Living Blues cover, new video for Billy Branch!

BILLY BRANCH ON COVER OF LATEST LIVING BLUES MAGAZINE  New "Blues Shock" Video Released Veteran Chicago bluesman Billy Branch is featured on the cover of the current Living Blues magazine, with the subheading, "Back In The Groove."  Inside, writer David Whiteis says that Blues Shock, the new release from Billy and the Sons of Blues, is "a proclamation that a unit featuring one of the blues' most creative and hard-working harmonica aces is back in the groove."   The eight page feature article also mentions Branch's musical debt to his mentors and role models, his "longstanding dedication to honoring roots and heritage,"  his lifelong commitment to Blues in The Schools, and his prolific recording career as the A-list studio harmonica player for Chicago blues. Living Blues feature Branch, who started his career working with blues icon Willie Dixon and was mentored by men such as Big Walter Horton, Junior Wells, and James Cotton,  was once touted as one of the 'new generation' of blues musicians, and is now verging on elder statesman status in the blues community.  In the eight page feature article Whiteis traces the evolution of Blues Shock and how the new recording reflects Branch's "approach toward honoring yet not being beholden to, the legacy of the blues tradition," saying the album "provides ample proof that Branch's unique blend of rootsy integrity and exploratory zeal remains potent." Miss Gerri and the Palm Tavern Whiteis also gives the backstory on perhaps the centerpiece track of the album, one Billy considers "the best song I've written" - "Going To See Miss Gerri One More Time."  The song is a tribute to Gerri Oliver and a lost piece of Chicago's black cultural history, the Palm Tavern, a famed nightspot in the city's Bronzeville neighborhood (the "Harlem of the Midwest") that was frequented by the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Josephine Baker, and Langston Hughes. "Blues Shock" video Blind Pig has just released a video of the title track from Blues Shock, which is the first studio release from Billy and the Sons of Blues in fifteen years.  To watch the video, please click HERE. Album release parties this weekend Billy and the Sons of Blues will be celebrating the release of Blues Shock with two appearances this weekend in Chicago: tonight (Valentine's Day) they will be performing at Buddy Guy's Legends (www.buddyguy.com) at 10:30 pm, and Saturday night they will appear at Rosa's Lounge (www.rosaslounge.com) at 10:00 pm.  If you're not in the Chicago area, you can watch the performances online by clicking on the gigity.tv link on the venues' websites. For more info, or to hear samples from the CD, please click HERE.