Performing at The Bessie Smith Strut on Monday, June 8 will be Jarekus Singleton at 7:15 p.m. at Champy's Chicken, 526 East Martin Luther King Blvd. and Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials at 7:30 p.m. at Bessie Smith Hall, 200 East Martin Luther King Blvd. Tickets are $10.
For complete event information, call 423-756-2211, or visit www.riverbendfestival.com.
Review on Jarekus Singleton:
"Stinging blues guitar and potent, original songs herald the emergence of a major new talent." --USA Today
"Jarekus Singleton is an exciting new young blues guitarist with melody, hooks, swagger and a strong, original voice.
His lyrics are modern, personal, acutely poetic and deeply mature." --Washington Post
Musical trailblazer Jarekus Singleton, touring in support of his Alligator Records debut, Refuse To Lose, will perform at the Bessie Smith Strut in Chattanooga on Monday, June 8. Singleton melds hip-hop wordplay, rock energy and R&B grooves with contemporary and traditional blues, turning audiences of all ages into devoted fans. With his untamed guitar licks and strong, soulful voice effortlessly moving from ferocious and funky to slow and steamy to smoking hot, Singleton is a fresh, electrifying bluesman with a bold vision for the future of the blues.
Springing from the same Mississippi soil as Charley Patton, Muddy Waters and B.B. King, 30-year-old Jarekus Singleton's cutting-edge sound - equally rooted in rap, rock and blues traditions - is all his own. REFUSE TO LOSE features a scintillating guitar attack and lyrically startling original songs all sung with a natural storyteller's voice. Produced by Singleton along with Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer and recorded at PM Music in Memphis, the album is an impossible-to-ignore first step onto the world stage. With songs telling real life, streetwise (sometimes funny) stories brimming with surprising images, pop culture references, infectious rhythms and unexpected musical twists, Refuse To Lose unleashes a new wave of blues for a new generation of fans.
Review of Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials:
"Full of fire, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials hit the floor running and accelerate from there.
High-octane, expressive, fiercely articulated, harrowing intensity, raucous slide." --Living Blues
Alligator recording artists Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, touring in support of their latest Alligator CD, Jump Start, will perform at the Bessie Smith Strut in Chattanooga on Monday, June 8. Mixing smoking slide guitar boogies and raw-boned Chicago shuffles with the deepest slow-burners, Lil' Ed Williams and his rip-roaring Blues Imperials -- bassist James "Pookie" Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton -- deliver gloriously riotous, rollicking and intensely emotional blues. Currently celebrating 26 history-making years together, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials ply their musical talents with skills that have been honed to a razor's edge. 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.
The band's wildly energetic and seriously soulful new CD Jump Start is jam-packed with Lil' Ed's incendiary slide playing and rough, passionate singing, as the ragged-but-right Blues Imperials cook like mad alongside him. Produced by Williams and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, it is a tour-de-force of untamed slide guitar, rock solid rhythms, heartrending ballads and authentic deep blues vocals. Williams wrote or co-wrote 13 of the album's 14 songs, which all overflow with the band's full throttle drive and serious sense of fun. JUMP START reveals a band firing on all cylinders and ready to spread the genuine houserockin' fever to their biggest audience yet. "It's all blues, really," says Lil' Ed. "Some of it will make you dance, some will ease your soul."