ACOUSTIC COUNTRY BLUES / CONTEMPORARY BLUES / URBAN BLUES

Papa George, guitars and vocals Peter Stroud, bass Darby Todd, drums www.papageorge.co.uk

Papa George is one of the top players and performers on the British Blues scene. His music is steeped in the sounds of the deep south but has a fresh, contemporary feel, creating a fascinating and exciting mixture that has taken him to clubs and festivals all over the UK, Europe and the US. Like many modern blues artists he came to the music via The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis, Ray Charles, Rory Gallagher, Jeff Beck, Peter Green and Jimi Hendrix but he also loves Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and cites Stevie Wonder as one of his favourite songwriters. For Papa George the blues is “a spiritual thing. It’s about a pulse and a rhythm that speaks to people and that is completely classless and timeless.” After thirty years his passion for playing guitar and singing the blues to a live audience is as strong as ever and this one-man juke-joint is sure to be a huge success on his first appearance in Ticino.

Darby Todd drum Solo at Blues To Bop festival, Switzerland.