I N T E R N A T I O N A L B L U E S C H A L L E N G E # 3 5 SOLO/DUO H 113112 H SOLO/DUO T H E B L U E S F O U N D A T I O N • B L U E S . O R G

keep the joint a-jumpin’ and the crowd coming back for more.

Chris O’ConnorSYDNEY BLUES SOCIETY

Chris O’Connor is an acoustic blues musician from the South Coast of New South Wales, specializing in finger-picking and bottleneck blues with a repertoire of classic 1920s material and original blues in a similar vein. Ac-companying himself on small bodied and resonator guitars, he enjoys the immediacy of playing solo and relishes the

opportunity to showcase di-verse styles from jaunty rag-time to thumping Delta blues and flowing bottleneck tunes. He has been well received at many Australian festivals including the National Folk Festival and the Australian Blues Festival.

Chris YakopcicBLUES SOCIETY OF

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

Chris Yakopcic (ya-cop–sick) draws you in with a bevy of tasty guitar flourishes that mix Piedmont and Delta styles of melody and moan,

before laying down greasy slide on his resonator. The Dayton, Ohio based guitarist is poised to break out with the release of his second

full-length album, The Next Place I Leave. His style builds on high-energy finger-picking innovated by the likes of Robert Johnson and Blind Blake. Chris continues the wandering tradition of these blues innovators as he tours the country as a solo blues artist and songwriter in a perpetual effort to find a story worth telling.

Cotton BlueLOWCOUNTRY BLUES CLUB

Cotton Blue duo from Edisto Island, South Carolina, “Gator” Rob Posey and “De-troit” Debbie Pasek, write original songs about island life of the Lowcountry, south of Charleston. Playing Dobro, harmonica, and acoustic bass, these lively and inter-active performers paint a picture of the swamps, mys-tical forests, marshes, ga-tors, and characters that live in coastal South Carolina. They call their music “Swamp Boogie” blues, a

mixture of traditional, up-beat, and bluesy grooves. Watch your beer when the “Gator” steps out to play slide guitar with the bottle.

Crooked Eye Tommy

SANTA CLARITA VALLEY BLUES SOCIETY

Tommy Marsh AKA “Crooked Eye Tommy” is a blues artist based in Southern California. A powerful and emotional vocalist, guitarist, and song-writer, Tommy is a seasoned performer. “Crooked Eye Tommy” fronts a band of the same name and performs over 150 shows a year.

Tommy competed in the 2014 IBC in the band cat-egory reaching the semifi-nals. Performing with Tommy on bass is Guil Juliao, a re-markable instrumentalist from Ventura, California. They are honored to be rep-resenting the Santa Clarita Valley Blues Society in the solo/duo category.

Dan HoltTHE BLUES, JAZZ AND FOLK MUSIC SOCIETY

In a solo career that spans 10 albums and over 20 years, Dan Holt has taken his brand of blues to venues throughout North America. With a style that’s as unique as it is dynamic, his music is a celebration of modern

blues, with the focus on the songs. “The blues is about tradition, but it isn’t tradi-tional music. It has to grow and change,” says Holt. “The challenge is to write songs that resonate for me as well as the fans.” Dan Holt per-forms with an intensity and subtlety that cannot be de-scribed but, instead, needs to be experienced. His latest album, Driftin’, was released in August 2017.

Dead Letter KingsBLUES SOCIETY OF TULSA

With Jimmy Ray Taylor on vocals and harmonica and Bruce Hill on guitar, this combo made quite an en-trance onto the local music scene by winning the Blues Society of Tulsa’s solo/duo blues challenge on their first outing. Jimmy and Bruce have been writing together off and on for more than 30 years. Dead Letter Kings is their latest project, combin-ing traditional blues with

their own brand of soulful, groove-laden originals. Take Bruce’s tasty fingerpicking

style and sprinkle in some harp and heartfelt vocals from Jimmy and Dead Letter Kings’ unique sound is what you end up with.

Dick DeluxeNEW ORLEANS

BLUES SOCIETY

Dick Deluxe is a singer/song-writer and guitarist in his 45th year of performing. Noted for his singular song-writing and unique finger-picking guitar style, Dick successfully incorporates elements of Piedmont, Mis-sissippi, and West Coast blues into his work. In addi-tion to several solo albums, he has written a musical

titled Gothic South. For the past seven years, Dick has worked steadily in New Or-leans clubs, including an ongoing residency at the House of Blues. He was nom-inated for Blues Album of the Year in 2016 by OffBeat Magazine and is featured annually at the French Quar-ter Festival.

Erin HarpeBOSTON BLUES SOCIETY

An accomplished guitarist and singer, Erin grew up learning finger-style Pied-mont and country blues from her dad, Neil Harpe, and oth-ers at D.C.’s famed Archie’s Barbershop. She plays origi-nals as well as her own ar-rangements of songs by Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Mississippi John Hurt, Tommy Johnson, and many more. Erin has released two

acoustic blues albums, and also performs with her band Erin Harpe & the Delta Swing-ers, which has three albums out on VizzTone. In 2016, she also released an instructional guitar DVD, Women of the Country Blues Guitar, through Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop.

FilibillySMOKY MOUNTAIN

BLUES SOCIETY

The Filibilly Duo is a combina-tion of finger style and slide guitar plus the vocal harmo-nies of Rey Pineda and Jen Wolery. The Knoxville, Ten-nessee musicians perform soulful, acoustic blues that resemble a gentle breeze that penetrates through the bones — a satiating experi-ence to the ears. Filipino-