Bobby Christina's Caravan
Featuring the Chris Beard Band & Joe Beard Band with Special Guest Sugar Ray Norcia
Friday, August 12
Show: 8p | Doors: 7p
Tickets: $20 advance / $25 door
($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges. Seats are on a first-come, first-serve basis, and seats are not guaranteed with ticket purchase.)
chrisbeardmusic.com
facebook.com/joebeardblues
sugarrayandthebluetones.com
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Chris Beard is a modern blues guitarist and singer like no other. His personal connections to the blues were forged with the living blues men he sat with since childhood.
Born in 1957, Beard is the son of blues guitarist, Joe Beard, who grew up on Beale Street in the 1950s. When family friends like Matt “Guitar” Murphy and Buddy Guy stopped by to visit, young Beard became their willing pupil. Chris says, “when your father grew up on Beale Street and music was in your DNA, then blues is who you are and what you do.”
“Blues is my roots,” continues Chris, “as Joe Beards son, I grew up around some of the best blues men. The influence of Buddy has been major for me. All he had to say to me was, 'keep on doing what you’re doing' and Matt always told me, 'the guitar has to become an extension of you', that will always stick with me.”
After years playing the clubs in and around Rochester, NY, Chris was offered the opportunity to record. In 1998, he released his debut recording, Barwalkin, on JSP Records. That record earned Beard a W.C. Handy nomination as the Best New Blues Artist. Chris produced his follow-up disc, Born To Play the Blues in 2001 to the critical acclaim of the blues press and earned Beard the title, 'Prince of the Blues'. In 2005, Beard released Live Wire, a stirring combination of live and studio performances for Northern Blues. Beards next recording, Who Am I And What I Do, depicts his live story of growing up in a house full of blues and sings of his family commitment to keeping the blues alive.
Five years later Beard formed his own label, Destin Records, and released, Eye of the Witch, with ear catching lines and true-life stories that accurately capture the complications of modern male vulnerabilities and strengths. Presently, Beard is working in the studio on his sixth record to be released in Winter/Spring 2020.
Born and raised in Ashland, MS, guitarist Joe Beard grew up with the Murphy brothers, one of whom later found an international following as Matt "Guitar" Murphy. Guitarist Nathan Beauregard lived with Beard's cousin, so he was surrounded by aspiring and veteran blues musicians while growing up, and he began singing at an early age. Beard became interested in playing guitar via the Murphy brothers, who sat in with a young B.B. King when he played at the Roosevelt Lake Club. Beard began to learn guitar at age 17 from Ernest Scruggs, a neighbor, before heading to Chicago.
Beard moved to Rochester, NY, and from time to time would visit one of his brothers in Chicago. He quickly became enamored of the blues being played in clubs there by people like Jimmy Reed and Sonny Boy Williamson. Beard sat in with John Lee Hooker one night and received encouraging words from Hooker, and also later sat in with his idol, Muddy Waters.
While in Rochester, he formed the Soul Brothers Six, playing bass and singing, but he didn't perform in public on guitar until 1965. Beard befriended classic blues guitarist Son House, who was a neighbor in Rochester, and played a concert for students at the University of Rochester in 1968. Beard worked as an electrician by day and would occasionally play out at night and on weekends for most of the '60s on through to the '80s. He has a reputation as one of the best local players around, and though he may not be a household name in other parts of the U.S., he toured Europe in 1983 and did studio and stage work with Buster Benton, Lafayette Leake, and Memphis Slim. At the famed BK Lounge, Beard and his backing bands opened for Bobby Bland, Albert King, and others. More recently, Beard performed at President George H.W. Bush's inaugural gala. In 1990, he recorded an album for Kingsnake Records, No More Cherry Rose, which was well received by the blues radio community.
Beard recorded an album with Ronnie Earl's band for the California-based AudioQuest label, Blues Union (1996). Accompanying him are Hammond B-3 organist Bruce Katz and tenor saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman. The album was a critical success, winning Offbeat Magazine's Blues Album of the Year award. He followed it up with 1998's For Real and 2000's Dealin', both records featuring Duke Robillard.
SUGAR RAY NORCIA
Singer, harp man and three time Grammy Nominee Sugar Ray Norcia’s career kicked into high gear in 1979 when he formed the original Sugar Ray and the Bluetones with guitar giant Ronnie Earl and it has stayed there ever since. Norcia has received a total of twenty two Blues Music Award Nominations including winning two Blues Music Awards in 2014 and has appeared on over sixty albums.In 2012 Ray was inducted into Rhode Island’s Music Hall of Fame.In 2016 Sugar Ray and his band The Bluetones released a CD called “Seeing Is Believing”. Sugar Ray was nominated for an unprecedented seven 2017 Blues Music Awards including Traditional Blues Male Artist and B.B. King Entertainer of the Year!
Sugar Ray and the Bluetones...
-The original line-up of Sugar Ray Norcia, Anthony Geraci, Michael "Mudcat" Ward, Neil Gouvin and then guitarist Ronnie Horvath (who subsequently changed his name to Ronnie Earl) was dominant in the late 1970's/early 1980's in the New England area, (where they were the House Band at the legendary Speakeasy Café in Cambridge, MA) New York City, Washington, D.C., throughout Virginia and a long road trip to Chicago where they played at Theresa’s Lounge on the South Side with Junior Wells. The band recorded two records with Chicago harmonica giant Big Walter Horton and toured as the backing band for blues legends Otis Rush, Big Joe Turner, J.B. Hutto, Sunnyland Slim, Hubert Sumlin, Roosevelt Sykes and many more. After Mr. Earl left to join Roomful of Blues, a relatively unknown guitarist joined the Bluetones--Doug "Kid" Bangham~"Kid" coming from the band members as they didn't even know his name at the time! The Bluetones traveled to California and back, and were one of this generation’s first blues bands to tour Europe, as early as 1980. Bangham left to take the place of Jimmy Vaughan in the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Sugar Ray also joined Roomful of Blues in the 1990's for seven strong years of touring and recording.
-In 2012 Sugar Ray and the Bluetones were inducted into Rhode Islands Music Hall of Fame.Sugar Ray Norcia has been the driving force behind the Bluetones since its inception and he is considered one of this generations most powerful blues vocalist, harmonica players and songwriters.
Three time Grammy nominated Sugar Ray Norcia has received a total of twenty two Blues Music Award nominations including winning two Blues Music Awards in 2014. Sugar Ray has been on over sixty recordings with the likes of Roomful of Blues, J. Geils, Michelle Willson, Otis Grand, Pinetop Perkins and he is a featured vocalist on the two critically acclaimed Knickerbocker All-Stars recordings. In 2016 Sugar Ray and his band The Bluetones released a CD on Severn Records called "Seeing Is Believing". For that CD Sugar Ray was nominated for an unprecedented seven 2017 Blues Music Awards including Traditional Blues Male Artist and B.B. King Entertainer of the year.
-Bassist "Mudcat" Ward toured and recorded with J. Geils, Jimmy Rogers, Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, and Rockabilly Legend Sleepy LaBeef. His recording with Hubert Sumlin also included Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Levon Helm, part of Ward’s over fifty recordings. He’s also an accomplished Author-Ellison “Tarzan” Brown: The Narragansett Indian That Twice Won the Boston Marathon (Ward) McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
-Drummer Neil Gouvin has been with Sugar Ray since they were in Jr. High School together, and graces the drum kit on every Bluetones recording. He has also been featured on a cd with John Hammond Jr. called Found True Love (Virgin) that was nominated for a Grammy, and has made multiple recordings with Otis Grand, Joe Houston, and others.