FIONA BOYES "BOX & DICE"

Australian Blues guitarist and singer, Fiona Boyes, has been variously described by reviewers as a ‘musical anomaly’, ‘Bonnie Raitt’s evil twin’, or simply as ‘scaring the hell out of me’. How did this fair-haired gal, born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, of Scottish and English heritage, become an internationally recognised and awarded recording and touring artist? How did she come to be the first woman and non-American to win the International Blues Challenge in Memphis? Why did some of the great Mississippi Delta and Chicago blues giants, such as the late Pinetop Perkins and Hubert Sumlin, choose to describe her as one of the best women guitar players since Memphis Minnie, record on her albums, and share stages with her at international Blues festivals? The answer lays partly in Fiona’s striking and original talent; she writes, sings and plays just about anything in the Blues realm with passion and authenticity. It is also her immersion in the wide musical and historical traditions that make up the Blues and her deep love of the art-form itself.Fiona has been recording and performing internationally for more than 25 years, building a career that has taken her to major festivals and stages in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe. A veteran recording artist with 13 releases, 6 international award winning albums, 4 successive Blues Music Award nominations in 4 different categories, 15 Australian Blues awards, as well as a string of accolades in the folk, jazz, and Americana scene, Fiona has carved out a well deserved reputation as a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and band leader. Equally at home on acoustic or electric guitars, her repertoire is like a Blues travelogue. Listen to her play and you’ll hear pre-war Delta slide, wailing laments, single chord Mississippi Hills grooves, intricate and beautiful Piedmont finger picking, rollicking New Orleans barrelhouse, greasy Memphis soul, driving classic Chicago sounds, the country stylings of Texas swing, and the uptown sounds of the West Coast.

FIONA BOYES
 

ADVENTURES IN BLUESLAND "THE AMERICAN DREAM"

An explosive and dynamic force of musical nature, Adventures in Bluesland began their journey as an acoustic trio put together in late 2013 by Phil Gammage (vocals, guitar, harmonica, songwriting) to promote and support his most recent solo album. Over the next few months new players were added to the mix and Gammage began to realize that the group had a remarkable chemistry that was something special. The name the group was using “Phil Gammage Trio” was dropped and they were soon renamed after the title of Phil’s solo album Adventures in Bluesland. Soon after that, the group began touring America’s East Coast while garnering significant fan support and critical praise.Adventures in Bluesland’s debut album is The American Dream. It features eleven songs: nine written by Gammage plus the band’s renditions of two early 20th century songs, Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “One Kind Favor” aka “See That My Grave is Kept Clean” and Geeshie Wiley’s “Last Kind Word Blues.” Since coming together, the group has created a sound that is built upon taking traditional roots music and playing it in their own unique style. Their music swings, it rocks, it boogies, and it conjures ghosts of our country’s past like no other music you’ve ever heard. It is about exploring what is at the heart of the American music experience.  ADVENTURES IN BLUESLAND