Bryan Lee Says
Play One for Me on Severn Records Label
Debut CD, Due
September 17
New Album from
New Orleans-Based Bluesman Features Special Guests Kim Wilson and Johnny Moeller
of
The Fabulous
Thunderbirds
ANNAPOLIS, MD – Severn Records announces a September 17
release date for Play One for Me, the label debut CD from New
Orleans-based blues guitarist/singer Bryan Lee, recorded at Severn’s new
state-of-the-art studios in Annapolis. Severn Records is distributed in the U.S.
by City Hall Records.
Play One for Me was produced by Kevin Anker,
David Earl and Steve Gomes and features Bryan Lee’s powerfully soulful vocals
and stinging guitar backed by the label’s studio house band of Anker on
keyboards, Gomes on bass, and Robb Stupka on drums, augmented by special guests
Kim Wilson (harmonica) and Johnny Moeller (rhythm guitar) of The Fabulous
Thunderbirds. Horns and strings on the new album were arranged and conducted by
Willie Henderson.
The new disc’s 10 tracks are a solid mix of five Bryan Lee
originals and covers of such songs as Bobby Womack’s “When Love Begins
(Friendship Ends),” Howlin Wolf’s “Evil” (with a guest harmonica performance by
Kim Wilson), Freddie King’s “It’s Too Bad (Things Are Going So Tough),” Dennis
Geyer’s “Straight to Your Heart” and a beautiful rendition of the George Jackson
classic, “Aretha (Sing One for Me).”
“I want to thank David Earl for believing in me, for pushing
and challenging me and surrounding me with tremendous musicians,” Bryan Lee said
about the new recording. “Thanks also to Kevin Anker on keys; Steve Gomes on
bass; Willie Henderson for his beautiful charts; a young man I got to be close
friends with, Johnny Moeller, on guitar; and the gentleman on the drums, Robb
Stupka, who I used to work with in the ’70s – it was such an honor to work with
him again. Last but not least, I want to give a special thanks to brother Kim
Wilson on the harmonica.”
Although raised in a small Wisconsin town near the shores of
Lake Michigan, Bryan Lee has been a New Orleans resident since 1982, so much so
that he’s been called a “New Orleans Blues Institution;” and is also known as
the “Braille Blues Daddy,” dubbed so because he’s been blind since the age of
eight. Eric Clapton called Bryan Lee “one of the best bluesmen I have ever
heard.” He's played the prestigious New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for
over 25 years and his new Severn CD marks his debut for an American label, with
previous albums appearing on the Canadian imprint, Justin Time.
Growing up, Lee listened to clear channel station WLAC in
Nashville and became enamored with the sound of the blues he heard on the radio.
By the time he was 15, Lee was playing guitar in a variety of rock and
blues-rock bands, and in his late teens he befriended legendary guitar slinger
Luther Allison. In 1981, Lee and his band opened for Muddy Waters at Summerfest
in Milwaukee, and he got a chance to talk with his hero backstage. After Lee
told Muddy how honored he was to be opening for such a legend, Waters told the
youngster, “Bryan, stay with this. One day you’re going to be a living legend.”
Those words of encouragement have become an inspiration to Bryan Lee throughout
his career.
Bryan Lee’s recognition in the Crescent City began in
1982 with a long residency at the Old Absinthe House in the French Quarter. One
of the formative blues guitarists who caught his act was a young Kenny Wayne
Shepherd, whose time sitting in with Lee’s band proved to be a revelatory
experience for him. Many years later, Shepherd would return the favor by
including Lee in his documentary, 10 Days Out: Blues from the
Backroads, which was
nominated for two Grammy Awards and won the 2008 Blues Music Award for Best
DVD and the 2008 Keeping the Blues Alive Award under the category of Film,
Television or Video. A follow-up album, Live in Chicago
by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Friends, was nominated for a Grammy in 2010 and won
the Blues Music Award for Best Blues/Rock CD in 2011. Bryan received a Grammy
nomination and also received a BMA for his contribution to this
CD.
Lee, whose New Orleans studio became a victim of Hurricane
Katrina’s wrath, was nominated for a Blues Music Award in 2008 for his
Katrina Was Her Name CD, which also won the German Critics award
that same year.
To download a hi-res photo of Bryan Lee (photo credit: Sam
Holden Photography), click here:
