4 bands and 6 hours of music 6:00-6:45 Neal McCarthy Neal is a regional blues troubadour. Playing every bar, club festival and dive in New England. He honed hid craft the hard way. He has a rough-hewn vocal reminiscent of an old bluesman. He plays a mean guitar and mixes originals with new takes on old traditional songs. 7:05 -8:15 Selwyn Birchwood Selwyn Birchwood, Florida’s rising young blues fireball, is a guitar and lap-steel-playing bundle of pure energy. He delivers his original songs with a revival tent preacher’s fervor and a natural storyteller’s charisma made all the more impactful by his raw, unvarnished vocals. Birchwood plays high-octane blues ‘ at once deeply rooted, funky and up-to-the-minute ‘ with true passion and honest emotion. With his band feeding off his drive and exuberance, the striking 6’3’ 29-year-old with his trademark Afro roams the stage (often barefoot), ripping out memorable guitar licks with ease. His ability to win over an audience ‘ any audience ‘ is proven night after night on the bandstand. With his warm, magnetic personality, Birchwood is as down-to-earth as his music is fun, thought provoking and vital. His mission is to spread his music far and wide, to share his joy, to play his heart out, and to push the blues into the future. ‘There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than playing the blues,’ he says. ‘And I try to convey that with every song and with every performance.’ In 2013, Birchwood catapulted from local hero to shooting star. He won the world-renowned International Blues Challenge, beating out 125 other bands from the U.S. and abroad. He also took home the Albert King Guitarist Of The Year Award. It wasn’t long before Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer offered Birchwood a contract. His debut album, Don’t Call No Ambulance, is a fully realized vision of contemporary blues. Birchwood’s original songs range from raucous romps to hill country stomps, from searing, serious slow blues to modern blues rock 8:35-9:50 Delta Generators On their new third release ‘Get on the Horse’, Delta Generators have stepped up everything from songwriting to production. This album was mixed by famed Grammy winning producer David Z (Prince, Eric Clapton, Jonny Lang, Buddy Guy, Etta James, Gov’t Mule etc.). The album was then mastered by Dave McNair (David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Los Lobos, Derek Trucks etc.). ‘Get on the Horse’ was recorded just like every other DG album, live in the studio, with a few overdubs after the fact. The songs range from roots rock to slow blues, Americana to funky soul. This album was funded by DG fans through PledgeMusic.com. ‘Get on the Horse’ has already been nominated for ‘2014 BLUES ALBUM OF THE YEAR’ by the Independent Music Awards! In the last couple of years, the Delta Generators have shared the stage with such acts as Robert Cray, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Three Dog Night, James Cotton, Jimmie Vaughn, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Johnny Winter, Walter Trout, Popa Chubby, Bonerama, Candye Kane, Michael Burks, John Lee Hooker Jr. and Sonny Landreth among many others. 10:15 -12:00 Dana Fuchs The road has led Dana Fuchs everywhere. But when it came to choosing a location for Songs From The Road, it had to be New York. The singer and the city have history. Almost two decades have passed since Dana left her home in rural Florida and beat a path to the Big Apple. Stepping onto the mean streets of the Lower East Side aged 19 she was an unknown singer with a voice and a dream, ready to slug it out on the city’s bearpit jam-circuit. Since then, New York has been the backdrop to Dana’s meteoric rise. There were the early buzz-sets in the city’s late-night sweatboxes. The off- Broadway musical Love, Janis, which saw the multi-talented performer play the iconic Janis Joplin. The endless shows and sessions all across town, no wonder, then, that for Songs From The Road, the Highline Ballroom on West 16th Street was the perfect fit ‘ and the singer was received like a local hero.
