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EAST PETERSBURG ’S “GYPSY MOON BLUES FESTIVAL”
This Year - October 6th, 2012 – Meet Our Performers | (excerpted from their official websites) |
Nate Myers & The Aces
The wide variety of styles, energy and sincerity in the music of Nate Myers & The Aces allows them to fit into nearly any musical genre. Blues festivals, rock shows, jam band campouts, dance parties, hot rod and motorcycle shows, movie premieres, formal events....you name it, NM&A has performed and won over audiences everywhere! Read more at Nate Myers & The Aces website. Blue Light Special
Sweet Leda
"It's sexy. It's sweet. It's gonna kick your ass!" Powered by Julie Cymek's sultry, commanding vocals and electrifying stage presence, "think Adele mixed with Mary J. Blige, with a certain South Of The Mason-Dixon Line ache that's all her own", Sweet Leda has earned a reputation as a "rising star," taking the diverse mid-Atlantic music scene by storm and becoming one of the most exciting and accomplished live acts around. With its rich blend of new school funk, soul, and pop, Sweet Leda's heartfelt original material has drawn comparisons to Joss Stone, Janis, Maroon 5, Edie Brickell, and even Led Zeppelin while garnering its very own stylistic label: "sexy smooth rock and groove". With their HOT new album "Need The Music" in hand, produced by Stephen Joseph Antonelli and mixed by Drew Mazurek (Linkin Park, Allman Bros.), the band is working hard to share their music with the world! The album's first single, "Can't Stand," was very well received and has garnered much airplay. New cuts such as "Let Her Love Her", "What I Need", and "What You Don't Know" are now getting love from the press as well as SL's favorite radio stations…and are available on iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, and more! Things are really just heating up and getting started for Sweet Leda, who is constantly adding new credits and experiences to their resume….from placing songs in feature films, to sharing festivals and stages with the likes of Robert Randolph, Lyle Lovett, Keb' Mo', Tedeschi Trucks, Big Head Todd, New Riders of The Purple Sage. The band has been traveling more than ever, working it's way up and down the east coast, so be sure to check the website for updates. In the meantime, rest assured that the band will be working hard — in the studio and on the live circuit — to do what they do best: make sweet music.
Angelo M Emerging on the music scene after a steel mill bankruptcy that cost him his pension; Angelo M. (short for Melasecca) made the unlikely transition from steelworker to touring artist. He's an award winning Americana songwriter and virtuoso finger style & slide guitarist with a blues bent in the vein of Chris Smither. With guitar influences from the likes of Ry Cooder, Chet Atkins, Duane Allman and Leo Kottke, reviews hail Angelo M. a “Brilliant Guitarist” with an “Excellent Voice” and call his performance “Powerful”. Tracks from Angelo’s Debut CD, FAR FROM HOME received airplay across the US and parts of Europe; were featured in a TV Series; and garnered songwriting honors in the prestigious “Mountain Stage” NewSong and Billboard's Song contests. Angelo M.’s most recent release, STEELWORK is receiving acclaim all it's own: the opening track, "Every Kind of Blues" was selected from thousands as a finalist in Billboard's 17th World Song Contest and received a Gold/First Place in Blues in the 27th Mid-Atlantic Song Contest along with reaching #4 on the FolkDJ Top Songs list. In addition, Acoustic Live calls several tracks from Steelwork “Brilliant”, the PBS TV series, RoadTrip Nation features “That Train” in an episode, and Angelo M. was featured on the notable radio programs, River City Folk with host Tom May and The Folk Show with Gene Shay in support of the album. For more on Angelo M visit www.angelom.com
Past Performers and "Friends of The Gypsy Moon"Octavia Blues Band
Georgie Bonds
Adam Gussow
Gussow is best known for his long partnership with Mississippi-born guitarist and one-man-band Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee as the duo Satan and Adam. After working the streets of Harlem from 1986 to 1991, Gussow and Magee duo toured internationally between 1991 and 1998. Their performing credits include the Chicago Blues Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, the Kansas City Jazz & Blues Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival and RiverBlues Festival, and more, along with hundreds of club gigs. They toured with Bo Diddley and opened for Buddy Guy, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Otis Clay, Johnny Winter, and Jimmy Thackery. They released two albums on Flying Fish Records, including the W. C. Handy-nominated Harlem Blues (1991) andMother Mojo (1993). Later releases include Living on the River (1996) and, on the Modern Blues Harmonica label, Word on the Street: Harlem Recordings, 1989 (2008). In 1996 Satan and Adam were the cover story in Living Blues magazine; according to editor David Nelson, Gussow enjoyed the curious honor of being "the first white blues musician to be so prominently spotlighted in the magazine's 26-year history." In addition to his career with Magee, Gussow has worked in duo, band, and studio settings with guitarists Charlie Hilbert, Irving Louis Lattin, Wild Jimmy Spruill, Robert Ross, Bill Abel, Andrew "Shine" Turner, Bill Sims, Jr., and Brian Kramer. He has released two albums with Hilbert on the Modern Blues Harmonica label: Blues Classics (2007) and Live in Klingenthal (2008). In his recent incarnation as a one-man band, Gussow takes a cue from Magee and does it all-singing, blowing amplified harp, and stomping out some thump-and-metal grooves. Gussow's new solo album, Kick and Stomp (2010), has spent many weeks at #1 in the "Hot New Releases in Acoustic Blues" chart at Amazon mp3's. Gussow is known to harmonica students around the world as a result of his "dirty-South blues harp channel" at YouTube and his pioneering offerings in the field of digital-download video tutorials at his website, Modern Blues Harmonica. Gussow's other musical credits include a stint with the bus-and-truck tour of Big River; several decades as a blues harmonica instructor at The Guitar Study Center in New York and in private practice; and a nine-time coach at Jon Gindick's Blues Harmonica Jam Camps. He's also headlined the Mundharmonika-Live festival in Klingenthal, Germany (2008) and has taught at Blues Week in the UK (2008). In the spring of 2010, Gussow added a new credit line to his resume´ as the creator and promoter of Hill Country Harmonica, a two-day intensive that drew more than 100 players from 30 states and 7 foreign countries to Foxfire Ranch in north Mississippi to study with Billy Branch, Billy Gibson, Johnny Sansone, and other top pros. HCH 2011 will feature Sugar Blue, Charlie Sayles, Sonny Boy Terry, and Jimi Lee. An award-winning scholar and memoirist, Gussow is the author of three blues-themed books: Mister Satan's Apprentice: A Blues Memoir (1998; reissued in 2009); Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition (2002); and Journeyman's Road: Modern Blues Lives From Faulkner's Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York (2007). He is currently at work on a book-length study of the devil-figure in the blues. For more on Adam Gussow visit www.modernbluesharmonica.com Little Ivory Blues Band
In September of 2008, LIBB took second place in the 2008 BSCP Blues Competition, and was invited to the 25th International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee to perform in the IBC Youth Showcase, where they not only blew away audiences, but earned themselves three on-the-spot paying gig offers, one of which at the biggest club on Beale St., Club 152. Even though the Youth Showcase was a great opportunity, their desire to one day compete in the IBC was still strong. In September of 2009, they took first in the BSCP Blues Competition and were chosen to represent Central PA in Memphis, Tennessee at the 2010 International Blues Challenge! Unfortunately in the fall of 2010, Lucas Hough moved to Philadelphia to attend Temple University and could no longer hold his position in LIBB. Then shortly after, in Spring 2011, Logan Kurtek no longer could hold his position in the band due to attending Lebanon Valley College. Both Lucas and Logan return occasionally for performances. Although still young, Little Ivory Blues Band has already racked up a considerable degree of valuable experience, developed a sizable fan base, and is rapidly becoming known for their unique approach and high-energy performances, having been listed among the Top 20 Bands in Central PA by 105.7 The X. Now, with their whole lives ahead of them, they have every intention to keep moving forward at full speed in their everlasting endeavor to safeguard the Blues for future generations. Visit www.littleivorybluesband.com for more information.
Find us as a featured event on Pennsylvania's Blues Calendar by Delta Blues! download your event flyer HERE
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Established in 2001, Nate Myers & The Aces performs to a variety of audiences in the Mid-Atlantic US: private parties, college campuses, concert halls, nightclubs and outdoor festivals. Lead by vocalist Nate Myers and his harmonica, the band creates a loose, casual atmosphere in which everyone can relax and have a good time! Whether the audience prefers to sit back and listen or get up and "shake that thang," there is something for everyone. On a typical evening, audiences can hear influences from many forms of American music - blues, funk, hip hop, rockabilly, country and improvisation. Nate Myers & The Aces take all these styles they love and weave them into a tapestry of their own. 
Attention K-mart shoppers. In the back isle, where the floor is a little sticky and a stubbed out cigarette is still smoking, that's where you'll find us: Blue Light Special. 100% American made, built to last, cheap and loud, but it comes with a lifetime guarantee. Blue Light Special plays the muddy sound of the Mississippi delta, the big shouldered roar of Chicago and the chicken fried twang of Texas. From the sweaty muscular growl and moan of being done wrong and wanting her back anyway, to the transcendent traveling tent ecstasy that will leave you revived and resurrected enough to do another day. We play the music of Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Stevie Ray and Etta James, Muddy and Jr. Wells, along with a few of our own songs, too, and we been doin' it like that for over seven years now. That smokey blue light is seen in roadhouses, dance clubs, and downtown bars, even an occasional backyard party wherever people want a king-size serving of home-cooked 8 bar raunch and rumble. We'll see y'all some night. Just look for the blue light in the back. 
**Named "MD/DC Band of The Year 2011″ in Tri State Indie's Music Awards**
Hailing from Philadelphia, and currently based in Central Pennsylvania Angelo M. was the youngest of four Boys and influenced by music, as far back as, he can remember. With his older brothers all teenagers before he could walk, Angelo’s house was always filled with music. It was the twangy guitar sounds of the early sixties that planted the ambition in an eight-year-old boy to learn how to make his Christmas-present guitar reverberate just like Duane Eddy's. Before he was 10, Angelo had his first paying gig; by 11 his trio was playing old "pop" & country instrumentals for VFW Posts; by age 16 he was playing in high school bands and doing shore gigs. The most prolific band of his youth, The Four Sunns continued into adulthood until family responsibilities pulled Angelo away from the music circuit and onto the back porch. In 1990, Angelo began performing publicly again in a variety of set-ups from soloist to power trio; roadhouse boogie & blues band to the popular acoustic duo, Angelo & Paisley. But, it wasn't until recently that Angelo M. began his singer-songwriter and solo career in earnest when he left his decades-long job in a PA steel mill. 
The Octavia Blues Band performs high energy Blues, R&B and Soul music for shows, festivals and venues throughout the region. Octavia is noted for her outstanding harmonica style, sultry powerful vocals, and song writing skills. “Octavia’s gift at the art of the harmonica certainly doesn’t go unnoticed”, says Jeremiah Eisley of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. “She has already been noted as Top of the List of the very few female harmonica players in the blues world.” “Octavia is a bold woman, unapologetically so, and is one of a kind” writes Keith Wilson of Fly Magazine. “Her confidence and fearlessness, along with her harmonica virtuosity, has earned her respect and a spot on the stage beside several bona fide legends over the years.”
"All I've wanted to be in my life is a cowboy and a singer." -Georgie Bonds......... The average person would be content with fulfilling just one dream, but not Georgie Bonds. He has managed two. Having once been a prominent figure in Philadelphia's storied Black Cowboys organization, hard work and a twist of fate has brought Georgie to the heart of the blues scene nationlly and internationally.
As a blues harmonica player and teacher, Adam Gussow has few peers in the business. Currently an Associate Professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi with a specialty in blues literature and culture, Gussow was one of the first amplified blues harp players to make overblows a key element of his stylistic approach, adapting Howard Levy's innovations in the late 1980s in a way that helped usher in a new generation of overblow masters such as Jason Ricci and Chris Michalek. According to a reviewer for American Harmonica Newsletter, Gussow's playing is characterized by "technical mastery and innovative brilliance that comes along once in a generation."
Little Ivory Blues Band began as a blues instrumental trio in 2006 with Garrett Stoner on guitar, Seth Shoemaker on bass, and Aaron Lewis on drums, playing in a few local clubs and open mic venues. The introduction of Mike Rowland into the band as the new drummer offered Aaron an opportunity to focus on singing and harmonica, and allowed Little Ivory Blues band to develop it's unique style and sound. It was this signature style and sound that LIBB won first place at both the JCC and Penn State York Battles of the Bands, and third place at the 2007 BSCP Blues Challenge.