Markus James HEAD FOR THE HILLS New Album

Firenze Records announces an October 28th release date for Markus James’ new album, Head for the Hills. Recorded in Holly Springs, Como, Senatobia and Luxahoma, Mississippi, as well as in Northern California, Head for the Hills showcases Markus James on vocals, electric slide, 3 string cigar box, gourd banjo, slide dulcimer, acoustic guitar, harmonica, beatbox, and a snakeskin­covered 1­ string diddley bow. He’s backed by a “who’s who” of North Mississippi Hill Country drummers including Kinney Kimbrough (son of Junior Kimbrough), Calvin Jackson (R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Deep Blues film), Aubrey “Bill” Turner (Otha Turner), and R.L. Boyce (Jessie Mae Hemphill).

Also appearing is drummer Marlon Green, who was the last drummer to record and tour with the legendary John Lee Hooker, and who is currently accompanying James live (recent appearances include Montreal International Jazz Festival, Telluride Blues & Brews Festival).

You can find out more on "Head For The Hills" at this link: https://app.box.com/s/xeazjzw9t3kbvf9j10um

Contact me today about having Markus James at your event.

THE JAKE LEG STOMPERS UP TO NO GOOD

The Jake Leg Stompers are proud to announce the birth of their new album titled "UP TO NO GOOD."
We slapped it in the player and it cried out with great gusto! Cigars and CD's all around!  Find out more about The Jake Leg Stompers on Facebook by clicking here. And you can listen to tracks from the new album UP TO NO GOOD by clicking here.
Whoa! Some great photos from their March 9 show in Nashville. Click here!

Flashing back to an era when urban blues was played on jugs, banjos, washboards and gizzards full of moonshine, the relentlessly entertaining Jake Leg Stompers create the perfect soundtrack for selling snake oil. Their feel-good blend of virtuosity, comedy and clay-caked soul has been jammed into a fourth album called Up To No Good. And this time, carnival barker/multi-instrumentalist Hambone Willie splits fronting the up-to-10-piece group with new addition Leela Mae Smith, whose warm-molasses voice provides a counterpoint to Willie’s noble hound-dog growl. If following in the slow-dragging footsteps of such long-ago Americana and blues bedrock bands as Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers seems improbable, consider Hambone Willie’s own transformation from Bill Steber, the award-winning ex-Tennessean photographer. Steber became so intoxicated with the sounds and sights of Mississippi’s blues culture while documenting it with his camera on a grant from the Alicia Patterson Foundation that he quit his job to embark on a relentless musical bender that’s made the Jake Legs one of the finest proponents of this very-old-school style.

—TED DROZDOWSKI NASHVILLE SCENE

Please contact me for availability and more details. 

Markus James & blues Mississippi & Mali

Markus James and The Wassonrai are pushing the boundaries and mixing blues from Mississippi with blues from Mali, Africa. 

Roots Blues Traveler Markus James joins forces with four West African music masters to cook up what NPR Music calls "Rock with a West African twist"  in the group Markus James and The Wassonrai.  Thundering West African percussion meets voodoo-trance North Mississippi-style guitar riffs, with vocals in English and Mali's Bambara languages.  

While Markus James' original Blues-based collaborations, recorded in Mali West Africa and in Mississippi, have received widespread critical acclaim here in the US and in Europe, his live shows with the Wassonrai - West African artists based in Northern California - are uniquely wild affairs, only available at their club and Festival appearances, with some songs ranging to 20 minutes, in the spirit of the traditions they are based in. Originally from Northern Virginia, Markus has been based in the Bay Area for many years, as are his main collaborators in Markus James and the Wassonrai, players who hail from Mali, Guinea and Benin / Togo.  Markus is a recording artist whose productions skills and musical passion have lead him to create music with both Mississippi hill country blues artists including North Mississippi drummers Calvin Jackson (R.L. Burnside)  and in Mali with many artists including Vieux Farka Toure and Hamma Sankare (Ali Farka Toure).  Billboard Magazine writes about his latest album Snakeskin Violin, 

"profound world blues passage… extremely distinctive pieces, driven by a seductive rhythmic circularity that's a keystone of Malian traditional tunes and Delta blues."

Their live shows are incendiary, fusing house-rocking African drumming with trancelike North Mississippi-style slide guitar riffs. 

Click here for sizzling concert video!  You can find out more on Markus James and Wassonrai by clicking here.  

Click here for a one-sheet.   Click here for a sample press release about the show.

Please contact us with your questions by email roadwarrioragency at gmail.com. 

We can also offer a screening of the film TIMBUKTOUBAB with a performance of Markus James and the Wassonrai. Click here for more information.  Click here for a trailer from TIMBUKTOUBAB. More dynamic video here.

And here is video of Markus James and The Wassonrai in Belgium performing live. Click here.

"His original approach to blues music combining American Roots Blues with West African roots music is such a soul filled experience. They created some magical music."
—Fred “Freddie Blue” Goodrich, WWOZ, New Orleans, LA

 

 "The mix of sounds, instruments, and influences spanning the program is mind-boggling"   LIVING BLUES MAGAZINE

"This is an extremely powerful album" —Ben Manilla, Executive Producer, HOUSE OF BLUES RADIO HOUR

Blues concert slated for Falasco Center

Markus James & The Wassonrai to perform April 14

By Thaddeus Miller / tmiller@losbanosenterprise.com

Markus James and the Wassonrai will reach back to the cradle of civilization in its blues performance next month.

"I grew up loving blues music, and rock and soul music," James said. "I came to realize that rock and soul music are part of the evolution of blues music.

"And, I came to realize that blues music came directly out of the African history."

The band is set to perform its unique style of blues with a heavy African influence at the Ted Falasco Arts Center, 1105 Fifth St., at 7:30 p.m. April 14.

James, originally from Virginia, said the roots of blues music permeates life in West Africa. Call and response, rhythms and eccentric, homemade instruments can be found throughout Mali, Ghana and the rest of the countries in the region.

"You can go over there and play what we would call 'old-school blues music' and they will just start playing along with you," James said. "They'll say, 'This is our music.' "

The shuffle rhythm, a staple used by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker, finds its origin in the everyday process of pounding millet into a starchy paste eaten with soup. The process uses a six-foot-tall mortar and pestle, and the women working it develop a rhythm.

"You don't even have to go outside of your house to be experiencing the place in the culture that music plays in Africa," he said. "What we think of as our music, like boogie, blues and rock music -- ch-chunk, ch-chunk, ch-chunk."

James said modern percussion and rhythm instruments also originate from Africa, and many of them will be on display during his performance: a gourd banjo, a four-stringed gourd bass called a "bolon," a calabash drum and an eight-stringed harp called an "n'goni," as well as the electric guitar and harmonica.

James said the set list will get a mix of acoustic sounds, hauntingly intimate Skip James-esque songs and "we all also crank up the amps and start to boogie."

James is aware that the crossover of blues and African sounds may have some people scratching their heads before the concert.

"I've just been doing it a long time, and for me it's a natural thing," James said.

 

The Jake Leg Stompers Vaudeville Circus Fun & Laughs

The Jake Leg Stompers are currently traveling through Mississippi with their Jericho Road Show. Click on the arrow below for more music from The Jake Leg Stompers. Click here for pics of their Vaudeville Circus. We want to bring The Vaudeville Circus to your venue. Click here for a review of the Vaudeville Circus. Watch video of the circus here.

Listen here to The Jake Leg Stompers last album HILL COUNTRY HOODOO

Now Booking Markus James & The Wassonrai

Markus James and the Wassonrai

"Profound world blues passage...  driven by a seductive rhythmic circularity that's a keystone of Malian traditional tunes and Delta blues."

Billboard Magazine on his album Snakeskin Violin 

USA/ Mali / Guinea

Markus James and the Wassonrai blend together the blues at the heart of the Mississippi Delta with the melodies at the heart of Africa. Their sound simmers just beneath the surface ready to burst through when it’s least expected. Accompanying James (acoustic and electric slide and vocals), are the Wassonrai, featuring Karamba Dioubate (jembe, bolon, vocals), Amadou Camara (karinye, kamele n’goni, calabash, vocals), and Adam Goodhue (drums, percussion).

It should be noted that this collaboration is no happy accident. James’s first taste of West African music came at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. When he was just four years old, James’ musical radar picked up the sounds of Alhaji Bai Konte, a Gambian singer and kora player. Since then, James, born and raised in the United States, has continued on his quest to know more, learn more, and experience more. During the past few years, he’s spent time in Mali with the goal of understanding the relationship between traditional Malian music and the music of the American blues. In fact, many of his compositions draw from West African song structures by forgoing familiar blues chords in favour of harmonies that place an emphasis on lyrical expression. In addition, the members of the Wassonrai complement James’s textured guitar and vocals with ethereal harmonies and brooding rhythms of their own.

Together, Markus James and the Wassonrai start at the Mississippi Delta, journey to West Africa, and land in a special place in between. Listeners would do well to go along for the ride. Click here for a one-sheet.

Please contact us for availability and pricing.

Now Booking The Jake Leg Stompers early down and dirty blues

In northern Mississippi, just beyond the Delta's edge, there is hoodoo in the hills, and the musics that thrive there have roots so deep their tendrils touch the shores of western Africa. These are living blues; hypnotic rhythms that wind themselves into mi∂bius strips of irresistible and perpetual motion. In the hill country, the dancing always goes till down.

Hoping to share in the vast riches of this flourishing soundscape, the Jake Leg Stomeprs left their beloved Bucksnort, Tennessee, and made their way to Como, Mississippi, home of Jimbo Mathus' Delta Recording Service. There in the heart of the hill country, the Stompers sought to braid their chicken-fried, hokum-billy blues together with the haunting sounds of some of the area's most outstanding musical artists. Hill Country Hoodoo tells the tale of their search.Living Blues (p.48) - "[P]lain good. It is an outlandish ruckus-raising love letter to the chicken-fried music of the north Mississippi hill country." Click here to visit the Jake Leg Stompers website. Click on the now booking to listen to the Jake Leg Stompers. 

NOW AVAILABLE JAKE LEG STOMPERS' VAUDEVILLE CIRCUS

A FANTASTIC SHOW BY JAKE LEG STOMPERS' VAUDEVILLE CIRCUS

Click here to see more photos of the Vaudeville Circus.

By Andrew Steele

Story Published: Apr 5, 2011 at 6:18 PM CDT

Story Updated: Apr 6, 2011 at 3:03 AM CDT

Jake Leg Stompers, with their mix of Mississippi Delta Blues and Jug Band music, played amongst a mess of Vaudeville entertainment this Apil Fools Day. The band played some well known Delta Blues as well as some of original pieces. If you love pre-war music, this was the concert for you.

The Eggplant Faerie Players were a recurring act in the show. The duo juggled bowling pins, machettes, rubber chickens and practically anything they could find. They juggled in pairs, in the dark, along with on a nine foot unicycle of death. At one point in the show, they juggled nine pins on either side of a slightly frightened volunteer. The slightly frightened volunteer had to stand perfectly still, so she would not be *lightly* knocked upside the head from one of the flying pins. That was not all! The mostly brave volunteer was also asked to hold a carrot with her teeth during the event and at the end the duo knocked the carrot out of her moth using one of the bowling pins.

There were also feats of the mind, such as a man who solved a Rubiks Cube in under 3 and a half minutes; this was no ordinary Rubiks Cube solving. The man did it while wearing scuba gear and his face under the water. Still, this was not enough for this crowd! No, he solved this mind bending puzzle in time, while under water - while his hands were handcuffed together. He did all of this with the knowledge that if he failed, he would get a pie in the face. However, winning afforded the greater prize - a kiss from fair maiden holding the pie.

The beautiful and talented Leela Sophina, Queen of the Air also made multiple appearances throughout the show as she defied gravity on her trapeze.

The concert was perfect. The acts were perfect. The crowd was perfect. The venue was perfect. In short the whole show was PERFECT!

If you get a chance to see this show I would highly recommend it.

The Cookeville Times