Tas Cru
Grizzle n' Bone
A platter of twelve new songs from the "master of the triple entendre."
Tas Cru has been dubbed the “master of the triple entendre." That is to say, his best songs go a step beyond the blues tradition of the double entendre - the literal and suggestive - to where meaning is more felt than understood. Tas Cru is a rough Quebecois rendering meaning raw potato. Credit for the name goes to an avid young fan that admired Cru’s raw-edged vocals and peeled-bare slide guitar. Given Cru’s bent on bowing to his home region's Quebecois influence the moniker was not much of a stretch, especially since much of his early career was spent playing Quebec's small cities and towns along the St. Lawrence river from Montreal to Riviere du Loup. Cru is currently based out of Albany, New York.
Tas Cru performs as both a solo act and a band performing at festivals and clubs throughout the Mid South/West including Memphis, Kansas City, Tulsa, Little Rock, and Topeka. He has shared the stage with many blues Greats - Buddy Guy, Shemekia Copeland, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Marva Wright, Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Mem Shannon, Kenny Neal, Jimmy Thackery, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Big George Brock, and Bob Margolin to name just a few. He has also had the honor of frequent appearances in the Delta including Ground Zero Blues Club, Red’s Lounge and Cathead's Clarksdale Caravan Festival as well as various Beale Street venues in Memphis (Rum Boogie, Hard Rock Café, Black Diamond, King’s Palace, The Pig on Beale, W.C. Handy Park) and on Sunshine Sonny Payne's King Biscuit Radio program, KFFA, Helena, AR.
Cru’s first album Biscuit, released on his own label, Crustee Tees Records in 2006, gained attention when ‘Tired of Bluesmen Cryin’’ and ‘One More Time’ were featured on Dan Aykroyd's House of Blues Radio Hour. In August 2007 the song, ‘Black and Poor in New Orleans’ was selected by XM Radio's Bluesville for a special 2nd anniversary Katrina remembrance and featured alongside New Orleans artists Irma Thomas, Mem Shannon and Tab Benoit. His second album, gravi-Tas (2008) builds on the traditional flavor of his first and earned heavy airplay on XM Radio's Bluesville as a "Pick to Click” as well as critical reviews (see last page).
Tas Cru's latest opus, grizzle n’ bone releases Tuesday, March 31, 2009, also on Crustee Tees Records. Nearly all of the twelve original songs were written while Cru was riding out his spring 2008, Tornado Alley Tour. Several of them were featured in shows played throughput the summer and fall. Getting noteworthy response is ‘Tulsa Tornado,’ a song that pays homage to the power of Mother Nature (so to speak). The album also includes a country blues/gospel cover of the legendary Jackie Wilson classic, ‘Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher).’ Cru notes. "We've been playing the song all summer, closing our shows with it. The response has been so enthusiastic that I felt compelled to record it. I've always been interested in digging at the blues roots in classic R&B. I rarely do covers and when I do they always end up rawer and grittier than the original - that's who I am. I've been threatening to cover this tune for a long time, and my band took up the challenge!”
The album will appeal to blues audiences who enjoy raw traditional styles as on the title cut, ‘grizzle n’ bone’, as well as ‘Make My Woman Cry’, and ‘The Prophet of Lynchburg.’ For those with a taste for the thick and flavorful there is ‘One-eyed Jack,’ ‘Can’t Get Over Blues (again),’ and ‘Money Talks.’ Blues lovers who find roots-based crossover styles to their liking will enjoy the Oklahoma Red Dirt stirred up on ‘Brand New Shoes’ and ‘Tulsa Tornado,’ with its tip of the hat to JJ Cale.
For grizzle n’ bone, Cru once again calls upon longtime sidemen Chip Lamson (keyboards) with the Slow Happy Boys, Jeremy Walz (guitars), Chris Wroblewski (bass) and new addition, Andy Hearn (drums). Also featured on this album is Stacked Deck, the singing trio Meaghan Manor, Jennifer Macri, and Montana Rodriguez (background vocals). Renowned fiddler, Gretchen Koehler adds a shot of down-in-the-holler sensibility to ‘The Prophet of Lynchburg.’
Two band CD release shows are scheduled. On April 11 McDuff's in Potsdam, NY will host the first that will also include special guests The Moist Makers, a great college band comprised of musicians from the esteemed Crane School of Music. A second CD release show is set for May 2 in Troy, NY at the legendary Revolution Hall. Also on that bill that night is Right Coast Soul and Joe Lowry and the Second Mile Band.
grizzle n’ bone comes hard on the heels of Cru being named by Blues Festival Guide as 2009’s “Blues Artist on the Rise.” Earlier this year he was a participant at the 2009 International Blues Challenge and is set to play Clarksdale Caravan on May 11, New York State Rhythm & Blues Fest on July 12 and Blues in the Bay Festival September 5.
“I’m trying to live up to what a reviewer has dubbed me – “the master of the triple entendre.” To me that means I am first a storyteller. With my stories I attempt to arouse rather than simply show or tell. My goal is to take listeners beyond the literal and even what’s suggested to where meaning is as much felt as understood,” says Cru. And he does it very well!
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TASCRU.COM MYSPACE.COM/TASCRU
Publicist and Radio: Betsie Brown, Blind Raccoon, 901.278.6850, betsie@blindraccoon.com
Booking & Management: Rick Bates, KT Management, 315.244.1468, rbates2@twcny.rr.com
Blues: Slide Guitar Blues