Coming soon to Boogaloo

Johnny "V" has played guitar with many Blues greats like Chicago guitarist Luther Tucker, Sunnyland Slim, Rock& Roll Legend Chuck Berry, Steve "Guitar" Miller, Greg Allman , George Thorogood, Charlie Daniels , Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen and Elvin Bishop to name a few. 

Johnny was recruited into Elvin Bishop's band that led to 6 albums, Gold Records, endless touring and the #3 song in the nation by 1974 "Fooled Around and Fell in Love." 

Elvin and Johnny's dual lead and slide parts set a style that was part of the Southern Rock Sound and continues to live on today. 

Johnny continues to wow folks with his sizzling bluesy slide guitar as a long time member of harmonica great Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller Band) So keep an eye and ear out for Johnny as he's playin', producing and recording with some of the best the music world has to offer. 

One day back in 1970, a 20-year-old Rick Estrin had the opportunity to play harmonica with Muddy Waters and his band at the Sutherland Hotel at 47th and Drexel on Chicago’s South Side. During the break, Muddy called Estrin over, shook his finger in his face, and shouted, “You outta sight, boy! You got that, boy! You play like aman, boy!”

Rick Estrin ranks among the very best harp players, singers and songwriters in the blues world today. His work on the reeds is deep in the tradition of harmonica masters Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Walter Jacobs, while at the same time pushing that tradition forward.The Associated Presscalled his harp playing “endlessly impressive.” The great guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. (who was schooled by Robert Johnson and who played on most of Little Walter’s Chess recordings) told Estrin, “Little Walter would be very proud of you.” His award-winning original songs have been favorably compared with those of Willie Dixon and the team of Leiber and Stoller. And his hipster, street-smart vocals are the perfect vehicle for driving those songs home.

For more than 30 years and nine albums, Rick fronted the jumping, swinging Little Charlie & The Nightcats, featuring guitarist Little Charlie Baty. With Baty’s recent retirement from touring, Estrin—along with the Nightcats’ longtime rhythm section of J. Hansen and Lorenzo Farrell and a new member, fiery guitarist Kid Andersen—takes the lead on his own. The band’s debut album,Twisted, while still swinging the blues, is a harmonica-driven, rocking, guitar-fueled rave-up. Featuring 14 songs (including 10 Estrin originals, two by Kid Andersen, one by Hansen, and a superb band-created instrumental),Twistedshowcases Rick’s seemingly effortless command of the harmonica, his streetwise vocals and his remarkable original songs.

In addition to his harmonica and vocal skills, Rick Estrin is a songwriter of unparalleled talent. Critics have compared him to Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan and Willie Dixon.Blues Revuedeclared, “Estrin has created some of the finest blues songs of any artist on the planet. His carefully wrought lyrics penetrate human weakness with the precision of a boxer, though more often than not, he chooses to leave you laughing after the blow’s been struck.”

Estrin won the 1993 Blues Music Award for his composition “My Next Ex-Wife” and has written songs for a growing legion of famous fans. Three of his songs found their way onto Grammy-nominated albums: “Don’t Put Your Hands On Me” (on Koko Taylor’sForce Of Nature), “I’m Just Lucky That Way” (on Robert Cray’sShame + A Sin), and “Homely Girl” (on John Hammond’sTrouble No More). Other artists who have covered Estrin songs include Saffire—The Uppity Blues Women, Little Milton, Rusty Zinn, Kid Ramos and Mark Hummel. “I like songs that tell stories,” Rick says, “songs that are well-crafted and meaningful.” Along with Dixon and Leiber and Stoller, Estrin cites Sonny Boy Williamson II, Percy Mayfield and Baby Boy Warren as his major songwriting influences.Billboardnoted that Rick writes “fabulous, remarkable original material.”

Besides Estrin’s songwriting and musical skills, he is among the most entertaining and colorful showmen around. His quick wit and his signature look—coifed hair, pencil-thin mustache and sharp attire—add even more color to his performances. “People don’t go out to see people who look like themselves,” says Rick. “They want to see something special. I was schooled in this business to be a showman, and that’s what you get when you come to see me perform.”

Estrin was born in San Francisco, California in 1949, and grew up following his own path. He discovered an entirely new lifestyle when, as a 10-year-old boy, he made his way to the tough Market Street area and befriended many of the neighborhood characters. He discovered another new world when his older sister gave him a copy of Ray Charles’The Genius Sings The Blueswhen he was 12. Albums from Jimmy Reed, Champion Jack Dupree, Mose Allison, Nina Simone and others soon followed. By the time he was a teenager, Estrin had completely identified with the urban, African American culture surrounding him.

Rick got his first harmonica at age 15, and by age 18 was proficient enough to begin sitting in at black clubs around the city. He first jammed with blues master Lowell Fulson and almost immediately was hired to open five shows for Z.Z. Hill. He worked five nights a week for almost a year with guitar legend Travis Phillips in a band fronted by famed pimp/bluesman Fillmore Slim (who was the centerpiece of the acclaimed Hughes Brothers documentaryAmerican Pimp). Phillips introduced Estrin to Rodger Collins, the man who would become Rick’s first real musical mentor, and who schooled Rick on the finer points of songwriting and show business. He moved to Chicago and worked with Johnny Young, Eddie Taylor, Sam Lay and Johnny Littlejohn before meeting and jamming with Muddy Waters. In fact, Muddy wanted Estrin to go on the road with him, but due to nothing more than a missed phone call, it never happened.

Because of that missed connection, Rick eventually moved back to the Bay Area, met Little Charlie Baty and formed Little Charlie & The Nightcats. For the next 30 years, the band barnstormed around the globe, honing their skills and entertaining countless people. Now, as Rick Estrin & The Nightcats releaseTwistedand tour the country, they’ll bring their raucous, rocking blues to fans both old and new. Clubs will be packed, dance floors will be filled and a guaranteed great time will be had by all.

Lynwood Slim felt there were only two things he could do to make a living: shoot pool or play harmonica. Thank goodness he chose to be a musician. As a child he played trumpet, but at 15 he picked up the harmonica. Initially drawn to listening to Chicago blues greats Jimmy Reed and Little Walter, he made the career choice after watching Brooklyn Slim, a/k/a Paul Oscher.  Early memorable gigs including sitting in with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and other blues legends. When the southern California scene dried up in the mid-'70s, he packed up and moved to Minneapolis.

Less than a week after coming into town, Slim was recruited into a popular local band that had just lost its harp player, Kim Wilson, who left for Austin to form the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Eventually, he formed the Lynwood Slim Band, working often with blues veteran bluesmen Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston, James Smith and Walter Horton. His style of swinging blues won him numerous awards bestowed by the Minnesota Music Academy, and he documented his musical triumphs with his CD Lost in America, released in 1990; and Soul Feet, released in 1991 and reissued five years later. After a brief return to Los Angeles, moved to Chicago and joined guitarist Dave Specter in 1995. Several years later, family circumstances and a revived local music scene in southern California scene drew Slim home. Besides and active performance performing on the live L.A. scene, Slim and producer Jerry Hall have also produced numerous European and American artists over the years. In 1998, they set up their own record label, Pacific Blue Recording Company; World Wide Wood followed in 2000.

This California native brings years of experience, dynamic stage presence, powerfully expressive blues vocals, and some of the most exciting blues harp you're ever heard.  His latest CD release, “Last Call” on Delta Groove, brings together some of his long-time friends and cohorts on the west coast scene, including guitarists Kid Ramos and Kirk Fletcher, transplanted boogie-woogie piano master Carl Sonny Leyland, mandolin master Rich Del Grosso, and many others, as he explores all the many colors and flavors of his long and deep blues experience.  In addition to leading his own band, Slim is occasionally featured as a guest artist with The Mannish Boys.

 

Seldom has a performer been strongly considered for an Academy Award in both acting and music, yet Frank Stallone has managed to pull it off. His fiery portrayal of a brutish bartender Eddie in the film Barfly had Hollywood insiders abuzz at Oscar time, and his #1 hit Far From Over, from the film Staying Alive, was likewise touted for a 'Best Song' nomination. It’s all in a day’s work for Frank a gifted artist who is equally comfortable on screen or on the concert stage.

This Grammy and Golden Globe nominated artist has been everything from a street singer, a rock singer, to a big band singer. Frank was also nominated for a Grammy for best soundtrack and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song from the film Staying Alive. Frank has written songs for 11 films, and still plays to SRO crowds in arenas and concert halls from Los Angeles to London.

From the age of five, Frank knew that music would play a dominant role in his life. “I wanted to be a musician and singer from the very first time I opened my mouth,” remembers Frank. “I have never for a moment been derailed from that ambition.”

Frank was the first male singer of his generation to switch from pop music to the American Songbook, in the tradition of Sinatra, Darin and Bennett, leading the way for other singers such as Harry Connick, Jr., Rod Stewart, Brian Setzer and Michael Buble. Frank has been touted for his music by such legends as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and four-time Oscar winner -songwriter Sammy Cahn.

Frank records and performs around the country, and has sung to millions of people over the years performing his own compositions, and keeping alive the classic works great American songwriters.

At a young age, the Maryland-born, Philadelphia-raised native pursued his musical ambitions, forming a series of bands, and finally turning professional at the tender age of 15 (“I had to lie about my age,” admits Frank). Frank performed in clubs with such acts as Bonnie Raitt, Ten Years After, and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Frank’s longest-lasting band, Valentine, included lead guitarist John Oates, of Hall & Oates. As a young man, he left home, and hit the road to seek his musical quest. He worked as a street musician in NYC singing in the Greenwich Village coffee house scene, sometimes making five dollars a night or nothing at all. Frank says: “It was so cold some nights, singing on the street, that my fingers would stick to the strings. All I owned then was my guitar, a collapsible suitcase, and a train ticket to the next town.”

Frank’s group, Valentine, was signed to RCA Records in 1975, and recorded their first debut album. Frank made his on-screen singing debut, performing the self-penned song, sung acapella , 'Take You Back', in the opening scene of the film ROCKY. “The only reason I got the part was that I the only musician my brother, Sylvester, knew (and I worked cheap).”

A dream came true for Frank when he teamed up with his lifelong idol, two time Grammy winner Harry Nilsson, on a remake of Joni Mitchell’s classic, A Case Of You. The two remained close friends until Nilsson’s untimely death in 1994. To add to Frank’s musical diversity, he has written and published over 200 songs.

He has recorded a number of American Songbook albums titled In Love In Vain,Frankie And Billy, and Soft And Low, with legendary arrangers Sammy Nestico and Billy May. He also recorded albums of his own music, such as Frank Stallone, Full Circle and Songs From The Saddle.

Frank has also written and recorded compositions for seven films, including Rocky I, II and III, Rambo II, Paradise Alley and Over The Top. Frank also wrote and recorded 11 songs for the soundtrack and film Staying Alive, which gained the respect from his industry peers and critics alike when he received a Golden Globe nomination for 'Best Soundtrack' and Grammy nomination for Best Original Song, with his single, Far From Over. Frank will be releasing Stallone On Stallone By Request, a greatest hits collection of all the songs Frank has written for his brother Sylvester’s films.

On the film front, since that auspicious debut in Rocky, Frank has appeared in over 50 movies, including Barfly, Tombstone, Hudson Hawk, Staying Alive, and many others. One of his most memorable on-screen appearances was his role as Ed Bailey, a dangerous gunslinger in Tombstone, and as Eddie the bartender in Barfly, which gave rise to serious consideration for Frank for an Academy Award nomination, and won the acclaim of renowned film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times. “Barfly is a terrific film that features an outstanding performance by Frank Stallone…he’s both captivating and terrifying at the same time!”

On stage Frank is a natural performer. His singing, guitar playing and broad experience of playing in concert halls all over the world has given him an edge as a performer. “I can’t wait to get out there and sing,” notes Frank. That same kind of upbeat anticipation colors every creative endeavor he undertakes. Frank’s lifelong musical journey continues, and his enthusiasm for entertaining remains unshaken.