DEEP BLUES FESTiVAL: Friday July 18th-Sunday July 20th 2008: Lake Elmo Minnesota: THE LiNE-UP!

Here ya go folks: A quick spiel on each and every band (all 46 of 'em!) playing THE DEEP BLUES MUSiC and FiLM FESTiVAL (Friday July 18th-Sunday July 20th 2008 in beautiful Lake Elmo Minnesota) plus an MP3 for each band! Steal 'em! Collect 'em! Trade 'em! Better yet Buy yr ticket NOW before they're gone!

I've said it before but ya know folks, generally speaking, about the last thing I give a good G.D. about is a music festival. I suffered enough years at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival to know better. But...BUT....The Deep Blues Festival is different. Any other fest i'd have to pick and choose who I reallyreally want to see then moo and low with the rest of the cattle from stage to stage praying to get there on time to see whoever it was I drove four hours to see. With The Deep Blues Fest you get 40 some odd bands all of which fall into a somewhat similar genre of vibe and all of which I either totally dig and can't believe I get to see alongside all these other bands I love or bands i've wanted to see for ages but never come near where I live. And the other really sweet deal clincher about the DBF is the music is virtually non-stop. You have two side-by-side stages so as one band is playing the next is setting up. No trying to run thru the crowd and tripping over baby strollers or a dog that some crazy hippie brought being as dogs just loooove loud music. Its all right there in front of you at the DBF. You could stand in the same spot for the whole weekend and not miss a band. This will be the one weekend of music that you and yr friends and family will remember for the rest of yr natural born life.

Have you seen the line-up for this years festival? Are we nuts?
Hell No! We like to call it...ViSiONARY!

Now in my less than humble opinion:
The Deep Blues Festival is everything that pop culture is NOT. The Deep Blues Festival is everything that the big money corporate so-called music festivals are not. DBF is not about complicated haircuts or noteworthy facial hair or wether or not ScarJO appears to sing back-up or thirteen dollar designer foreign water bottles or $1000 platinum seating sections with silver-back gorillas to carry you to your sleep-number barcalounger in a chilled pomegranate marmalade filled hot tubs or pony rides or halfass reattempts at remaking some lame corporatized counter-kultural statement that sucked the first time around. No, The Deep Blues Festival is about actually rocking as hard as humanly possible as opposed to putting on a fkn skit. It's about bands and artists and film makers cutting through the pop detritus with sweat, groove, stank, volume, dirt, sex and love to see what the fck makes yr heart pound, knees weak, rump shake, eyes water, nethers tingle and baby boogie like- Gawdammit!! You finally feel alive again! I'm sure yr momma taught you to follow thru. Do it. Git yr ticket. You know you want it baby. I'll see yr ass shakin' just outside of Minneapolis July 18th-20th! Don't just take my word for it. See what other folks are saying about The Deep Blues Music and Film Festival:

"A powwow of America's punk-blues underground" - Richard Clayton, London Times

"Ambitious and totally grass roots...there's a blues and old-school R&B resurgence rumbling in the indie-music underground, and it goes well beyond the icky thump of the White Stripes" - Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press

"Pairing gritty, authentic but little known Southern bluesmen with younger, hipper acolytes" - Chris Reimenschneider, Star Tribune

"something special, very special indeed" - Mick Sterling

"It was a reunion of lost relatives. It was like finding the land of misfit toys" - Van Campbell, Black Diamond Heavies

"The largest alternative and punk blues gathering in the world" - Frank-John Hadley, DownBeat Magazine

"Deep Blues is the best thing that has happened to blues music in a long time." - Henry Kammerer, Hillstomp

"It's evidence that people will be playing the blues, or at least music inspired by it, for a long time" Margaret Hair, Steamboat Pilot

"This festival celebrates the alternative and punk blues sound as well as the modern juke joint music of the deep South" - Honest Tune

PS- Did I mention we are showing around twenty-five rare or never before seen hard blues related films, docs, and trailers? Click HERE for more info!

Now...On to what you came here for..to read about bands and steal MP3s.
Play 'em LOUD!

CUZN WiLDWEED
This native of West Virginia delivers an action packed sonic gutbucket one-man band hunch fest while, “doing the Lord's work and the devil's sub-contracting." Cuzn’s film bio of his friend Hasil Adkins titled "My Blue Star" seeks to be the definitive visual document of Mr. Adkins oeuvre. The film is a work in progress and Cuz'n Wildweed plans to conduct interviews at The DBF with as many folks influenced by Hasil's sound and style as possible. The rough cut of My Blue Star will be a highlight of our film festival and we look forward to Cuz'n Wildweed setting the musical tone for the weekend as well.

Gasoline Rag Boogie MP3

THE BiRDdOGS
Michigan raised and Mississippi soiled, The BirdDogs grind their north Mississippi hill country grooves through a psychedelic-tinged dirt fueled 1969 Mopar four barreled muscle filter.

White Lightnin' MP3

Smokestack and the Foothill Fury
Not just another one-man band from the hills of Dahlonega, GA. Smokey Chops his own wood and digs his own holes. We are thrilled to hear him do it.

Days Gettin' Longer MP3

.357 STRiNG BAND
Milwaukee's .357 String Band sets the bluegrass woods on fire with psychobilly matches. This is" amphetamine fueled street grass" that'll set Mr. Bill Monroe to cloggin' in his grave!

Raise The moon MP3

GRAVELROAD
Seattle’s GravelRoad is working triple duty on their way to The DBF. They’ll be the back-up band and chauffeurs for the notorious and beloved Greenville Mississippi legend Mr.T-Model Ford as well doing their own set of west coast hill country blues in support of their second album Shot The Devil. We can only pray they arrive in one piece!

Forty-Four (live!) MP3

CHRiS COTTON
Like Mississippi Fred McDowell saying "I Do not play no rock and roll" Chris Cotton says “I do not play no blues.” Got a problem with that? Tell it to Cotton's hero Mr. Blind Willie McTell. He and Cotton will take you to school.

The Gamblers MP3

JAWBONE
Detroit's Jawbone plays "Post-Last War Pre-Next War One-Man Band Blues". Indeed he does and we fear him as much as we revere him. Prepare thyself to shake it till you break it.

My Daddy MP3

JiMMY "DUCK" HOLMES
Blues master and owner of arguably Mississippi's oldest running juke joint Duck Holmes has rightfully won countless awards and world-wide acclaim for his two brilliant albums on Broke and Hungry Records. That high lonesome Bentonia Mississippi sound made most famous by Mr. Skip James and (Holmes guitar teacher) Mr. Jack Owens lives on in the beautiful raw heavy soul of Jimmy "Duck" Holmes. As a rule Mr. Holmes does not fly and we are as thrilled as you are that an exception had been made for The Deep Blues Festival.

I'd Rather Be The Devil MP3

THE MOANERS
This two piece recorded their second album Blackwing Yalobusha in Fat Possum Records old studio in Como MS (Mr. Fred McDowell's hometown) with Jimbo Mathus. R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough inspired Melissa Swingle to add slide guitar to her arsenal (which also includes musical saw). But all that does not a blues band make.
The Moaners got their own heavy-country-swamp-NorthCarolina-deep-pop-woods-blues-thingamajig. Utterly original. Totally thrilling.

Yankee On My Shoulder MP3

JUKE JOiNT DUO featuring CEDRiC BURNSiDE & LiGHTNiN' MALCOLM
World renowned drummer Cedric Burnside is Mr. R.L. Burnside's grandson which pretty much makes him dang near hard blues royalty. Lightnin' Malcolm got his bona fides playing with Mr. Cedell Davis, Mr. Junior Kimbrough, as well as Cedric's granddaddy and other masters. If you've never got down in a Mississippi juke, the DBF and Juke Joint Duo will be more than happy to be your designated driver. Boogie included.

I Don't Just Sing MP3

LEFT LANE CRUiSER
Joe and Bren, the two-headed-four-armed-six-legged thing that is Left Lane Cruiser from draggin that ol' Fat Possum'esque sht thru the Black Swamp mud like a Brown County tornado til' it shakes and rolls and hunches full up of Deep fried chicken Blues, 1970's f150s with a Larry Brown cooler on the floor, broom stick n' wire slide and a couple of tubs and old skins maybe stole from Othar's back shed. It's greasy hot, shaved dry, and crazier than yr smokin' methd-up ex-girlfriend. Left Lane Cruiser are a beast to be reckoned with.

Big Mama MP3

T-MODEL FORD
With hands like brickbats and a smile like Lucifer (who was once called the cutest boy in heaven), T-Model Ford will tell you he's the boss of the blues. His blues "pedigree" verges on the stereotypical but, in fact it is real, raw and true: Don't even ask to see his chain gang shackle scars (just believe us that they are there) and Watch out boys- he Will steal your girlfriend. Never doubt T-Model Ford. And do not cross him. Four brilliant albums for Fat Possum Records and a new 10" vinyl Ep plus a plus a new full length album out on upstart Mudpuppy Records titled Jack Daniel Time oughta be enough for any other nonagenarian. But T-Model Ford ain't no other. To quote Mr. Ford: "T-Model Ford is gonna remember you sorry fuckers how it's done!."

Cut You Loose MP3

BLACK-EYED SNAKES
Is Black-Eyed Snakes just a dirt blues slathered side project for LOW's Alan Sparhawk and friends? Hell No. More like it's a raw,bruised and jagged open sored soul that refuses to heal no matter how much Minnesota Mississippi mud you rub into it. And Black-Eyed Snakes rub it hard. Let's pray they never fully recover and instead of listening to their mommas just keep pickin' at it.

Be sure and stop by the Deep Blues Film Fest and see the documentary Cross Country With The Black-Eyed Snakes!

Chickenbone George MP3

ROBERT CAGE and HEZEKiAH EARLY
We originally planned for Elmo Williams and Hez to be performing but the doctors didn't think Elmo should be traveling after his recent surgery. Fortunatly friend and label-mate Robert Cage is willing and able to step in. What the heck have these two septegenarians been up to for the ten long years since the release of Elmo and Hezekiah's rough and rowdy Fat Possum Records debut Takes One To Know One and Robert Cage Can See What You are Doing? Elmo and Hez have been hangin' out doing some shows. Some of those gigs with their friend Mr.Robert Cage (another Fat Possum alum). Fat Possum tells us they are fixin’ to release a big ten-inch record (vinyl!) of unreleased Elmo and Hez stuff and we could not be happier to hear it. If you don’t have their album please go out of your way to get it. The opportunity to witness the drum and guitar raw blues power of Mr. Cage and Mr. Early is the answer to a ten year old dream for us. We are also delighted to let you know that in addition to their spot at the DBF Robert and Hez will be playing July 17th at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis.

Elmo and Hez- Mother's Dead MP3
Elmo and Hez- Booster MP3
Robert Cage- Get Outta Here MP3
Robert Cage- How you want your rollin' done MP3

RiCHARD JOHNSTON
The insanely incendiary Beale Street performances of R.L. Burnside/Junior Kimbrough acolyte Richard Johnston paired with his innovative use of the two-string Lowebow and other uncommon guitars garnered Richard a double win in 2001 at the International Blues Challenge. It also brought him to the attention of documentary film maker Max Shores who made the film Hill Country Troubadour about Richard. That film and his first album Foot Hill Stomp brought Richard more rabid worldwide fans who left the corporate Memphis blues clubs for the street to see him play and got him kicked off Beale permanently. Will Mr. Johnston bring the same raw power and North Mississippi hill country grooves to the DBF? Damn straight.

Be sure and stop by the Deep Blues Film Festival to see a screening of Hill Country Troubadour.

That's No Way To Get Along MP3

:::DEEP BLUES FESTiVAL LiNE-UP for SATURDAY JULY 18th 2008:::

BLUESBOY JAG
Some might call one man band Blues Boy Jag some kind of krazy deep blues business man what with his moonlighting on himself with his Roky Erickson and Zappa cover bands. Not to mention (‘tho we will) the incredibly gorgeous and vast array of Cigar Box Guitar, Bass, Banjo, and amps he homemakes. He’s sold over five hundred and will have a fresh quiver of CBGs to sell at The Deep Blues Festival. Then there is his seventy-nine song four CD box set of old blues. rockabilly, and jug songs. One thing for sure: Jag is on the stick and that stick has four strings that he can play hell out of. Watch him work.

Steakbone Slide MP3

ILLiNOiS JOHN FEVER
In conferring with self described “Apocalyptic Blues” duo Illinois John Fever we felt their artistic statement might be best served by a quote from Dr. Cornell West: Q: So you’re optimistic about the future? A: “The categories of optimism and pessimism don’t exist for me. I’m a blues man. A blues man is a prisoner of hope, and hope is a qualitatively different category than optimism. Optimism is a secular construct, a calculation of probability. Black folk in America have never been optimistic about the future – what have we had to be optimistic about? But we are people of hope. Hope wrestles with despair, but it doesn’t generate optimism. It just generates this energy to be courageous, to bear witness, to see what the end is going to be. No guarantee, unfinished, open-ended. I am a prisoner of hope. I’m going to die full of hope. There’s no doubt about that, because that is a choice I make. But at the same time, the end doesn’t look too good right now.”

Cook County Death Rag MP3

PURE COUNTRY GOLD
A brilliant melodic sense and rhythms tighter than Johnny Ramone’s pants is what sets these Portland, Oregon garage pop blues wig monkeys apart from their predecessors and detractors. If, by this time next year they aren’t sittin’ pretty in the lap of Little Steven’s Underground Garage, it’s all your fault.

Setting Sun MP3

ADAM POSNAK
We gotta bet Adam Posnak sounds a hell of a lot like his Great Grandpa, a traveling musician, did as he worked along the Mississippi. Of course the curse on folks who choose to play in a style that is outside of this century is to sound "Real". Whatever that is. To sound like you embody at least the ember or whatever that vibrating spark is that connects the music to the people. To not sound like you’re dabbling in musical thespianism. We find it fascinating and thrilling that there are still folks who are willing to not only carry on the legacy of this music, but to do it without blackening their teeth and acting like an oxy headed minstrel gomer. That's where Posnak comes in and represents.

Chicken Can You Roost MP3

THOSE POOR BASTARDS
If 16 Horsepower had found Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and the Handsome Family rather than Jesus they would probably have been Madison’s Those Poor Bastards. Creepier than an audio version of the book Wisconsin Death Trip could ever be. These guys give us the willies!

The Accident MP3

A NiGHT iN THE BOX
A Minneapolis band named for a line from Cool Hand Luke playing grass/roots music darker than Boss Godfrey’s mirrored shades.

Can I Bleed MP3
For The Co-Pilot MP3

REVEREND DEADEYE
Y’all get to get churched more’n once at DBF. Denver’s Rev. Deadeye brings his dirty ol’ handmade Falstaff beer can mic and one-man band style hellfire and glorious brimstone salvation. To quote fellow Coloradoan David Eugene Edwards “He’ll Come a Cinder!” By the way you’ll also being seeing the good Rev. as part of our film festival in the international debut of the film The Folksinger.

Jesus Knockin' MP3
Fuck The Devil MP3

CHARLiE PARR
Charlie Parr claims to sound like some old loser from Duluth but don’t you believe it. Charlie is just being overly modest because he is in fact one of the finest lyricists and guitarists working today. We could rank him with John Prine but we're gonna go a step higher and go with Malcolm Holcombe. Of course, you and me, we love losers so Charlie may not be that far off.

Miners Lament MP3


HONKEYFiNGER
The U.K. gigaton one-man band man known as HONKEYFiNGER will rub yr earhole(s) the right way at day two of the Deep Blues Music and Film Festival. Be there or start hatin' on your self now. This will be HONKEYFiNGER's first ever U.S. performance. Do you want to be the one to tell yr grandkids you didn't see Honkeyfinger when you had the chance? Or should we tell them? Well? The music is burly, howling, thick, and hairy enough to match too. If Cobain had grown up to be a logger like he should've instead of a fancy lad rock star he'd have lived in the woods outside Aberdeen in a cabin he built with his own little hands and the help of fellow lumberjacks Tad and Buzz and drank Schmidt animal beer under a harvest moon with Honkeyfinger cranked on his Victrola while he danced with Sasquatch instead of..well...you know. Honkeyfinger makes an appearence in the film One Man In The Band which will be screened at the Deep Blues Film Festival.

True Believers MP3

BOOGALOOSA PRAYER
Ohio’s Dooley Wilson (ex-Henry and June) has this outfit that claims to sound like " Out of our heads era Stones jamming with John Lee Hooker and Keith Moon while the MC5rolls joints backstage with John Bonham bartending." We think they sell themselves short.

Goin' Over The Hill MP3

PEARLENE
Pearlene brings a brilliant well crafted Midwest Black Crowsian-style shambling boogie crossed with Seattle-ite insouciance plus twice the swagger and seven times the sexy.

Hosannah MP3

HiLLSTOMP
One of the countless highpoints of 2007’s Deep Blues Festival was standing in the cold pouring rain and watching Portland’s two piece Hillstomp rock their blues so hard that men, women, and children in particular were dancing in the mud like they just don’t care. We kid you not for the first time that day the skies parted and the sun shone down for just a moment and Hillstomp’s hill country slide and five gallon bucket boogie made everything all right with the world.

Boom Boom Room East Blues MP3

BUFFALO KiLLERS
If the Beatles listened to more blues and boogie and a lot less skiffle they mighta sounded like Buffalo Killers. At DBF we like to imagine a better world.

Don't You Ever Think I Cry MP3

PAT mAcDONALD
What does one do when the furor dies after a huge international hit and a Grammy for Best New Artist? In the case of Pat mAcdonald you move to Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin put out a handful of acclaimed solo discs then do an album of crunchy dirty Depeche Mode covers which makes folks go ape. Granted it’s a vast oversimplification but it works for our purposes. "I've always been drawn to the lower notes on the guitar," says Macdonald. And rightfully so. That’s where the nasty and the sexy hides. But you already know that. And so does Pat mAcdonald.

Seeing Things MP3

DEXTER ROMWEBER DUO
Few artists of the last 20 years are as revered or unknown. Dexter Romweber more or less started the whole two-man army thing with psycho-punk-surf-abilly-whatever outfit Flat Duo Jets. With the other half of his army, Crow, on drums, F.D.J. released nine albums you probably never heard, a slew of singles, (and that doesn’t include Dex’s solo records!). Dexter’s depth of early rock and roll knowledge is staggering and you’ll hear that beautiful pure melodic primitivism at Deep Blues Festival. Hearing him rocking now with his sister Sara on the skins you will be moved to wonder where the heck you, not Dexter, have been for the last twenty.

Be sure and see the new Dexter Romweber documentary Two-Headed Cow at The Deep Blues Film Festival.

You Made Me Cry MP3

BLACK DiAMOND HEAViES
If you haven’t seen them live you are missing one of the most exciting two piece four armed six legged outfits on the planet. Drummer Van Campbell is a musician we'd crawl across all kinds of broken stuff to hear. He's solidly in that funkyass punk blues pocket but is kicking at the double stitched seams constantly challenging and driving keys stroker, singer and sexy genius Rev. John Wesley Myers on/out/upward. It's a total thrill to watch them work. And this is a band that works. Hard. John and Van keep it up All Night Long.

Poor Brown Sugar MP3

:::DEEP BLUES FESTiVAL LiNE-UP for SUNDAY JULY 19th 2008:::

LUTHER THE DEViL
As they openly state on MySpace Luther The Devil sounds like “Some kind of bad ass mushmouth blues.” And they ain’t kiddin’ neither. Luther the Devil is a hard swangin’ sooper rockin’, tighter than yr mama’s pocket. A punkblues force of nature. LTD will open Sunday’s proceedings and we are puttin’ every band scheduled to follow them on notice. They’d better bring their best game and watch their backs. LTD stands to humiliate all y’all.

Way You Shake MP3

DEViN MiLLER
Devin Miller ain’t nothing but trouble. He's a hellraisin’, honkytonkin’, ‘stone lovin’, guitar slangin’, singin’ songwritin’ babyfaced grandson of a pig farmer. Twenty-five percent equal parts Jerry Lee, Keith, R.L., Hank, Elvis, Carl, Johnny, and Jack. That adds up to two hundred percent all American badass. Just like The Deep Blues Festival.

Come on Down to My House MP3
Broken and Bent MP3

CiCADA OMEGA
Beware! Cicada Omega brings that dirty Kentucky hill holler boogie to DBF by way of their adopted town of Portland, Oregon. Fully strapped with banjos, suitcase bass, guitars, drums and car parts percussion, and snake calling voices shoutin’ hard to their heavens and earth, both, to call up Dock Boggs, John Lee, The Wolf, Ali Farka, Funkadelic, R.L. and Junior. Wanna bet they can do it?

Last Night MP3

THE PACK A.D.
Can you not love a band that lists the Confederate Prison at Andersonville, Aretha Franklin, Buddy Rich, Jeremiah Johnson and the years 1860-1920 as influences? Not to mention Hooker, Blind Willie, and Junior Kimbrough? The Pack A.D. will get your rump shakin’, your head bobbin’ and your ears listening hard. They play like they got something in ‘em that needs to come out and it’s gonna come out rough, hard, sexy and deep dark blue and neither you nor this weeks Tyra-fied faux fierce mini skirted cat walkin’ melisma maniacal stiletto shoe stomper is gonna stop them.

Gold Rush MP3

JOHN SCHOOLEY
Niangua, Missouri native and Austin resident Schooley has his one man band thang down to a powerful evol science. He totally embodies the powerful and unstoppable ghost of Hasil Adkins’ and The Cramps' adopted demon love child. Did we mention Schooley’s stint as driver for Hasil Adkins? Or his tours as lead guitar for Mr. R.L. Burnside? He might have busted a bone in his wing this year but that just makes him stronger. John was an utterly thrilling highlight of last years Deep Blues Festival, and No Mr. Schooley, WE are the one’s who are honoured to have you back, sir!

Black Diamond Express Train to Hell MP3

BLACK SMOKERS
Northern Italy’s Black Smokers hunch a hard fierce boogie without a hint of the telltale euroness one comes to expect from European bands working distinctly American music styles. This tight two piece throws down ZZ Topish/White Stripesian Italian lovin’ and Mississippi fightin’ blues. Gratzie!

Hey Mama MP3

PATRiCK SWEANY
Massillon, Ohio’s Patrick Sweany has a sweetly roughened blue eyed soul voice like Eddie Hinton’s and a sound not unlike his old friend Dan Auerbach’s pre-Black Keys band. Bluesy and highly soulful, Sweany seems to fly under the radar of most folks and that just ain’t right. His appearance at the DBF should help to rectify that.

After Awhile MP3

MUDLOW
With a voice like a rarely (although occasionally liberally) greased pawnshop trombone, Mudlow's Tobias wails, croons, growls, and squalls across the lushly criminal sultry seaport landscape that is Mudlow. With a swagger and swing so long and thick they gotta wear it for a belt, Brighton UK's Mudlow have become our new Afghan Whigs, our new Nick Cave, impossible to play loud enough. Mudlow’s lyric work intrigues with Waits-ian leanness and heft rifely populated by characters, misfits, f***ups, frauds, sociopaths and common charmers. Our people. Despite the deceptively dour imagery there is simply an undeniable joy shimmering throughout. This is frayed sharp black suit Outlaw Music and they are not to be missed.

Down In The Snow MP3

AMERiCAN RELAY
How two young men from the mountains of Colorado came to play garage grunge infested dirt haulin’ hill country punkass blues is beyond us but we are mighty glad they did. Prepare to shake your money maker til it breaks.

Bonedry MP3

TARBOX RAMBLERS
When Michael Tarbox heard The Standells sing “That's where you'll find me Along with lovers, muggers, and thieves. (Ahh, but they're cool people) I love that dirty water” perhaps he thought they were singing about him. But Tarbox Ramblers are no Cali garage outfit. More like a darkest deep woods Massachusetts Mark Lanegan filtered through Robert Pete Williams. One of America’s finest lesser known bands.

Hey Mr. Starlight (live!) MP3

SiLVER LiON'S 20/20
Noted Auburn University economist/guitarist/howler Cheetah Weise and honored combat veteran/drummer Sweet Dawg Pickering are both x-members of seminal punkblues outfit Immortal Lee County Killers and have done time in the service of Mr. T-Model Ford and the late Mr. Paul "Wine" Jones (and you may thank them personally for hooking us up with Elmo Williams, Hezekiah Earl and Robert Cage!). So it comes as no surprise they beat down blues hotter than a Harry Crews hog boil. Bring yr paycheck and pick up their two spankin' new Tim Kerr producd singles!

Fight For Her MP3

Possessed By Paul James
The sweltering stink and rot of S.W Florida can drive a man to unquiet desperation and a crazed and vicious wickedness without a solid rock to set his boot. Possessed By paul James' Konrad Wert was grown in swampy Immokalee, Fla. where he was washed in the music of his daddy’s church and it’s in his father and grandfathers name that he is possessed. It was while studying music in Africa that he was introduced to punk rock. The sensible gothic juxtaposition of this sacred water and profane fire makes complete sense to us. It’s always been a short crawl from Saturday night to Sunday morn. Possessed By Paul James makes that crawl most every night of the year. Be sure and witness Possessed by Paul James' Konrad Wert, Rev. Deadeye and Scott H Biram via our film festival in the film The Folksinger.

James Wardens Wife MP3

Scissormen
Ted Drozdowski's got a voice like a smokey, young and dirtier Minnesota Bobby D but plays guitar like a cool cross between Billy Gibbons, R.L. Burnside, and some dirty dark weird combo of any number of the early masters. His playing and arrangements are endlessly inventive, surprising, intelligent and tough. As Scissormen he's backed up by a drummer that gives him space to inhale deep while still lightin' Boston brand Never-Burn-Out sulphur matches and stomping 'em into Mississippi turpentine forest fires.

Whiskey and Maryjane MP3

SCOTT H BiRAM
Mr. Scott Hiram Biram, like Hank Williams the 3rd, takes an old style of music and kicks its ass so hard that it becomes new again without becoming retro or kitsch or gimmicky in any way. Mr. Biram's love and knowledge of the deep and real early blues and country music is obvious and infectious as is his love of metal and bluegrass. If you've never seen Biram live you are missing out on one of the best live performers we’ve ever had the pleasure to experience. No two shows are ever alike and it's that element of surprise that keeps his show fresh and always a thrill. Scott plays like a man possessed by the thought that this could by-gawd be his last gig ever and if he’s gonna die he’s takin’ yr ass and soul with him. A right fist full of bluegrass, the left filled with metal, and a hard gut full up on the deep, serious-ass, hard time blues. You’ll be praying fast for Hiram to hit you again.

Blood, Sweat and Murder MP3

BOB LOG III
A holy alliance between butter knife wielding slide guitar genius Mr. Cedell Davis and a backroom freakshow caged up morpho (half-ladie's man half junkyard organ grinder monkey), This mysteriously motorcycle helmeted superstar, one man Tucson band Bob Log III will righteously shut down The Deep Blues Festival in a hail of Elvisian blue jumpsuited boob scotch fueled blues and hellfire slo-metal frenzy. Pray for us won’t you?

Log Bomb MP3