Grammy Nominee, Blues Award Winner, Author, Harp Man Mark Hummel had a banner year in 2014.  Grammy Nominated for his Remembering Little Walter CD he produced and performed on, Mark also won Best Blues CD and Best Traditional Blues CD at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, TN. Mark's The Hustle Is Really On climbed to #2 and stayed in the top five for four months on the Living Blues Radio Charts. Hummel's book "BIG ROAD BLUES:12 Bars on I-80" garnered rave reviews and was nominated for best Independent Book release.  Mark Hummel started playing harmonica in 1970 and is considered one of the premier blues harmonica players of his generation. Thanks to over thirty recordings since 1985, including the  Grammy nominated 2013 release Blind Pig recording Remembering Little Walter (part of the Blues Harmonica Blowout CD series).  Mark Hummel's Blues Harmonica Blowout™ started in 1991 and have featured every major legend (Mayall, Musselwhite, Cotton, etc.) on blues harp as well as almost every player of note on the instrument - a who's who of players. Hummel is a road warrior - a true Blues Survivor. Along the way, he has crafted his own trademark harmonica sound - a subtle combination of tone, phrasing and attack combined with a strong sense of swing. Mark has been with Electro Fi Records since 2000, releasing five CDs. Thanks to Mark's earlier albums, constant touring and appearances at the major blues festivals, he's firmly established his solid reputation around the US and Europe.  Born in New Haven, CT but raised in Los Angeles till he graduated high school. Mark moved to the Berkeley at age 18 to pursue a career in blues music, where he felt the music was taken more seriously.  Mark started the Blues Survivors in 1977 with Mississippi Johnny Waters. By 1984 Hummel began a life of non- stop touring of the US, Canada and overseas, which he still continues at least 130-150 days out of each year. Hummel has toured or recorded with blues legends Charles Brown, Charlie Musselwhite, Lowell Fulson, Billy Boy Arnold, Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, Brownie McGhee, Eddie Taylor, Luther Tucker and Jimmy Rogers.

"As long as I'm in the conversation, I'm good....." It really is that simple for blues guitar legend anson funderburgh from plano, texas For close to 50 years, those words pretty well sum up Funderburgh’s life and love of just being “in the moment” when he’s on stage coaxing some of the very best blues guitar sounds in the world from his Fender Stratocaster. In the moment indeed. That’s where Funderburgh lives every day. “I’m just a simple country boy,” he says. But this is one country boy who felt the call of the blues early on and turned his love of country music into blistering blues that tell the tale of the working man. The every-day, simple man. People just like Funderburgh himself. Funderburgh isn’t like a lot of other musicians and performers. He shuns the spotlight….  He’s not big on small talk, either. He’s more than happy to let his guitar do all the talking. And man, do people listen. At 5’9, Funderburgh is an unassuming figure. With his understated Southern manners and laid-back conversational style, it would be easy to mistake him as a wallflower. Until he straps on his Strat. That’s when he says all he needs to say. And people love it. From local joints in Texas to blues clubs and festivals around the world, Funderburgh has earned his reputation as one of contemporary blues music’s most relevant and esteemed guitar players with his unmistakable style, tone and sensibility. While he takes it all in his typically mellow stride, Funderburgh is beloved and respected by fans and fellow musicians alike. Just don’t ask him to talk about himself. “I’d rather let the conversation on stage be what people remember and react to. It's the conversation without the big words. I want to play music. I want to play music that moves me and moves who I'm playing with and, hopefully, it moves the people that come to see us.” Man, does it ever.

Willie Dixon once said, “The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits.” As true as that is, it still doesn’t explain the blues, because the blues cannot be explained. When one thinks of the blues it’s easy to think of Robert Johnson, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, or Muddy Waters. Connoisseurs of the genre will mention Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Leadbelly. Others will mention Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Paul Butterfield, and Eric Clapton. All would be correct. The blues is raw. It knows no culture. Its brutally honest and uncompromising. It’s your worst feelings and your best moments all at once. The blues will never apologize. Nor will Frank Bang. And he doesn’t need to. He is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, but when he picks up a guitar, he’ll slice your throat, woo your woman, make you cry, and might even make you dance. Ultimately, he will just make you feel. Something or everything. The real shit. Born with the Bohemian Irish name of Frank Blinkal into two generations of Chicago police officers and a mother that often worked three jobs, Frank learned at an early age about the grit and sometimes stark reality of the world he was born into and turned that into his own brand of the blues – weaned from years of trying to learn everything he could by putting himself into the middle of everything that the Chicago music scene had to offer. And it paid off. In his twenties, Frank found himself working at Buddy Guy’s Legends club, while making a name for himself fronting bands of his own. He was soaking up invaluable knowledge from the clientele and getting an education that not many have a chance to experience. Numerous touring bands came through the club, but amongst the club’s regulars were Junior Wells, Otis Rush, and Lonnie Brooks. And then he became Buddy Guy’s touring guitar player for five years. No late night conversations with your heroes will prepare you for that, if you don’t have the chops to pull off the gig. You have to work your ass off, which Frank did  as an employee of Legends, while working through the ranks. As Buddy’s guitar player, his work ethic paid off. Hard work is a big part of what makes up Frank Bang, He never stops playing. He never stops honing his craft. And he never takes any bullshit. Some of that was learned from his environment at Legends, but most of it has been ingrained in him since he was born. With Buddy, he toured the world and shared the stage with the likes of Robert Plant, The Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton, but that’s only semantics that make up pieces of a scene. As a solo artist, Frank has released four critically acclaimed albums under the names Frank Bang and the Secret Stash and Frank Bang and the Cook County Kings. He currently has 14 songs in regular rotation on B.B. King’s Bluesville Station on Sirius/XM. Whether it be dirty blues that sounds like Led Zeppelin through a beautifully blown speaker or the faithful tribute to his hometown Chicago blues, Frank Bang knows how to read a room. And there’s a good chance that on any given night in America, you might find yourself in a room where Frank Bang is making you feel something. Or everything. It’s the roots and the fruits. It’s rock and roll. And it’s definitely the blues. However you define it.