“One of the best blues bands in the land. Any of these musicians could have played with the great bands of the golden blues era.  Together they keep a sound alive that many thought was no more.” – Living Blues Magazine   “The Cash Box Kings rule the roost!” Dan Aykroyd Their albums have topped the Billboard Blues, Living Blues Radio, and Sirius XM's B.B. King's Bluesville radio charts and earned them 17 Blues Music Award (BMA) nominations (including Album of the Year, Best Traditional Album and Band of the Year).  In 2023, the Kings were honored as Blues Band of the Year at the 2023 Blues Blast Music Awards. Their latest release on Alligator Records, Oscar's Motel was the most played blues record worldwide in 2023.   Alligator Records Artists The Cash Box Kings are bona fide blues royalty. Co-led by songwriter, harmonica and singer Joe Nosek, and real-deal Chicago blues vocalist and songwriter Oscar Wilson the band plays a masterfully raw and unvarnished mix of Chicago/Memphis "Bluesabilly" house rocking blues. Critics worldwide recognize the band as one of the premier traditional Chicago blues bands today. The Kings feature gritty powerhouse vocals, soaring harmonica, and razor-sharp original songs. With their top shelf musicianship and trademark good humor, The Cash Box Kings are a one-of-a-kind blues band. In the words of MOJO magazine, the band is "flawless."   The Kings are regular headliners at Chicago blues clubs like Buddy Guy’s Legends, Fitzgerald's and have played festivals worldwide like the Tampa Bay Blues Festival, Vero Beach Blues Fest, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Big Blues Bender Las Vegas, the Cambridge Folk Festival (UK), Moulin Blues (Netherlands) Hondarribia (Spain), Doheny Blues Festival and the Lucerne Blues Festival (Switzerland) just to name a few. They have electrified 80,000 fans on the main stage of the Chicago Blues Festival playing right before headliner Buddy Guy.

At the peak of Y2K mania, Aki Kumar left his home in Mumbai for the USA with the intention of working as a software engineer. Then he discovered the blues, and his life changed dramatically. Kumar quickly steeped himself in the genre and became a fixture in blues clubs throughout Northern California, honing his stage chops and ultimately developing his visionary "Bollywood Blues" sound. Today, this harmonica player, soulful vocalist, band-leader, drummer and producer is one of the most prolific artists in the SF Bay Area. A veteran of the San Jose music scene for two decades, Kumar has been hailed as "...King of ‘Bollywood blues’ music" by SJ Mercury News (2022) and received the Metro Silicon Valley Gold Award for Best Band (2024). When he first began performing, Kumar attempted to downplay his ethnicity and only performed straight, Chicago-style blues. “I wanted to make a statement that I was a traditional blues musician, so I wanted to be playing blues and have nobody even wonder where I came from.” Kumar's debut album "Don't Hold Back" (2014) was hailed as "one of the best new artist new releases of 2014" (Blues Blast Magazine) and showcases his classic blues stylings. He quickly followed it up with "It Takes Three" (2015) - a collaboration that celebrates three generations of South Bay Blues harmonica, including the legendary Gary Smith and renowned blues harmonica teacher David Barrett. His approach to music changed over the years, and with his Little Village debut, "Aki Goes to Bollywood" (2016), he began integrating elements of retro Indian music into his musical and visual presentation, making for a unique, electrifying, multi-cultural mash-up that sounds like no one else, yet never loses touch with its blues-inspired foundation. That stylistic mix of East and West reached a new creative high on Aki’s second Little Village album, "Hindi Man Blues" (2018), which proudly features liner notes by veteran blues  harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite. In 2020, Kumar made a major splash with the world-wide launch of his album "Dilruba" on Sony Music. "Dilruba" is an Indian Pop record that showcases his signature sound on a number Hindi and bilingual number. In 2021, Little Village released Kumar's uplifting reggae-inspired single "Zindagi" (Life). Kumar has made multiple appearances at The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, San Jose Jazz & SF Jazz Festivals, and has been featured on PRI “The World,” KQED Arts and CBS Bay Area. He has also toured extensively over the years, including in Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Australia, India and South America.