Eric Sardinas

Guitar Player Magazine notes: “Eric Sardinas embodies the modern guitarslinger within the grand tradition of the maverick bluesman. His forte is a fired-up roadhouse style steeped in swampy slide licks and presented with AC/DC energy.”

Eric's signature brand of Delta dynamite has been a long time in the making. At the early age of six, he already had his fingers on the fretboard. “I’m left-handed,” Sardinas told Guitar Player, “but I learned to play righty. I never took lessons, so I wasn’t corrected, and my fretting-hand approach is unorthodox as a result. I have a rapid-fire technique, because my left hand is my strong hand.”

Also helping to shape his artistic direction were the soulful grounds in which he planted his earliest musical roots. Sardinas recalls that it was exposure to gospel, Motown and R&B that eventually caused him to seek out the emotionally charged acoustic sounds of the Deep South. Delta titans like Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, Skip James, Bukka White, and Fred McDowell were among his favorites. Rural country blues players such as Barbecue Bob and Blind Willie McTell were later added to his list, as was the electric blues sound—Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and Albert King can be considered responsible for setting Sardinas on a collision course with what would ultimately become the final contributor to his developing style: rock 'n roll, characterized by the artist’s jaw-dropping dive-bomb slide guitar pyrotechnics that reflect his love of Son House and Robert Johnson.

Joanne Shaw Taylor

Both his 1999 debut Treat Me Right and follow up Devil's Train were full of electrified Dobro, but neither surrendered Eric's deeply rooted respect for traditional blues. Mixed alongside his self- penned compositions were searing renditions from the back catalogues of classic blues artists.
Looking back on his two first albums Sardinas can now insightfully reflect, "These records explored everything I'd learned, but at the same time they used blues as a jumping off point to go deeper."

With his third release, Black Pearls, Sardinas soared above and beyond the safe confines of twelve-bar familiarity, encouraging listeners to re-examine many of their preconceived notions regarding blues music. Black Pearls was produced by legendary Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer, and it peaked at number 11 on Billboard’s Top Blues Albums chart in 2004. Sardinas’ fourth full-length offering, Eric Sardinas and Big Motor, marks the first CD with his current touring band of Patrick Caccia on drums and Levell Price on bass.

Sardinas has garnered acclaim for his explosive live performances, which clearly demonstrate his consummate six-string agility. A veteran of the live circuit, he’s racked up thousands of performances worldwide.

About Joanne Shaw Taylor, the U.K.’s BluePrint Magazine said, “Catch her live if you can; then you can say: I was there at the beginning!” If you missed her at Creekside in Davenport last year, here’s your chance!

Now 24 years old, Taylor has continued to refine her skills as both a singer (think Joss Stone) and guitar player, and the proof of the pudding is in her dynamic debut CD, which combines the power of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix with the down-home blues of the Mississippi Delta. The 10 tracks on White Sugar (most of them written by Taylor) clearly show an artist in total command of her instruments—guitar and voice. The new CD was produced and mixed by acclaimed producer Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, Luther Allison, Jonny Lang) and recorded in Tennessee. The power trio – that’s the kind of band which suits Joanne Shaw Taylor, also at home in Birmingham, where she and her trio play the pubs, clubs and festivals. "I always wanted to try the power trio thing, like Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Paladins or Jimi Hendrix. I thought it would bring me on as a guitar player and a singer—which I think it has done,” says Taylor.

When Joanne was a little schoolgirl, she was caught by the rough side of the blues. One Christmas she got her first electric guitar. The old classical guitar, which she had played since she was eight, vanished from the children’s room. Taylor notes, "As soon as I heard SRV and Albert Collins I knew pretty much that I wanted to do that full stop. That was the lifestyle route that I was going to go down. It was never a hobby. I was always very serious and dedicated to it." White Sugar is the proof. The confident and young British woman keeps the traditions of her idols but she is going her own way. Whether playing the hard stuff like SRV, making us feel the bite of her telecaster just like Albert Collins did or working out riffs from the Jimi Hendrix book, Taylor is always seeking—and finding—new terrain.

White Sugar has been nominated for a Blues Music Award for best Blues-Rock album.