By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Selwyn Birchwood
Fans of blues music have a lot to get excited about over the next few days including visits by two artists from the prestigious blues label – Alligator Records.
Selwyn Birchwood will headline a show in Sellersville on July 13 and Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials will have a three-day run in Philadelphia from July 14-16.
Birchwood will celebrate the June 9 release of his highly anticipated fourth Alligator Records album, “Exorcist,” with a performance at the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) on July 13.
The young guitarist, lap steel player, songwriter and vocalist sets a course for the future of the blues with his visionary, original music. He calls it “Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues,” an intoxicating mix of deep blues, blistering, psychedelic-tinged rock, booty-shaking funk and sweet Southern soul, played and sung with fire-and-brimstone fervor.
With his fiery guitar and lap steel playing, his trailblazing, instantly memorable songs and gritty, unvarnished vocals, Birchwood is among the most extraordinary young stars in the blues. His deep familiarity with blues tradition allows him to bust the genre wide open, adding new sounds, colors and textures, all delivered with a revival tent preacher’s fervor and a natural storyteller’s charisma.
On “Exorcist,” Birchwood delivers the most far-reaching, musically adventurous album of his career. Recorded in Florida and produced by Grammy Award-winner Tom Hambridge (Buddy Guy, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Susan Tedeschi) each of the 13 vividly detailed songs was written and arranged by Birchwood. The soul-baring tracks all hit with lasting rhymes and unexpected rhythms.
“We finished recording ‘Exorcist’ in December 2022 and finished mixing it in January 2023,” said Birchwood, during a phone interview while travelling to Chicago for the fifth gig of the tour.
“We cut it in Florida. We recorded it at Fat Planet – the same studio I used for my last three albums. We did about a week of tracking and a few days of overdubbing and background voices. Then I flew up to Nashville to do the final mixing with Tom Hambridge.
“The new album definitely shows growth. Musically, it’s the most expansive album I’ve made.”
The award-winning Florida bluesman first hit the blues scene in 2011 with the self-released, self-produced, “FL Boy.” After winning the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis (beating 150 other bands), Birchwood found doors swinging open. He took a giant step forward in 2014 with his Alligator Records debut album, “Don’t Call No Ambulance.”
The album won both the Living Blues Award and the Blues Music Award (BMA) for Best New Artist Debut. He followed in 2016 with fan-favorite “Pick Your Poison” and, in 2021, with the groundbreaking “Living In A Burning House.”” He won the coveted BMA Song Of The Year Award for that album’s “I’d Climb Mountains.”
Now, Birchwood is in full-scale touring mode – bringing his impassioned music to his fans.
According to Birchwood, “My goal is to be sure you cannot listen passively. We’re going to make you dance, and we’re going to make you think.”
Birchwood’s previous album, “Living in A Burning House,” was released in 2021 on Alligator Records.
“The album won two Blues Music Awards,” said Birchwood. “It got the award for ‘Contemporary Blues Album’ and for ‘Song of the Year’ and my band member Reggi Oliver got one for ‘Best Horn Player.’
“We finished making the album in December 2019. It was set to be released in May 2020. Obviously, 2020 had different plans. It finally came out in January 2021. I was ecstatic with the reception it got.
“We released the new album in 2021. Even with so much uncertainty, we decided to put it out. We did two shows in January 2021 when the album came out – shows with social distancing. We didn’t do any concerts outside the state until mid-2021.
“We didn’t get to tour the album too heavily. But I always try to stay busy. COVID was a trying time. Music was a release for me. It’s a different landscape since 2020. But people seem ready to come listening.
“I didn’t write any songs about the pandemic. For people, it’s an escape from reality so I don’t think anyone wants to hear songs about COVID.”
Birchwood has found much better paths for expression.
“With my music, I’m really trying to straddle the line between contemporary and traditional,” said Birchwood. “I’m just trying to find my own stuff. I think people would be hard-pressed to name another band like us. When I’m asked to describe my music, I use four words – electric swamp funk blues.”
Since the 2014 release of his Alligator Records debut, “Don’t Call No Ambulance,” Birchwood has made a meteoric rise from playing small Florida clubs to headlining international festival stages.
That album received the Blues Music Award and Living Blues Critics’ Award for “Best Debut Album of 2014,” and Birchwood won the 2015 “Blues Blast Rising Star Award.”
Birchwood’s follow-up was “Pick Your Poison” in 2016.
Birchwood wrote and produced all 13 songs on his latest album “Pick Your Poison,” which was released in 2017 on Alligator Records. The album is a testament to Birchwood’s overflowing talents as a blues master – despite his young age of 36.
“The ‘Pick Your Poison’ album was nominated for two Blues Music Awards,” said Birchwood. “We started making ‘Pick Your Poison’ in May of 2016.”
Birchwood is one of the top acts to emerge in the world of blues music in recent years. In 2013, he won the world-renowned International Blues Challenge — beating out 125 other musicians from the U.S. and abroad.
He also took home the Albert King Guitarist of the Year Award. After that, it didn’t take long for Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer to offer Birchwood a contract.
“Bruce heard me play at IBC (International Blues Challenge) in Memphis,” said Birchwood.
“I gave him some of my tracks to listen to. I was just hoping to get his opinion on them. Instead, he asked me to make an album for his record label.”
Birchwood was born in 1985 in Orlando, Florida. He first grabbed a guitar at age 13 and soon became proficient at mimicking what he heard on the radio. But the popular grunge rock, hip-hop and metal of the 1990s didn’t move him, and he quickly grew bored.
Then he heard Jimi Hendrix. By the time he was 17, Birchwood was deep into the blues — listening to Albert King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins and especially Buddy Guy.
“When I was young, I decided I wanted to play an instrument and landed on guitar,” said Birchwood. “I was bored with just hearing the stuff on the radio in the late 90s.
“When I heard Jimi Hendrix for the first time, I was blown away. It was like a spaceship had landed. Then, I started listening to Hendrix’ roots — Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy.
“Buddy Guy was one of my favorites. He was coming on tour to the House of Blues in Orlando when I was 17 and living there. I went to his show and was completely floored. I said — what I’m feeling coming off this stage is what I want to do.
“I’m just trying to write the best songs I can and have the strongest live performances. I want to just make sure we’re doing everything right.”
Video link for Selwyn Birchwood — https://youtu.be/NcxdptrFQCc.
The show at the Sellersville Theater on July 13 will start at 8 p.m.
Ticket prices start at $25.
Other upcoming shows at the Sellersville Theater are Ronstadt Review on July 14, Steep Canyon Rangers on July 15, PAKT on July 16, Johnny Peers & The Muttville Comix on July 17 and Young Dubliners on July 19.
Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials
Electrifying Chicago blues masters Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials — recently named by the Chicago Reader as the city’s 2022 Blues Band Of the Year – will give six live performances at South Jazz Club (600 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, www.southjazzkitchen.com) from July 14-16.
Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, beloved around the world as reigning champs of the raucous, slide-stoked Chicago sound, have spent more than 30 years cranking out high-octane blues on a series of critically acclaimed albums and in thousands of club, theatre and festival performances around the globe.
With sales of more than 120,000 units under its belt, this legendary band is captured at the top of its game on its latest album – “The Big Sound of Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials.”
Lil’ Ed is Ed Williams, Chicago-born blues guitarist, singer and songwriter who has risen to fame on the strength of his standout slide guitar work.
“I wasn’t working as much as I usually do because of the pandemic,” said Williams, during a phone interview from his home in Hawthorn Woods, which is located approximately 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.
“I did some acoustic shows and some screenings – low key shows. I actually played a lot and did a lot of screenings, but it wasn’t the same as a real live concert. In an ordinary year, we’d play around 200 shows a year.”
“The Big Sound of Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials” is bursting with Lil’ Ed’s rollicking slide-work and raw-boned vocals on a joyous blend of burning boogies, romping shuffles and heart-stopping slow blues. The ever-ready Blues Imperials continue to be his perfect sidekicks — laying down greasy, percolating grooves with reckless precision.
Lil’ Ed ‘s backing band — The Blues Imperials — are bassist James “Pookie” Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton.
“I’ve always used a four-piece band — two guitars, bass and drums,” said Williams, during a recent phone interview. “Kelly, Mike and Pookie are my guys. This is a really tight band. These guys have been with me for about 30 years.”
Williams and his half-brother Pookie Young, received childhood encouragement and tutelage from their uncle, blues guitarist, songwriter and recording artist J. B. Hutto.
“J.B. would come and play for my family,” said Williams. “Slide guitar was the instrument for me because it shimmied. J.B. would play his slide and the 40-watt light bulbs in our house would dim.
“I started playing guitar when I was 11 or 12. J.B. would always play songs by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Elmore James. The Muddy Waters songs always had a lot of slide guitar. That’s what I really liked a lot.”
It’s been 30 years since Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials released their debut album “Roughhousin’” on Alligator Records. All of Li’l Ed’s records over the last three decades have been on Alligator Records, a Chicago-based label specializing in blues music.
“Back around 1985, I was playing a North Side club here in Chicago and Bruce (Iglauer — producer and owner of Alligator Records) heard me play,” said Williams. “He invited me to play a couple tracks on a compilation album called ‘The New Bluebloods.’
“I went to their studio and did 15 songs. Then, we kept going. We cut 32 songs in a couple hours. That was where all the songs from ‘Roughhousin’ came from.
“I signed with Alligator Records then. Bruce and I shook hands and we’re still together 30 years later.”
Williams has started working on his next album for Alligator, but no release date has been set.
“I kind of write as I go because I write about things that I see or little things people say,” said Williams. “A good example is my song ‘Icicles in My Meatloaf.’ My wife had made meatloaf — some of it was for dinner and she froze the rest for later.
“When she defrosted it and served it, it wasn’t heated up all the way. My mother-in-law started to eat it, came across a part that was still frozen and said — there’s an icicle in my meatloaf.
“You get that kind of vibe going. I look around me. I try to focus on what’s going on around me in the world — all the things that happen in everyday living in all our lives. That’s why people relate to my songs.
“I have a little studio in my house. I’m always sitting down plucking on my guitar. I get a groove going and then decide if it’s a heavy song or as happy song.”
In 2013, the band was awarded the Living Blues Critics’ and Readers’ Awards for Best Live Performer. The band won this same distinction in the 2012 and 2011 Living Blues Critics’ Poll. The group won the coveted 2009 Blues Music Award for Band Of The Year, the same honor they received in 2007.
In his live shows, Williams presents fans with an overview of his career — and a heavy dose of the blues.
“I’ve got so many songs that I can play,” said Williams. “Every show, I try to mix up the material — old songs from 25 years ago along with newer songs. I also throw in some covers — Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Elmore James — all the good ones.
“I’m always working on songs – trying to find new material.
Williams comes to the blues naturally. He was born in Chicago on April 8, 1955 in the heart of Chicago’s tough West Side and grew up surrounded by music. His uncle J.B. Hutto, taught him how to feel, not just play the blues.
Harris and Young spent their teen years making music together, and in 1975 formed the first incarnation of The Blues Imperials.
They played their first gig at a West Side club called Big Duke’s Blue Flame, splitting the $6 take four ways. Over the next few years, the group played every club in the neighborhood but still needed day jobs to pay the bills. Harris worked ten hours a day as a buffer at the Red Carpet Car Wash while Young drove a school bus.
Through relentless touring, the group became tighter with each performance. The band’s spontaneous live show became legendary among blues fans worldwide.
Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials have played the Chicago Blues Festival, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival, The San Diego Blues Festival, The Pennsylvania Blues Festival and dozens of other festivals around the country.
They also have performed at festivals in Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Japan, Australia, India, Turkey and Panama.
“I’m a fun bluesman,” said Harris. “A lot of blues songs are sad. Me – I’m a happy blues player.”
Video link for Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials — https://youtu.be/B2A6p9OA-EY.
The shows at South Jazz Club are 7 and 9 p.m. (Friday and Saturday set times) and 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. (Sunday set times).
Tickets are $30.
Arts Fishing Club has played Philly many times over the last eight years. However, when the Nashville-based group headlines a show at MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 215- 925-6455, www.milkboyphilly.com) on July 13, it will be the band’s first time to play here in support of an album.
The debut album by Arts Fishing Club, “Rothko Sky,” was released on June 16. It was an independent release.
Arts Fishing Club is a solo project by singer/guitarist Christopher Kessenich and also is a band fronted by Kessenich – an indie rock band from Nashville that formed in 2016.
“I started toying with it in 2015,” said Kessenich, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from a tour stop in Vienna, Virginia.
“I put out a self-titled EP in 2015. I really like some of those songs. It would be fun to revisit some of those songs.”
2015 was another eventful year for Kessenich. He and three of his musician buddies – Benjamin, Willie and Riley – became “The Walking Guys.”
They walked and they played music – all over the place.
“We walked 1,600 miles and played over 50 shows,” said Kessenich, who lives in Nashville. “We started in Portland, Maine, walked all the way to Atlanta and then walked back to Nashville.
“Ever since getting off that, I’ve been putting bands together. My single, ‘Shaking for Your Love,’ came out in 2017 and was recorded with some of the guys in the current band.
“Throughout the years, members have come in and out. There are around 20 that are part of the club. The cast has shifted from the early years. The lineup for the last two years – Matthew Chamsey on bass, Chris Dunkley on lead guitar and Jody Lee Oliver on drums – is the best going forward.
“Since Matthew joined about three years ago, the project has taken on a whole new life. He’s an incredible instrumentalist.”
The depth of the musical bond between Kessenich and Chamsey is obvious on the new LP.
“We recorded ‘Rothko Sky’ with producer Thad Kopec at his home studio in Nashville,” said Kessenich. “We started a year ago and then worked on and off all last year.
“For the most part. The songs were written long before they were recorded. I had a lot of songs written – maybe 60 songs – over the last two years. I wasn’t that interested in recording them. But when people heard them, they were telling me that I should be recording them.”
“Rothko Sky” charts the autobiographical yet hugely relatable arc of an impassioned, volatile romance.
According to Kessenich, “It starts with a surge of starry-eyed passion, then hits a wall and gets ripped back to reality. Then the second half of the record fluctuates back and forth between love, sex, pain, and self-reflection.
“The name ‘Arts Fishing Club’ is a reminder to approach music the way my grandfathers (Art Kessenich and Art Schmidt) taught me to fish. You go out every single day casting, coming up empty handed, casting, coming up empty handed. But it’s not about catching the big fish – it’s about going on a crazy adventure with people that you love.”
Video link for Arts Fishing Club – https://youtu.be/PdPMC3MxiWQ.
The show at MilkBoy Philly on July 13 will start at 8 p.m. with opening act Molly Martin.
Tickets are $18.
Right now, we’re in the middle of the three-week run of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” which is being presented by Kimmel Cultural Campus (250 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, www.kimmelculturalcampus.org) and The Shubert Organization.
The show, which is making its Philadelphia debut, is running now through July 5-23.
The lively musical takes place in a world of splendor and romance, of eye-popping excess, of glitz, grandeur, and glory. It is a world where Bohemians and aristocrats rub elbows and revel in electrifying enchantment.
Part of the 2022-23 Broadway series, this larger-than-life musical tells the story of star-crossed lovers who fall in love at the Moulin Rouge, a place where Bohemians and aristocrats rub elbows while relishing the electrifying entertainment.
The Moulin Rouge of Paris is a dazzling and spectacular universe, the symbol of the Parisian way of celebrating since 1889. Starting life as a popular cabaret and dance hall, the venue became an iconic music hall in the Roaring Twenties and then a theatre where numerous famous French and international artists stepped out into the limelight.
Audience members can dive into the world of celebrating truth, beauty, freedom, and most importantly, love, as this musical-remix extravaganza comes to life in front of their eyes. “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” is more than just a musical, it’s a state of mind.
“Moulin Rouge! The Musical” is set in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France, during the Belle Epoque at the turn of the 20th century. The musical relates the story of Christian, a young composer, who falls in love with cabaret actress Satine, who is the star of the Moulin Rouge. Similar to the film, the musical’s score weaves together original songs with popular music, including songs that have been written in the 17 years since the film’s premier.
Christian is hailed as one of the greatest songwriters ever. This is his journey from beginning to end and there is a lot of music. The original movie used music of the times. This show uses music of our times.
Some of the songs featured in this version are “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “We Belong,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “I Wanna Dance (with Somebody Who Loves Me),” “Every Breath You Take” and “I Will Always Love You.”
Video link for “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” — https://youtu.be/kRYamIZWK-M.
“Moulin Rouge! The Musical” is running now through July 23 at the Academy of Music.
Ticket prices start at $20.
