Delta Wires, longtime respected blues mainstays in the San Francisco/Bay area music scene, return to the Folsom area to perform at Powerhouse Pub, 614 Sutter St., Sunday, February 25. Show: 3pm. Tickets: $10. Info: (916) 355-8586 or visit www.powerhousepub.com.
Ernie Pinata’s searing and impassioned harp on the track ‘Can’t Win For Losin’ opens The Delta Wires’ dynamic new CD. This seven-piece East Bay-based band has been generating powerful blues for over thirty years, performing at festivals from Monterey to Italy, and always with monumental audience response — all of which has earned them membership in California’s Blues Hall of Fame in 2012. Delta Wires were also voted “Best Live Band” in a poll by the East Bay Express and Oakland Magazine.
The Delta Wires’ potent combination of tight and highly-polished horns, fierce bluesy guitar and Pinata’s crying, emotional harp make for a powerful fusion, blending the heartbeat of the Delta with electric sophistication and a full-blooded brass sound. If Somebody Told Me… includes several originals, a few nods to the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson…and even a Count Basie lagniappe.
Band History and Info on Some Tracks on If Somebody Told Me…
Delta Wires started out as an Anthology of Blues Music that harpist Ernie Pinata presented as an undergraduate project for credit at The California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. The program covered the regional migration of music from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago. It began with field hollers, the music of Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and Son House, and ended up with the music recorded at Chess Records in Chicago: Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf and many others. After the program, the band went on to play professionally, performing with some of the greats that we studied: Lowell Fulson, Bo Diddley, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and many others.
Delta Wires were finalists in the international Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2008, representing the Sacramento Blues Society. They have recorded seven albums. Among their high-profile appearances: Umbria Jazz Festival, Perugia Italy; San Francisco Blues Festival; Russian River Blues Festival; Monterey Bay Blues Festival (eight times); Shasta Blues Society’s Redding Blues by the River Festival; Crescent City Blues Festival, (and) Sacramento Jazz Festival and Jubilee. The Delta Wires have shared the stage with many noted artists including Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, Freddie King, Bo Diddley, The Neville Bros, Dr. John, The Doobie Brothers, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, John Mayall, Boz Scaggs, Bad Company, The James Gang, and others.
The best way to experience the Delta Wires is undoubtedly live. Onstage, the ‘Wires always deliver an incandescent experience. But if you can’t catch them live, purchase If Somebody Told Me… and hold onto your hats. You’re in for a wild, wild ride!
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(Folsom CA) – dougdeutschPR