"Alliant Mobility Sounds Fantastic" and TBS (Tantramarsh Blues Society, Sackville, NB) Present

The Paul Rishell and Annie Raines Blues Band

Friday, April 13th, 9 PM @ George’s Roadhouse

Tickets are $8 in advance (at Ducky’s) and $10 at the door

Special Student Price at the door (ID required): $6

TBS and the Mt. Allison Music Department are pleased to co-sponsor a Country Blues Guitar Workshop and an Intermediate Blues Harmonica Workshop taught by Rishell and Raines on April 14. The workshop fee is $40 and pre-registration is required. Please contact Janet Crawford at 536-9000 for details.

Paul Rishell was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1950, which made his young teenage years coincide with the early '60s, so naturally he started out as a drummer in a surf-rock band. Fortunately for all of us, a friend soon turned him on to the country blues records of Son House, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and others, and Paul was hooked for life. Blues struck such a chord in him that he immersed himself in the old records until he learned to capture their feel on guitar and vocals, all the while gaining an encyclopedic knowledge of the great players and their recordings. By the early '70s Paul had moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and established himself among contemporaries like Bonnie Raitt and Chris Smither as a solo performer, bandleader, and one of the top players on the fertile Boston music scene. It was an exciting time, as many of the great bluesmen made their first trips north of Chicago, and Paul had the chance to play with many of his heroes, including Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Howlin' Wolf. At about this time, Annie Raines was just across town, working her way through Kindergarten. The blues muse struck her during her high school years, which were the mid-'80s. While her friends were listening to Pink Floyd, Annie was enthralled by the sounds of the Muddy Waters Band, and particularly drawn to the blues harmonica playing of Little Walter Jacobs, Big Walter Horton and Sonny Boy Williamson. As with Paul Rishell some twenty years earlier, the blues hit Annie so hard she just had to follow, and she dropped out of college halfway through her freshman year to become one of the first serious female blues harmonica players in the country. Annie began to play gigs at local Boston area clubs, and later traveled to Chicago where she met and played with Pinetop Perkins, Louis Myers, and James Cotton.

Paul Rishell’s debut recording, Blues on a Holiday, was released in 1990 as the first CD from the fledgling Tone-Cool Records label, to resounding critical acclaim. The album was half acoustic, half electric, and established Paul as a masterful, versatile blues player and as well as a deeply soulful singer-songwriter. Meanwhile Annie continued to hone her considerable talents working the club circuit with various bands, including the Tarbox Ramblers and the very first Susan Tedeschi Band. Not coincidentally, Paul was giving guitar lessons to both Michael Tarbox and Susan Tedeschi at the time. It was inevitable that these two kindred spirits would eventually get together, and when they did, during the recording of Paul's second Tone-Cool CD, Swear to Tell the Truth, in 1993, the sparks flew. Paul and Annie both base their ensemble playing style on close communication, listening keenly to the other players to support rather than overshadow them, and their duo work here is marked by the sensitive interplay that has become so central to their performances. Paul and Annie stayed together as a working team, collaborating on original songs and releasing I Want You to Know (1996) and Moving to the Country (2000), the W.C. Handy Award-winner for "Acoustic Blues Album of the Year". The buzz-singing guitarist Paul Rishell and his harmonica-blowing partner Annie Raines have fashioned a mighty fine career for themselves through their refreshing rearrangements of vintage blues, mostly of the rural sort. Goin’Home, the Boston duo's latest release, is typically rife with variety and virtuosity.

Living Blues, Paul Rishell's second album, features expertly ordered and nuanced updates of acoustic blues songs - he makes the masters like Son House and Robert Johnson speak to us across time." (***1/2) DOWNBEAT

"Rishell's ability to convey the essence of acoustic Delta Blues is shocking. His guitar playing is tremendous. His vocals are exceptional..." SKYLAND BLUES NEWS

"Raines is the perfect foil for Rishell. Both are sincere lovers of the older masters, and though they have chops to spare, they keep their playing straight and simple, going to the heart of the material...atmospheric late-night music, played with real grit and soul." BOSTON GLOBE

"She plays so good it hurts!" --Pinetop Perkins

"...both are strong vocalists, Rishell's guitar work is first-rate, and Raines's harmonica is note-perfect." Amazon.com

"There must be some physical explanation for the sheer joy they bring to the blues...lots of heat but also plenty of subtle variation under the theme." ATLANTIC MONTHLY

"...they have a musicianly rapport and a wide embrace of styles, from Delta heartache to Chicago drive, that make for world-class blues. Their new I Want You To Know (Tone-Cool,* * * * *) has some of the best recorded performances of the year." PULSE!

Web Links

For the artists’ website, please go to: www.paulandannie.com

For our website, please visit: www.mta.ca/tbs

Miscellaneous

For our out-of-town friends, Ducky's (506 536 1344) can hold tickets on the basis of a Visa or MasterCard number. Hope to see you at the show.

TBS