David Jacobs-Strain emerged from the rain soaked mountains of Western Oregon to storm the festival circuit as a dynamic blues prodigy. Like a diesel powerhouse, he speeds across the landscape of the Country Blues to the earthbound grooves of the Mississippi Delta, with his driving slide guitar and fervent vocals. David’s passion for stretching the limits of the blues verges on psychedelic and highlights his intimate knowledge of the fretboard. Last summer David was invited to tour with the legendary Boz Skaggs in a series of large venues across America.

Still in his mid-twenties, Jacobs-Strain has managed to create his own place in the acoustic music world. With the release of Ocean or a Teardrop he builds on his big acoustic guitar sound with producer Kenny Passarelli and creates the energy of a great live jam session with an enticing blend of roots classics, inspiring instrumental pieces, and tantalizing original songs. This album showcases David’s expansive songwriting skills as well as the politically conscious evolution of his music. Slide guitar and harmonica rise up from the swamp of the blues to meet the West African Kora and the Turkish Oud, highlighting guest collaborators, Joe Craven and Peter Joseph Burtt.

David Jacobs-Strain photo by Michael Strain

Jeremy Lyons has entertained thousands on the streets of the Crescent City, armed with no more than his naked voice and National guitar. His band the Deltabilly Boys, a favorite of the New Orleans club circuit, is a mainstay at New Orleans’ Jazz Fest. The group has toured Europe and the US, most recently opening dates for the famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Born in Ithaca, NY, Jeremy studied ethnomusicology at Hampshire College. In 1992, Lyons landed in New Orleans in his pursuit of roots music. Soon he was playing his steel guitar in a group on the streets of the French Quarter, performing acoustic blues, hillbilly and swing. He was making a living, immersed in the music, and learning from some of the city’s finest talent.

As a solo artist, Jeremy Lyons showcases traditional blues and folk material, playing his National steel and a six-string banjo. An evening with Lyons will include burning, foot-stomping delta blues; sly, tongue-in-cheek obscurities, and original songs about love and sin.

 

 

  

With his fifth album, David Jacobs-Strain shows that all the approbation that’s come his way of late is well earned. There has been a slew of young guitarists in recent years littering the blues-rock landscape, but Jacobs-Strain is the real deal. For one thing, he doesn’t just rock out: he’s learned the art of crossing musical boundaries from the masters. His music has a fiery passion that’s exciting and engaging, tempered with an aesthetic reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up and cut his first guitar strings. Don’t be fooled by his youth; Jacobs-Strain knows what he’s doing. G.W., Dirty Linen, April/May 2005

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[Jeremy Lyons is a] top-drawer interpreter of blues and rockabilly classics, an engaging storyteller in his own right, and one of the most mesmerizing slide guitarists on the circuit." The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, LA