BLUES CARAVAN 2024 * ERIC JOHANSON-KATARINA PEJAK-ALASTAIR GREENE *
Blues Caravan 2024
The 2024 edition of the Blues Caravan comes as Ruf Records, one of the world’s premier independent music labels, proudly celebrates its 30th anniversary. During that time, Ruf has released hundreds of albums, been home to dozens of distinguished acts and launched the careers of many of today’s most beloved blues acts.
The annual Blues Caravan showcase tour stands as one of the label’s crowning achievements. Now in its 19th year, the show’s concept is as simple as it is effective: Each of the three featured artists plays a full live set before they all join forces for an exciting jam session finale. The trio of standout musicians on this year’s tour are ready to blow the roof off live music venues everywhere.
Bluesrocker Alastair Greene may not be a household name, but he’s well-known to music insiders with a career spanning over 25 years. The California native is a “skilled, articulate songwriter with vocal and guitar talents to match” (Rock & Blues Muse) whose guitar playing is “the equal of any and better than most.” (Blues Matters) His eye-popping resumé includes nearly a decade of live gigs with the Alan Parsons Project and successful stints as a sideman to award-winning blues singer Sugaray Rayford and as tour support for Walter Trout. More recently, Greene has focused on his own power trio, honing his explosive brand of electric blues on acclaimed album releases The New World Blues and Alive In The New World, backed by Louisiana legends Tab Benoit and Corey Duplechin. Prepare to be blown away.
The same can be said for Eric Johanson, a rising star on the scene whose most recent release, 2023’s The Deep & The Dirty, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues chart. The album was the strongest example yet of Johanson’s groundbreaking alternative blues, a mixture that includes elements of hard rock, Americana, New Orleans funk and country. “I love listening to old blues and country,” he commented upon its release, “but I also love hard rock.” In a review of The Deep & The Dirty, Americana Highways compared Johanson’s “keenly dramatic blues performances” favorably to those of rock legend Alvin Lee, while reviewer Marc Dorian of Rock & Blues Muse went even further, stating: “Eric Johanson just might be the modern-day hero the blues world needs to broaden the genre’s reach.”
However, no Blues Caravan would be complete without a touch of style and class to complement all the guitar firepower. Serbian-born singer, songwriter and piano player Katarina Pejak delivers just that. Already familiar to Blues Caravan audiences from the 2019 tour, Pejak is a charismatic live performer whose influences range from Tom Waits to Otis Spann to Bessie Smith. The strong batch of original songs on her Ruf Records debut Roads That Cross (produced by Mike Zito) established her on the international scene and earned her a spot on Allmusic.com’s list of favorite albums of 2019. The respected online music platform praised her “extremely attractive singing voice” and “keyboard skills that would wow almost anybody,” pegging Pejak as “an exciting artist who is just getting started.”
This year the three musicians will be accompanied by Christin Neddens on the drums and Tomek Germann on the bass.
For more info, visit the Ruf Records homepage at:
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