentimental Mood, that featured his award-winning duet with Rickie Lee Jones. His next album, Goin' Back to New Orleans, was a trip through the musical history of New Orleans played by a bevy of friends including Al Hirt and The Neville Brothers.

Janive Magness
Based in Southern California but originally from the Detroit area, Janiva Magness has been collecting rave reviews for her work since she burst onto the Los Angeles music scene. Her concert work has taken on international proportions with appearances at the Belgium Rhythm and Blues Festival, the Lucerne International Blues Festival and a series of clubs and concert dates across Europe the last two years. Magness is also an accomplished stage actress who just completed a run as the lead character in David Geffen's theatre production of the Broadway hit, It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues.

Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson
These days when someone talks about the "WestSide" sound in Chicago blues, the name that comes up, more often than not, is Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson. Originally from Itta Bena, Mississippi, Luther came north to Chicago in the mid-'50s and made his presence known.

Luther served a long apprenticeship with both Magic Sam and Muddy Waters, spending 1973 to 1979 as a member of the Muddy Waters Band. In the late '70s Luther released is first 2 albums as a bandleader on the Black and Blue label out of France. In the States, he was the featured guitarist on three releases by the Nighthawks. After leaving the Muddy Waters band in 1980, he had three releases on Alligator, Rooster and Atlantic records and took home a Grammy award for his part on the Blues Explosion, recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival and put out in 1982.

Norton Buffalo and The Knockouts
Norton Buffalo began playing harmonica at the age of seven in Richmond, California. He grew up listening to the music of the '1950's and '60s - soul, R&B, blues, folk, big band, jazz and, of course, rock and roll. Norton honed his talent through the turbulent '60s, winning harmonica contest and working is soul and rock bands. These days, he is considered among the elite of harmonica players, as well as one of the most versatile.

Over the years, Norton Buffalo has won a Grammy, been nominated for another, won two Bay Area Music Awards, and others. In October, Norton released his newest CD, King of the Highway, on Blind Pig Records.

Paul deLay Band
One of the major strengths of any genre of music lies in the ability of its songwriters. Paul delay is a clever, insightful and original songwriter who brings a fresh voice to the blues. Add to that the fact that he is a talented harmonica player and singer and you have a man that pushes the envelop of contemporary blues.

Paul delay is from Portland, Oregon, and when he first heard Paul Butterfield play the electric harp, he knew he had found his path in life. He has earned rave reviews for his recordings on the Evidence Record label, including Real Blues Magazine.

Paul Oscher
Paul Oscher grew up in Brooklyn and began playing the blues at the age 12 when his uncle gave him a marine band harmonica. He was taught the rudiments of blues harmonica by Jimmy Johnson. By the time he was 15, he had hooked up with guitarist/singer Little Jimmy May and playing professionally in soul revues.

With more than two-dozen recordings to his credit working with Muddy Waters, 11 with other blues artist and 10 under his own name, Paul Oscher is currently in the process of writing a book about his life experience with the blues.

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines
Rod Piazza and The Mighty Flyers
Rod Piazza has been a powerful voice in the blues scene since forming his first band in the 1960s. This harmonica player and bluesman formed the Mighty Flyers in the '70s and the group has been touring non-stop for over a decade. Their reputation as one of the hardest working bands in the business has earned them a loyal following worldwide and their shows are legendary. The band has been honoured individually and as a band with numerous W.C. Handy Awards nominations and awards over the years, including Outstanding harmonica player, Outstanding piano player, and Blues Band of the Year.

The Rolling Fork Blues Review: Nappy Brown, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Rusty Zinn
The word "legend" is bandied around about with some regularity today, but The Rolling Fork Revue includes at least two players who absolutely fit into that category.

Pinetop Perkins was born in 1913 in the Mississippi delta at a place they call Honey Island. His first instrument was the guitar, but at the age of 13 he took up piano. By 1943, Perkins was making a name for himself around dozens of juke joints in the Delta, That same year he met Robert Nighthawk, joined his band and started appearing on the Bright Star Flour Show Pinetop moved to Chicago in the late 1940s where he recorded for a variety of labels as a sideman. In 1969, he began a long association with Muddy Waters, where he received the widest recognition. He was nominated for Grammy Awards in 1998 and 1999.

The Rolling Fork Blues Review also includes Hubert Sumlin, the guitar player largely responsible for the sound of many modern guitar players such as Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa. Nappy Brown, who began his musical career singing gospel in the church before making his recording debut with the Heavenly Lights in the early '50s. Backing the Rolling Fork is the Blues great, Rusty Zinn, who learned his craft at the feet of one of the unsung heroes of Chicago Blues, Luther Tucker.

Rosie Ledet
Even though she is not yet 30 years old, Rosie Ledet has catapulted herself into zydeco stardom. Hailing from the bayous of southwest Louisiana, she learned to play accordion by watching her husband, Morris, play and then practiced on his accordian while he was at work. It wasn't long before she was fronting her husband's band, and since then has been working steadily on the Louisiana-Texas zydeco circuit. In the past year she has performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, St. Louis Blues Festival and a host of others across the United States. Rosie's new CD on Maison de la Soul records is titled I'm a Woman, and it shows off her writing skills as well as the blend of blues, soul, and Creole French that she brings to her songs.