Event

The Jason Ricci Band

Jason Ricci Band
Featuring John Fohl, Joe Krown & Doug Belote

Harmonica player, bandleader, and singer/songwriter Jason Ricci is one of a handful of new young lions on the blues scene who are helping to expand the parameters of the idiom. Ricci steers clear of traditional blues themes in his songwriting, yet his playing shows a tremendous amount of knowledge and respect for the masters of the instrument, people like Little Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson, and George "Harmonica" Smith.

Ricci's harmonica skills really took off after he moved to Memphis from his native Portland, ME in 1995, as he had the chance to sit in and learn from others on the fertile Memphis club scene. By the time he was 21, Ricci had won the Sonny Boy Blues Society contest and performed at the King Biscuit Blues Festival. Ricci and his band, New Blood, arrived on the blues scene in the early 2000s and kept up a rigorous touring schedule, nearly 300 shows a year, for the better part of seven years. Along the way, they racked up critical accolades and continued to release some very fine recordings that are by no means straight-ahead blues...