Album Notes

Winner of the 2010 Monterey Bay Blues Festival Battle of the Bands, Blues at Eleven performs a mix of Chicago, New Orleans and contemporary blues, infusing them with a rock energy and a good-time atmosphere. Fronted by dynamic lead vocalist Troy O’Shann, the rhythm section of Joe Vallaire, bass, and Jamey DeMaria, drums, along with keyboardist/ songwriter Tom Lawson has performed together for the past thirty years, with many performances at the Monterey Blues Festival as well as the Eldorado Blues Festival in Reno, Harvey’s Casino in Lake Tahoe, the Central Valley and Eureka Blues Festivals, and concert and club appearances throughout California and Nevada. Legendary Northern California guitarist Bill Vallaire has strong roots in jazz and blues, and lends a perfect chemistry and groove to the band. Rounding out the lineup with his exceptional tenor and alto sax skills and music arranging is Berklee School of Music graduate Tamas Marius.
During the winter months when we were wrestling with material, we tried some new originals but always found ourselves coming back to the classic blues we loved. There is one new original, "Leaving You Baby" by Tom Lawson as well as "New Years Day", given to us by LA session ace and Supertramp guitarist Carl Verheyen. For the rest of it we take a nod to New Orleans (the Meters, Jon Cleary, Chris Kenner/Dave Bartholomew), Chicago (Eddie Boyd, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf) as well as Robben Ford's "Prison of Love", on which our Santa Cruz buddy Harpin’ Jonny appears. What we like about this project is that it really represents what a listener would hear during one of our live sets.