Fiona Boyes and The Fortune Tellers

Fiona Boyes and The Fortune Tellers - Live In Atlanta - 2004 - Blue Empress Records

“ Far and away the most significant Australian female Blues performer” - Rhythms Magazine

‘I ain’t heard a woman finger-pick a guitar like that since Memphis Minnie ... she’s the best gal guitar player I’ve heard in more than 35 years’ - Pinetop Perkins

Fiona Boyes was the first Australian, and first woman to win the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge. Her first US release "Lucky 13" was nominated by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, for the 2007 Blues Music Awards, "Contemporary Blues Album of the Year", but the award was presented to Guitar Shorty for his great '"We the People" album. Her ‘Gimme Some Sweet Jelly Roll’ album was listed in the top three albums by ‘Jazz Review’ (USA) Best Blues Albums of 2003, alongside artists like Marcia Ball, and Rory Block, and in November, 2004, "Live In Atlanta" reached No.2 on the Chicago Blues Radio playlist charts, between B B King, and Buddy Guy. Not a bad achievement ! "Live In Atlanta", recorded in Atlanta’s ‘Blue Note West’ club demonstrates Fiona's great love of playing electric guitar with a full band. This is a fantastic, bluesy, soulful performance from a great blues lady, and a magnificent back up band, including the great guitarist, Bob Margolin, who was sideman for Muddy Waters from 1973 to 1980, and the wonderful Kaz" Kazanoff , on sax and harmonica. Fiona Boyes is one of the most important blues women playing today. She has already won numerous important music awards, and performed with artists like Pinetop Perkins, Tommy Castro, Ana Popovic, Ann Rabson, Katie Webster, and Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart. She can be ranked in the same class as artists like Rory Block, Maria Muldaur, and Bonnie Raitt, and her best is yet to come. Try and listen to Fiona's classy debut solo album, ‘Blues in My Heart". You won't be disappointed. Buy her terrific soul blues album, "Lucky 13". Check out the great "Guitar Johnny & Rhythm Rockers" s/t album featuring Kaz" Kazanoff on sax and harmonica, and Bob Margolin's brilliant "Chicago Blues" album is really worth a listen.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

I'll Be Your Fool - Doug Jay
Ten Foot Tall (and Bullet Proof) - Fiona Boyes
Women Be Wise - Sippie Wallace
Stranger In Your Eyes - Fiona Boyes
Love Changing Blues - Fiona Boyes
Sailing - Ernest Lawler
Run Here - Charlie Musselwhite
Travelling Mood - James Wayne
My Baby Cooks - Fiona Boyes
Ember - Fiona Boyes

MUSICIANS

Fiona Boyes - Acoustic / Electric Guitar, Vocals
"Steady Rollin" Bob Margolin - Electric / Slide Guitar
Jon Schwenke - Bass
John McKnight - Drums
Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff - Sax. / Harmonica
Forrest McDonald - Electric Guitar on "My Baby Cooks"
Gina Leigh - Piano / Vocal on "Women Be Wise"

ABOUT THE FORTUNE TELLERS

The Fortune Tellers are available from a three piece to a six piece, depending on your program needs. The US rhythm section consists of Dave Kahl on bass (formerly with the Paul Delay Band, Pinetop Perkins, Lloyd Jones), Don Schultz or Jimi Bott on drums, and we can add piano, harmonica and/or sax. The Australian Fortune Tellers are Mark Grunden on drums, Dean Addison on bass, Alison Penney on B3 & piano, and Neils Rosendahl on sax.

ABOUT FIONA BOYES

Fiona Boyes is a one-woman blues tent revival. Her pulpit is the stage, which she commands with the energy of an entire flock of worshippers. And her Bible is the guitar. With her acoustic and electric virtuosity and mastery of styles, she uses it as a righteous instrument to uphold the music’s tradition, even as her strong, distinctive songwriting moves it forward. The native Australian’s soulful, authoritative style — brilliantly displayed on her new album Blues Woman — has earned Boyes unprecedented recognition. For the past three years she’s received major Blues Music Awards nominations that also trumpet her diversity. She received a “Contemporary Blues Album of the Year” nod in 2007 for her Yellow Dog debut, the electric Lucky 13. The next year she garnered a ballot slot for “Contemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year.” In 2009 she received an “Acoustic Blues Album of the Year” nomination for the trio recording Live From Bluesville. It’s worth noting that Boyes first arrived in America to claim yet another honor: winner of the 2003 International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis, where she swept away the competition in yet another incarnation — solo acoustic performer. Representing the Melbourne Blues Society, Boyes was the first woman and the first Australian to earn the title. Impressive? Pinetop Perkins offers this striking assessment: “I ain’t never heard a woman finger pick a guitar like that since Memphis Minnie.” Indeed, Boyes’ elegant ‘n’ gritty vocal style and powerful playing have also earned comparisons to Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi and Rory Block. And Hubert Sumlin — iconic guitarist for Howlin’ Wolf — declares, “She’s got it. I’ve played with them all, and she’s got it.. © yellowdogrecords.com

MORE ABOUT FIONA BOYES

Fiona Boyes is a one-woman blues tent revival. Her pulpit is the stage, which she commands with the energy of an entire flock of worshippers. And her Bible is the guitar. With her acoustic and electric virtuosity and mastery of styles, she uses it as a righteous instrument to uphold the music’s tradition, even as her strong, distinctive songwriting moves it forward. And Blues Woman, Boyes’ second album for Yellow Dog Records, is one mighty powerful sermon. The geographical spread of its 15 songs runs from Chicago to Texas to Mississippi’s hill country and the Delta, all evocatively conjured by Boyes’ and producer Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff’s true-to-the-bone arrangements. The native Australian’s soulful, authoritative style — brilliantly displayed on Blues Woman — has earned Boyes unprecedented recognition. For the past three years she’s received major Blues Music Awards nominations that also trumpet her diversity. She received a “Contemporary Blues Album of the Year” nod in 2007 for her Yellow Dog debut, the electric Lucky 13. The next year she garnered a ballot slot for “Contemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year.” In 2009 she received an “Acoustic Blues Album of the Year” nomination for the trio recording Live From Bluesville. It’s worth noting that Boyes first arrived in America to claim yet another honor: winner of the 2003 International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis, where she swept away the competition in yet another incarnation — solo acoustic performer. Representing the Melbourne Blues Society, Boyes was the first woman and the first Australian to earn the title. Blues Woman is all about Boyes’ depth as an artist and the musical odyssey she’s taken since that first visit to the US. Its songs capture the striking, original talent that allows Boyes to write, sing and play anything in the blues realm with total conviction, from the crunching ode to female empowerment “Woman Ain’t a Mule” that opens Blues Woman to “Juke Joint on Morris Lane,” a solo performance on resonator guitar that displays Boyes’ roiling finger style attack while evoking the good-time spirit of a funky blues club. Boyes lives up to Blues Woman’s title by negotiating the curves of all kind of subgenres. “Howlin’ At Your Door” tackles the hypnotic grind of Mississippi hill country and “Look Out Love!” is a thumping shuffle. Chicago blues gets its due along with Texas guitar fireworks in “Got My Eye on You.” It helps to have friends like Watermelon Slim and Marcia Ball, who guest on the raucously testifying “The Barrelhouse Funeral,” and nonagenarian pianist Pinetop Perkins, who joins Boyes’ celebration of classic double entendre blues “Old Time Ways.” And then there’s Blues Woman’s crack core band, which includes Kazanoff — who also produced the earlier Lucky 13 — on sax, Antone’s house guitarist Derek O’Brien, bassist Ronnie James, and Jimi Bott, who also plays drums for fellow Yellow Dog artist Woodbrain. “When it came time to make Blues Woman, I decided to return to work with Kaz and his guys in Austin,” Boyes explains. “But I wanted to make a really muscular, exciting electric guitar driven album that explored as many different regional styles as possible.” Mission accomplished. To keep the sessions hot, Boyes and her studio accomplices played each song she brought in just a few times before hitting the record button. “That kept everybody on their toes,” she relates. “Me, especially.” “Coming to America and spending time where the blues began and developed, like the Delta, really gave me a sense of place about this music,” Boyes says as she explains Blues Woman’s genesis. “But what’s been really wonderful and exciting is the opportunity to be mentoredby some great American players — and to record with them. “Touring with Bob Margolin and Hubert Sumlin” — former guitarists for Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, respectively — “has been particularly inspiring; even just being around them listening to their stories and enjoying their encouragement. They’ve both had a big impact on Blues Woman, because they play so assertively.” Margolin in particular influenced Boyes to make her first recorded forays in slide guitar on three of the album’s tunes. “Got My Eye On You” specifically mirrors the stunning attack of the ex-Muddy Waters Band member. Boyes offers further payback to her mentors in “City Born Country Gal,” where her daredevil guitar echoes both musicians. “They’ve made me want to be an edgier performer, and to explore more, and really pick up my electric guitar and dig in.” Of course, Boyes had already developed an impressive style of playing, singing, and writing that she brought with her from Australia, where she cut two acoustic solo albums, as well as five electric albums with her band The Mojos, before winning the IBC. How impressive? Pinetop Perkins offers this striking assessment: “I ain’t never heard a woman finger pick a guitar like that since Memphis Minnie.” Indeed, Boyes’ elegant ‘n’ gritty vocal style and powerful playing have also earned comparisons to Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi and Rory Block. And Sumlin declares, “She’s got it. I’ve played with them all, and she’s got it.” Boyes began widening her grasp of the major forms of acoustic and electric blues with her first disc recorded on American soil. Fiona Boyes & the Fortune Tellers Live in Atlanta was recorded in 2004 with Margolin and Kazanoff guesting as part of her band. “It became a dream of mine during my first extended stay in the States to make an album with American musicians who I respect,” Boyes says. “And much to my surprise Bob and Kaz accepted my invitation.” Kazanoff, a revered blues producer and arranger whose roots in the scene go back to an apprenticeship in ’60s Chicago, also encouraged Boyes to pursue her muse in the studio. So when it came time to record her Yellow Dog debut, 2006’s Lucky 13, he was a natural choice to captain the project. Margolin again added his guitar and voice, and Grammy nominee Marcia Ball and Kazanoff’s Texas Horns brass section joined in. Engineer Stuart Sullivan, a veteran of recordings with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson and Marcia Ball, manned the microphones and board at Austin’s Wire Recording for both Lucky 13 and the new Blues Woman. For Boyes, 13 was a magic number. The album propelled her onto the international club and festival circuit, received extensive airplay and was nominated for “Contemporary Blues Album of the Year” in 2007. “The reception was truly amazing,” Boyes says. “I had no idea how the album would be accepted. It was a real leap of faith for me, because I had come to America as a solo acoustic artist, and this was a real blood-and-guts electric band album with horns.” Next came 2008’s Live from Bluesville, a return to acoustic music recorded at XM Satellite Radio’s Washington D.C. studio with bassist Mookie Brill and mandolinist Rich DelGrosso. The same year Boyes earned her nod for “Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year,” and won the Blues Critics’ Award for “Best Live or Compilation Album.” All the while Boyes’ star was also glowing brighter in Australia. Her recognition there includes Australian/New Zealand Blue Star Blues awards in 2007 for “Blues Album of the Year,” “Best Female Vocalist,” and “Critics’ Choice — International Blues Album of the Year,” and 2006’s MBAS Australian Blues awards for “Blues Album of the Year” and “Female Artist of the Year” as well as a host of other honors. But for Boyes, the best reward is total immersion in her music. “I am very proud to be part of the blues tradition,” Boyes reflects. “And I believe that it is vital and exciting and growing, and I’m doing my best to help keep it that way.” © Steve Clarke, © Blue Empress Music Group: