Dallas,Texas
Lucky Peterson played his first gig at age three. By the time he was five, he had already recorded his first single, produced by none other than the legendary Willie Dixon. Before Lucky turned six, his career had been propelled into the national spotlight with television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and even What’s My Line?

As a child prodigy, Lucky was somewhat of a novelty act. Now he is a true blues veteran. Over the last three decades, Lucky has played to audiences all over the world, dazzling both fans and critics with his multi-instrumental talents (he plays keyboards, guitar, bass, drums and trumpet), his soulful vocal style and his youthful approach to the blues.

Chicago’s Reader raved, “His musicianship is unassailable…a combination of sleek-handed dexterity and imagination…a happy marriage of blues authenticity and foot-pleasing danceability. This is a young musician of unlimited enthusiasm and nearly unlimited potential having the time of his life and excelling at every stop along the way.” Born Judge Kenneth Peterson in 1963, Lucky was raised on music in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, His father, James Peterson, was a blues singer and owner of the Governor’s Inn, a northern version of a Deep South “chitlin’ circuit” roadhouse club. Artists like Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Muddy Waters and Koko Taylor played there regularly. Virtually growing up on stage, little Lucky began playing almost before he began talking.

He started on drums, but after hearing the famed Bill Doggett one night, Lucky became fascinated by the huge Hammond B-3 organ. “Bill had a fit trying to keep me from it,” recalls Lucky. After some lessons from Doggett and the legendary Jimmy Smith, Lucky focused most of his musical energy on the organ. In his spare time, he also mastered bass and piano, becoming good enough to sit in with his father’s band and back touring artists like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Jimmy Reed. “At first, people wouldn’t believe he could play so well,” says James Peterson. “They would think the organ was rigged.”

By the time Lucky was five, word of this child prodigy had spread among the blues community. Willie Dixon, a friend of James Peterson, heard little Lucky and produced the boy’s first record, a single entitled 1,2,3,4 and a follow-up album for Chicago’s Today Records. The single hit the airwaves with a bang and the national television appearances followed.

As Lucky continued to grow, he honed his instrumental skills by learning from and jamming with some of the best blues players in the world. When Little Milton’s band came up short an organ player one night, Milton asked the then 17-year-old Lucky to sit in. One gig was all it took for Milton to fall in love with Lucky’s playing. He asked Lucky to join the band permanently. After seven months, Lucky had become Milton’s bandleader. Opening shows with his own 45-minute set on vocals and keyboards, Lucky’s three-year stint with Milton led to an equally long gig with Bobby “Blue” Bland as Bobby’s featured soloist.

During a break in Bobby’s touring schedule, Lucky headed to Europe on a package tour billed as “Young Blues Giants.” There he recorded his second career album this time for the French label Isabel Records. In 1988, Lucky left Bland’s touring band, relocated to Florida’s Tampa Bay area and began concentrating on a solo career. His reputation quickly led to regular session work for tiny Florida-based King Snake Records. His funky keyboards sparked Kenny Neal’s Big New From Baton Rouge!, Rufus Thomas’ That Woman Is Poison! and Lazy Lester’s Harp And Soul, which were all released by the more visible Alligator Records label. In 1989, Alligator released Lucky’s third solo outing, Lucky Strikes! Lucky co-wrote three songs for the album and played all of the keyboard parts and all but one of the guitar solos.

Alligator’s promotion helped to bring Lucky’s music to the attention of radio stations and music critics nationwide. They liked what they heard. Billboard called Lucky “…a prodigy whose raw talent bodes well for his future as a leader.” Keyboard said, “Peterson is a 26-year-old blues master.” The album received airplay on nearly 200 radio stations nationwide, and Lucky toured the U.S. several times.

Lucky’s next Alligator recording, 1990’s Triple Play, picked up right where Lucky Strikes! left off, again featuring his dynamic organ fills and leads with equal emphasis on his stinging lead guitar and soulful vocals. The material blended straight-ahead blues, Memphis soul and funky grooves that placed Lucky Peterson on the cutting edge of the blues.

Extensive session work behind everyone from Etta James and Kenny Neal to Otis Rush also commenced during this period. In 1992, Peterson’s first Verve label album, I’m Ready, found him boldly mixing contemporary rock and soul into his simmering blues stew. More high-energy Verve sets followed, making it clear that Peterson’s luck remains high (as does his father’s, who’s fashioned his own career as a bluesman with albums for Ichiban and Waldoxy). Lucky made his debut for new label Blue Thumb with a self-titled effort released in 1999. Double Dealin’ followed in early 2001.

Dallas,Texas

Tutu Jones was born in Dallas, Texas and started his music career with family members in the early 1970s. Along the way, Tutu met and played with such legendary artists as Z.Z. Hill, Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor, Little Joe Blue and Al “TNT” Braggs.

Since becoming a solo act, Tutu has shared the stage with artists such as Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Millie Jackson, Robert Cray, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Denise LaSalle, Al Green, Little Richard, and others.

Tutu is more than the sum of his influences (though distinguished influences they are!) He is first and foremost an individualist, who puts a very personal stamp on every note that he plays and every syllable that he sings. You could call him the living personification of the sound of South Dallas, where Blues and Soul meet and are stronger for it.

Tutu’s past recordings include:

Staying Power         Rounder Records

Blue Texas Soul     Rounder Records

Tutu Jones Live     Doc Blues Records

I’m For Real     JSP Records (England)

Tutu’s song “Stubborn Woman” from his first CD “I’m For Real” is featured on the Smithsonian Collection of Recording titled “Mean Old World – The Blues from 1940-1994.” In 1997, Tutu was nominated for the W.C. Handy Award, now known as The Blues Award. The nomination category was Soul Blues Album of the Year. In 2005, another Tutu Jones composition “Can’t Leave Your Love Alone!” was licensed from the “Staying Power” CD for the HBO series entitled “The Mind of a Married Man.”

Tutu has been featured prominently in many music magazines and history books around the world. For example: Roadhouse Blues (Stevie Ray Vaughn and Texas R&B) By: Hugh Gregory, London 2003.

These days, Tutu still tours internationally with big acts and has a new CD release of original songs coming out soon.

More on the web http://www.myspace.com/tutujones

Houston,Texas

Texas Johnny Brown is truly one of the legendary figures of the American blues scene. Johnny began his professional musical career in Houston in the mid- 1940s with Amos Milburn’s “Aladdin Chickenshackers”. Johnny played guitar on many of Milburn’s recordings on Aladdin Records, and Milburn and other members of his band backed Johnny during his Atlantic Records recording session in 1949. Johnny also appeared on Ruth Brown’s first Atlantic Records recordings, which were cut during those sessions.

Three of Johnny’s original songs from his Atlantic session, There Goes the Blues, Bongo Boogie and Blues Rock, were included on an Atlantic compilation of blues guitarists in 1986. Johnny recut There Goes the Blues for his debut full-length CD, Nothin’ But the Truth, which was released in 1998 by Choctaw Creek Records.

Johnny toured with Bobby “Blue” Bland and Junior Parker in the 1950s and 1960s as guitarist and bandleader and was a studio musician for Houston’s Duke/Peacock Records. He recorded a number of his own compositions for Duke/Peacock, including Snakehips and Suspense, and his distinctive guitar style graced the recordings of numerous other Duke/Peacock blues artists, including Bland, Parker and Joe Hinton. Johnny also wrote the beautiful blues classic, Two Steps from the Blues, which was one of Bland’s biggest hits. Nothin’ But the Truth marks the first time that Johnny recorded Two Steps from the Blues himself. Nothin’ But the Truth also contains nine new original compositions by Johnny and an instrumental version of Aretha Franklin’s Am ‘t No Way.

Nothin’ But the Truth was nominated for a W.C. Handy Blues Award (1999) for Comeback Album of the Year and received Real Blues Magazine ‘5 Real Blues Awards as Best Texas Blues CD (New) and Best Independently Released Blues CD for 1998.

Since returning to music full-time in 1991, Johnny has played the Telluride, Colorado

Blues & Brews Festival (2000), the Baltimore (2000), W.C. Handy Blues Awards (1999),Chicago (1998 and 1996), Houston Juneteenth (1998, 1996 and 1995), Pocono (1997), Molde(1997), Long Beach (1996) and Bowie Street (1999, 1996 and 1995) Blues Festivals, the 2001Mardi Gras Galveston Festival, the 2000, 1999, 1996 and 1995 Houston International Festivals, the 1999 Reliant Energy Power of Houston Festival, the 1998 Bluestock Festival and the 1992 Blues Estafette, and has toured in the United States and Europe. He is scheduled to play the Houston International Festival in April 2001. He has also been featured on the cover of Juke Blues Magazine (issue 41; July, 1998) and in Living Blues Magazine (January/February, 1997) and Soul Bag (Fall, 1996). Johnny also won the 2000 Houston Press Music Awards for Best Blues and Best Male Vocalist and the 1999 Houston Press Music Awards for Best Guitarist and Best Male Vocalist.

HONORS

• 2005 HOUSTON PRESS MUSIC AWARDS - BEST BLUES
• 2001 Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton Blues Festival - BLUES ARTIST OF THE YEAR
• 2001 September 22, City of Houston, TX - TEXAS JOHNNY BROWN DAY
• 2001 HOUSTON PRESS MUSIC AWARDS - BEST GUITARIST
• 2000 HOUSTON PRESS MUSIC AWARDS - BEST BLUES and BEST MALE VOCALIST
• 1999 HOUSTON PRESS MUSIC AWARDS - BEST GUITARIST and BEST MALE VOCALIST
• 1999 20TH ANNUAL W.C. HANDY BLUES AWARD NOMINATION for “Comeback Album of the Year” for Nothin’ But the Truth
• 1998 REAL BLUES MAGAZINE’S 5TH ANNUAL BLUES AWARD WINNER in the categories of “Best Texas Blues CD” for 1998 and “Best Independently Released Blues CD” for Nothin’ But the Truth

St. Louis, Missouri

Sixteen is a tender age for a blues singer to record his debut album for a national label, but age is one of the few traits of Marquise Knox that could be described as tender. Knox - who has turned 18 since he recorded Man Child in December 2007, emerged on the St. Louis blues club scene a few years ago already poised, confident, and brandishing an arsenal of powerful, no-nonsense vocal and guitar skills that projected not only way beyond his years, but way back to the spirits of the blues masters of yore. With a husky voice to match his frame, he’d already earned the local nickname “Big Daddy” in his early teens. And Marquise is in fact already a daddy, one who takes raising a family seriously, just the way he approaches his music.

Where does such maturity come from? It’s in the genes, Marquise says: “My grandmother and great uncles, her brothers, they all knew how to play, so this was hereditary, in my blood. My grandmother’s name was Lillie Mae Knox, and my great uncle’s name was Clifford Williams. They taught me. My Uncle Joe Willis - that was my great uncle too - he brought me my first guitar when I was two or three years old. It was a Mickey Mouse guitar. I tore it up against the wall. I thought it was a fly swatter.” But it didn’t take long, hearing so much blues at home in Robertson, Missouri, on the edge of the St. Louis airport, or on family visits to McGehee, Arkansas, and Grenada, Mississippi, for Marquise to want to make music. And, while other children he knew were growing up with hip-hop, all Marquise wanted to play was the blues. Maybe the fact that he can claim St. Louis harmonica heavyweight Big George Brock as a cousin helps; in 2006, not long after the funeral of the city’s blues guitar king, Bennie Smith, Marquise learned that he and Bennie were cousins, too, on his father’s side. Genealogical research is under way to determine how close his family connections may be to legendary Grenada-born guitarists Magic Sam (the legendary Chicago bluesman whose mother was a Knox) and Eddie Willis (who was one of the architects of the Motown Sound as a member of the legendary Funk Brothers).

Marquise also puts great stock in his role models - even though he knows most of them only from records, television, or videos, and some were dead years before he was born (on February 8, 1991): “Lightnin’ Hopkins was the only person I would listen to when I first started. He was a storyteller, good one. The man was dangerous. Then it moved from Lightnin’ Hopkins to Muddy Waters. Then after Muddy Waters it was Albert King, and after Albert King it was like John Lee Hooker, and then everybody else just fell into place, B.B. King and Howlin’ Wolf and all of ‘em. Biggest influence, Lightnin’ Hopkins and John Lee Hooker, ’cause they play a lot solo. B.B. King, because of the way he sing. And Albert King because of his presence he carried, and Muddy Waters, the way they carried themselves. I kinda like nitpick from all of ‘em to create somethin’.”

On a more personal level, Marquise got to know St. Louis legend Henry Townsend not long before Townsend died in 2006. “As long as I’m living and as long as I play I will let everybody know about Henry Townsend,” Marquise promises. “He told me he couldn’t show me nothin’ because I had it! Now what he did show me was some of his signature stuff. But he taught me a lot about the business. Now what he taught me about the business, I wouldn’t share it, I just let people see it from how I conduct my business.”

Townsend was just one of the many blues veterans who have “adopted” Marquise, and when they see him, the affection and hope they show for him is obvious. Marquise’s growing “family” of elders includes Honeyboy Edwards, Louisiana Red, Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Calvin Jones, Lazy Lester, Bob Stroger, Bob Corritore, and the late Robert Lockwood Jr. “They love me, instant,” says Marquise. “‘Cause I love them instant. So we kinda get that bond, like glue.”

Contemporary bluesman Michael Burks has also been an inspiration to Marquise, who sees in Burks a continuation of the same powers that drove the older blues masters. Burks not only often invites Marquise to perform on his shows, he also brought his band to Salina, Kansas, to play on this CD with his proud protégé at Blue Heaven Studios (where Marquise had already astounded Salina’s Blues Masters at the Crossroads crowd the previous year as an unadvertised, last-minute addition to the concert lineup). On the CD, Marquise shares Henry Townsend’s flair for making up songs on the spot. “Henry always told me that he could only remember a few of his songs. And he said the rest of ‘em, he just sing. And so that’s what I do, I take my songs from my life’s experience. All those songs was done right there in the studio. That’s about as much as I can tell you! Well, I had some written down but some of ‘em so good I don’t have to write ‘em down! Then I’m like when I get into the studio, it’s like somethin’ else come over me, you can improvise, and I would like to challenge myself.”

Marquise Knox, it seems, has always been up for a challenge, but he comes prepared. After honing his skills at home, he started playing at clubs around St. Louis where he was legally too young to get in the door, and in November 2005 he had what he considers his coming-out party at age 14 at the fourth annual Baby Blues Showcase, an event designed to spotlight new young talent, at B.B.’s Jazz Blues & Soups, St. Louis’ best-known blues venue. “I was in the closet,” he smiles. “When I came out, I came out! When I came out, I knew then that was gonna be it. That’s where everybody found out who I was. You had to be 25 or younger to participate. A lady who helped run B.B.’s, she said she came downstairs, she’s like ‘You’ve gotta get this old man off the stage. We told you, this is just for young people.’ She looked up and it was me.” By then Marquise had already released a local CD, and in 2006 he cut another CD produced by B.B.’s Jazz Blues & Soups employee John May, who, as the one in charge of booking talent at B.B.’s, had quickly become a champion of Marquise as the new torch-carrier of the blues tradition. Marquise won the St. Louis Blues Royale acoustic competition in 2006, and has not hesitated to enter other contests or show up at festivals and clubs in other cities to give unsuspecting audiences an impromptu introduction to his talents. Along the way he got a work permit so he could perform in nightclubs and he left high school to complete his education through home schooling to give him more time for music and family.

Marquise has the drive and determination to keep moving up the blues ladder just the way he’s been doing. He’s already headlining blues festivals, winning over not only audiences but also older bluesmen who see in him a promising future for the music they share. Marquise is quick to counter any commentary that he’s too young to have the blues - after all, didn’t his idols all get started in the blues when they were youngsters, too?

Marquise isn’t picking cotton or plowing a mule, but he’s grown up in a city famed both for the blues and the conditions that feed it. As he explains it, “It’s something about your own life that lets you know that you got the blues. I don’t care what - by the end of the day, you’re gonna have the blues. And that’s what everybody should know.”

“It take a man to do what I’m doin’. If you can take care of a family at my age, you’re a man. That’s like playin’ the blues. The blues is my father and I’m his kid, see. See how the blues treat me? Treat me pretty good, and that’s how I’m gonna treat my family, damn good.”

As much as he loves the music, the life of a scuffling blues musician has no allure or romance for Marquise Knox. He knows that far too many legendary bluesmen struggle for recognition and die in poverty. As he puts it: “If I get known, then if the Lord will, I will have a career. If I don’t get known, I’m not gonna spend all my life tryin’ to chase this down like other blues musicians. I’m not gonna give up but I’m not gonna let my whole life pass me by just to try to get into this business. After a while, you not makin’ no money, you can’t support yourself, let alone a family.”

If the blues doesn’t give back what he puts into it, he says he’ll use his other talents to make a living: “Time nowadays is too rough to depend on one thing. You gotta do multi-tasking, that’s how I am. Now I can cook real good. I might become a chef, and I’m pretty good at teachin’. I might sell real estate. I’m good at fixin’ up stuff. I can take this building apart and put it back together. I got a lot of brain smart and it didn’t come from books. I’m a more hand-on visual type of person. I can read and learn anything and I can look and see it done and learn anything.”

Which brings him back to his music: “That’s how I play so good. I never picked up a book or took a lesson where I had to read music. If you can play it, I’m gonna play it behind you. I play harmonica, I play drums, I play the bass, I play a little piano.”

“And it’s not that I play any other music. I play the blues. I don’t mix it with this or that. I play the blues. Most musicians are teasers but I’m a pleaser. I let the folks know where I’m comin’ from. I’ve tried not to portray no image than myself.”

Marquise’s music rocks, but it’s not rock. It’s funky, but it’s not funk. It’s soulful, but it’s not soul. His deep focus on the blues, as he sees himself carrying it on from B.B., Albert, Muddy, Henry Townsend, and the other icons, differentiates him from many other young musicians who are promoted as upcoming blues stars but who may be in essence be playing rock music or some other offshoot. “Yeah, that kind of lights a match to my ass sometimes,” he says. “Because it’s our music. We perfected it. That was music that was in our history, not necessarily meant to be toyed with but it was just something that we had that we can call our own. Because then, we did not have nothin’. But for somebody else to come play it just because they can play and put no feeling behind it - you want to take it and then that’s like you’re portrayin’ that to be somebody that you’re not. What they got the white boys playin’ - it’s not the blues. It’s the early rock ‘n’ roll, see, what you call the upbeat tempo of the blues. They got the new generation fooled that that’s the blues. And then the music that I’m playin’, well, what is that? Well, this is the blues.”

“Yeah, I believe I’m gonna make history. I will. I want everybody, all the world, to know this 17-year-old kid that plays the blues.” Marquise may have been just 17 when he made that declaration, but it’s not his age that gives his music meaning. It’s that, in his hands, the blues is ageless.

- Jim O’Neal
Founding Editor, Living Blues Magazine
>www.stackhouse-bluesoterica.blogspot.com

I want to thank my mother, Ruby Knox; my father, Johnny Thomas; my grandmothers, Lillie Knox and Dorothy Thomas; my uncles, David Knox, Clifford Williams, Joe Willis, and David (Jack) Davis; my son, Marquise Knox Jr., and daughter, Aniya; my future wife, Alfreda; and her father, Mr. Walter Dees; and I owe a lot to everyone in St. Louis who has helped me on my way.

- Marquise Knox