Paul Geremia at Caffe Lena - 07/21/2011

Paul Geremia With opener L.B. Walker

Paul Geremia is your classic bluesman, raconteur, and road warrior. He has travelled the globe since 1966, during which time he has earned a rock solid reputation as a fingerpicker, songwriter, and scholar of early jazz and blues. Playing six and twelve-string guitars, harmonica, piano, and singing in a husky, whiskey-and-heartbreak voice, Paul has an innate sense of the humor and drama of his songs. He mixes classics by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Scrapper Blackwell and Blind Blake with his original compositions to create a show that has received endless accolades in the U.S.A. and Europe. Opening tonight's show is local bluesman L.B. Walker bringing us the street sounds of Memphis, the soul of the Delta, and the rhythms of North Mississippi. "It's exceedingly rare these days to see an old-fashioned one man band in the style of say, Jessie "Lone Cat" Fuller, but Mr. L.B. Walker is the real thing. He straps on a guitar, throws a harp in the rack and sticks a tambourine beneath his foot, counts four and the blues begin. It's charming, anachronistic and totally cool, all at the same time." —Michael Eck