BREEZY RODIO

You won’t find many guitarists on Chicago’s world-renowned blues scene who are as busy on a nightly basis as Breezy Rodio.

Breezy is on his way up the ladder fast as a globetrotting ambassador for Chicago blues, serving up tough, uncompromising sounds wherever he roams.

In early 2015, Breezy released his most recent CD, So Close To It, on the Windchill label. It found him in the recording studio with a host of certified Windy City legends, guitarists Lurrie Bell and Carl Weathersby, harpist Billy Branch, and organist Chris Foreman providing spirited backing. Full of well-crafted originals and spiced by three tasty B.B. King revivals, the album earned Rodio rave reviews in blues magazines worldwide and picked up plenty of concentrated radio airplay.

While in the midst of a recent 14-city tour of Brazil, Breezy produced an album by the Big Fielders. When Music Was Music stands as another triumph in Rodio’s growing discography. He plays crisp guitar throughout the Big Fielders set and sings a couple of doo-wop classics to boot.

When he’s not in the studio, you can usually find Breezy out on the road. He’s toured Europe extensively as well as throughout Japan, Mexico, and Canada, starring at the Belo Horizonte Soul and Blues Festival, the Campo Grande Blues Festival, the Florianopolis Jazz Festival, the Chicago Blues Festival, and as bandleader for the Chicago European Blues Tour of 2013.

Closer to home, Rodio headlined Blues on the Bay in Door County, Wisconsin this past September. He’s a regular attraction at Chicago’s top blues clubs, including Buddy Guy’s Legends and House of Blues.

Veteran Chicago axeman Linsey Alexander was the first local bluesman to take a chance on the newcomer, hiring him as a sideman and eventually elevating Breezy to the role of bandleader. During his decade-long stay with Linsey (which included over 300 gigs a year and plenty of international tours), Rodio played on three Alexander CDs, notably 2014’s Come Back Baby and Been There Done That a couple of years earlier, both on Delmark Records. Rodio also played the 2014 Chicago Blues Festival with Linsey.

But by then, Breezy had exploded on his own. His 2011 debut album Playing My Game Too sported a splendid supporting cast, Bell and Alexander joined by guitarists Guy King (an early mentor of Rodio’s), Rockin’ Johnny and Dave Herrero and bassist Bob Stroger. The way Rodio makes his guitar communicate whenever he lays into a heartfelt blues underscores his mastery of the genre, his assured vocals providing a perfect counterpoint to his slashing fretwork.

Rodio is preparing to go back into the studio to cut his next album as a leader. “I have plenty of original songs,” he says. “I will be using the same band that I used on So Close To It, because as they say, you don’t want to change a winning team!” That’s the mark of a savvy blues bandleader who plans on being in the business for the long haul.

With Breezy Rodio on the scene, the future of the blues is in good hands.

-Bill Dahl in artist Facebook