For years Paul Oscher has traveled the world with his celebrated show, "Alone with the Blues".
A true Chicago icon he is a highly regarded multi-instrumentalist, singing, playing guitar,
harmonica and bass-harmonica, and also piano.
He played as side-man with Muddy Waters for 5 years until 1972, and later played with
John Lee Hooker, Lightning Hopkins and T-Bone Walker.
Paul Oscher is one of today's greatest solo performers on the international blues scene.

Read much more about him under his concerts Thursday and Friday in Copenhagen.

Larry McCray plays a sizzling and caching mix of blues, funk, soul and rock, and he
brigs down the house with every concert, with his eminent guitar playing, a warm and
soul-inspired voice and an energetic funky blues style.
He is definitely amongst those who will bring the blues safely into the future.

Read much more under the double concert at Huset later in the evening.

Drop by Charlie Scott's and experience top class Boogie Woogie. Lasse "Boogie! Jensen,
23 year old has since 2006 been crazy about boogie woogie. Back then his idols was Jerry
Lee Louis and rock'n'roll, but now he sticks to Meade Lux Lewis og Axel Zwingenberger.
Lasse has become one of the best Danish Boogie Woogie players and has played in
many European countries like Germany, France, Switzerland and Holland.

H.P. Lange is one of the veterans on the roots- and blues scene.
He has been active from the mid '80s and has played a vast number of club and festival
concerts both here and outside Denmark, he has released 9 CDs and has received a
number of awards. He has for this evenings concert, put together a small dynamic trio,
the bass - icon Hugo Rasmussen who hardly needs further presentation, and Jens
Kristian Dam, one of Danish blues/folk most sought after drummers, probably known
from his work with Mike Andersen. The repertoire is old classics and H.P.'s own songs
which are given a more or less relevant story along the way.

Hamilton Loomis, from Texas, has visited Denmark many times with great success,
but this is the first time that the 38 year old multi musician and his big-swinging Texas
blues joins the Copenhagen Blues Festival. He is current with the CD “Give it Back”,
the 6th release with his unique style, mixing rhythm'n'blues with soul, funk and rock.
The CD has been highly acclaimed both in the US, Europe and Australia, and he is
one of the young talents that can carry the flame onward, and put his mark on blues
and soul in the future. Here is a Texas blues man who knows his way around the blues.
Hamilton Loomis and his super funky band are sure to put Mojo swinging.

Most every one knows songs like “Goodnight Irene”, “Midnight Special”, and “Cotton-fields”, though
few know the songwriter behind them, Lead Belly (Hudson Ledbetter – 20/1/1888 6/12/1949).
It is a story about a songwriter, who only sold a few records, despite this, he is the creator of a
vast catalogue of blues / folk songs, along with being a multi-instrumentalist.
Between jobs as a cotton picker and cowboy, he toured in the beginning of the 1900 century
Louisiana and Texas with his guitar. He was not one of Gods best children, and his violent
temper sent him in jail a number times, for various crimes, including murder.
During his imprisonment, in a brutal prison farm in Texas, he played for the governor, and
was pardoned – and could continue his life as a musician in freedom. In 1930 he was back
IN TROUBLE again, accused of the intention of murder in Louisiana. One day, John Lomax
from the Library of Congress, on his way to Washington, came to visit- he was on a search
after old “black” folk-songs, and drove around to the large prisons in the southern states,
his car filled with recording equipment. Ledbetter recorded some of his songs, amongst
then “Goodnight Irene”, and he persuaded Lomax to send a song to the governor, who
reduced his term. After his release he travelled around with Lomax, and recorded about
a hundred songs. He later moved to New York, and played in the budding folk music
scene and had part in the radio-shows like the CBS series “Back Where I Come From”.

Paul Oscher - "Alone With The Blues"
Paul Oscher, award-winning blues singer, songwriter, recording artist, and multi-instrumentalist, harmonica,
guitar, piano, melodica, and bass harp, first came to attention as Muddy Waters’ harmonica player from
1967-1972 following in the footsteps of Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton and Big Walter Horton.
He was the first white musician to become a full-time member of a black blues band of this stature.
Paul started playing a marine band harmonica at the age of twelve and learned the rudiments of blues
harmonica by Jimmy Johnson, a southern medicine show harp player. At fifteen he hooked up with
guitarist/singer Little Jimmy Mae and started playing professionally in soul revues.
In 1967 Paul met Muddy Waters in New York, and Paul sat in with the band. He played two songs, and
Muddy hired him on the spot. Working alongside blues greats like Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Sammy
Lawhorn and others, Paul learned the deep Blues phrasing and timing characteristic of his music today.
Paul lived on the Chicago's Southside in Muddy Waters’ house along with Otis Spann, who taught Paul
the piano. Paul learned the guitar by looking over the shoulders of Muddy and Sammy Lawhorn.
While in Muddy’s band Paul toured the US and abroad, playing all kinds of venues from the rough juke
joints of the chitlin’ circuit to the major concert stages of the world and during that time backed up major
blues artists such as John Lee Hooker, Earl Hooker, Son House, Fred McDowell, Lightning Hopkins,
T. Bone Walker, Albert King, Magic Sam and Big Mama Thornton.
Paul recorded a number of records with Muddy Waters for the legendary Chess Records in Chicago.
These recordings and live performances would influence an entire generation of young players.
Paul left Muddy’s band at the end of 1971 to form his own band using the name Brooklyn Slim. In 1976
he toured Europe with Louisiana Red and playied with his own band as well as backing up Big Joe Turner,
Doc Pomus, Victoria Spivey, Big Walter Horton and Johnny Copeland. In 1995 he recorded his first CD,
"The Deep Blues of Paul Oscher", followed by "Knockin’ on the Devils’ Door", and he got his first W.C.
Handy Award Nomination. The CD "Down in the Delta" won him two Blues Music Awards in 2006,
"Acoustic Album of the Year" and "Acoustic Artist of the Year".
Paul is now a successful touring artist, solo or in trio set-up, and he plays only the real, unadulterated,
down-in-the-alley, gutbucket blues. He is not a retro player; he just plays the blues the way he learned -
lowdown and lonesome, and has been doing so for the last forty years.

Larry McCray - "Blues Is My Business"
Larry McCray was born in 1960 in Magnolia, Arkansas, the second youngest of nine siblings.
He grew up living on a farm, where he learned guitar from his sister, Clara."She played real low-down
and dirty", McCray recalled years later. His family moved to Saginaw, Michigan in 1972, and McCray
took the influence of his sibling, such as B.B., Freddie and Albert King, to playing the local club circuit,
with his brothers Carl on bass guitar and Steve on drums. After high school, McCray worked on
General Motors' assembly line, before recording "Ambition", his 1991 debut album.
Larry McCray is one of a handful of talented young blues performers leading the genre across it's
boundaries and into the new century. McCray’s savage blues-rock guitar and warm, soulful vocals
have drawn attention worldwide. His hard work paid off when he became the first artist signed by Virgin
Records’ blues division Pointblank Records. In 1990, they released his debut, “Ambition,” which was
well received by the U.S. and European press.
1993 saw the release of McCray’s second album, Delta Hurricane, which was recorded in Memphis
with the notoriously funky Uptown Horns. The guitarist’s gut wrenching rendition of Warren Haynes’
power ballad, “Soul Shine,” opened many ears to McCray’s talent and diversity.
In 1998, Born To Play The Blues moved the story of McCray’s broadly appealing music forward a giant
step. Bold, brawny, dazzling guitar lines are matched with confident, soul-drenched vocals.
Understated funk rhythms and crunchy rock riffs meet searing slow blues and booty-bumping shuffles.
McCray founded his own independent record label, Magnolia Records, in 2000, releasing "Believe It"
and "Live on Interstate 75" and the self titled "Larry Mccray".
McCray also saw a career highlight being honored as the Orville Gibson 2000 Male Blues Guitarist
of the Year. “Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, like 7-8 other people were nominated as well”, stated McCray.

With Magnolia Records his new home and a young son to raise, McCray was able to pull back into his
personal life for a while. McCray keeps busy on the road trying to find the time to write music.
MccRay has gained popularity in the U.S. from coast to coast and is also making a splash in Europe.
2013 saw Larry McCray headed back in the studio in preparation of a long anticipated new CD, due out
in 2014 in time for what is becoming a busy schedule of touring dates ahead.
We are really looking forward to presenting this great artist at this year' s blues festival.

Rattlers have existed since the beginning of the 90ties. The band started out as a
clean cut blues band with a large number of club concerts and support jobs for
some big acts, like Walter Trout.
Since then, the style has changed, and today Rattlers is more rock'n'roll.
But you still get the great songs by ZZ Top, Hendrix, Billy Idol and Led Zeppelin.
Sweaty rock/blues with power.

Paul Banks is a musical attraction where ever he performs, and he doesn't really need
much further introduction.
For the last 30 years he's been a major factor on the folk-blues scene, playing and
recording as a solo performer, or induo and trio with many of his peers, and even
with big band. He has created a musical style all his own, inspiring everything and
everybody around him
This evening at Bartof Station he brings his two old buddies, Martin Andersen, violin,
and Hugo Rasmussen, double bass, who are stars in their own right. The trio is actually
3/4 of the epic group, Musikorkesteret, and for that reason alone,

Mama's Blues Joint was formed in 2002 by Lene Strøyer, and is now a big success,
where ever they play. Lene is an extraordinary soulful singer, with a deep love for
the Blues and an intense live performance. The debut CD, “Mama's Blues Joint”
from 2005, was played on radios the world over, and the song “Missing You”, won
awards at international songwriting contests.
The title on the band's 2009 release, “Blues In Many Colors”, is very significant for
the band's style of blues, soul, funk, rock and country, focusing on the good groove.
In 2010 Lene won the blues festival's award ”Danish Blues Artist of the Year”.
Lene writes most of the songs herself, but all band-members in their unique way,
add different colors and flavors to the dish. Besides their original stuff the repertoire
are mixed with well arranged songs by artists like B.B. King, Albert Collins, Etta James,
and Delbert McClinton and others.

The Deepers are a unik bid for a modern blues and roots inspired music,
with a mood sound, unlike anything before on the Danish blues scene, raw energy, with the focus on detail and harmony.
The project had it's start at guitarist and singer David Kampmann's
45-year birthday concert. The response from the audience was
overwhelming, resulting in the 'birth' of the band.
The goal has been to “create blues-based original material, rounded
off with the same primal power as the classics from the 20's and 30's, with a personal touch”, say the Deepers.
Last year the band released their second CD, “Deeper Than Yesterday”,
all twelve numbers are the bands own songs, combining tradition and
regeneration to a strong personal universe.

NOLA Love Manifest plays songs about life, death and love. Morten Fischer’s
outlook on life is mixed with the sound of New Orleans’ swinging shuffle,
intense boogie-woogie and energetic second-line. This evening at Charlie
Scotts, the band also plays classics from the New Orleans repertoire and
spread energy and love “upstairs” until the shirts are soaked!

Take a big bucket of unpolished Mississippi juke joint boogie and blend it with another bucket of
laid back down home blues. Add a teacup of swamp pop, a tablespoon of hillbilly and a pound of
profane, ecstatic gospel and you´ll have the Kokomo Kings. This is rock´n´roll before rock´n´roll
was born. Nothing but primitive, groovy Saturday-night music made for dancing.
The band is a collaboration between some of Swedens and Denmarks absolute top players.
After years of backing numerous international blues artists like James Harman, Mud Morganfield,
Big Jack Johnson, Lazy Lester, Louisiana Red, John Primer, Big Joe Louis, Keith Dunn, Rusty
Zinn and many others, and playing with a number of Scandinavian bands like The Instigators,
The Domestic Bumblebees, Paul & The Blue Delivery, Peter Nande Band and others, the guys
decided to start a new band and do their own thing. And finally, in the spring of 2012, they got
together to record the debut 45 single on vinyl, “Artificial Natural”. Before it was even officially
released many blues- and rock´n´roll fans claimed it to be one of the best sounding recordings
for years, and the follow-up fulle length CD has prooved them right.