2Blu (Bruce Andrews and George Dudley)
2BLU winners of the recent Magic City Blues Society’s Battle of the Bands competition has been added to the Blues Fest line up on September 2nd, 2007 at the Sloss Furnaces.
Harp player and vocalist Bruce Andrews describes their music as a blend of blues, rock, funk, folk and gospel. Bruce says they have been influenced by many artists, especially Little Feat, Reverend Gary Davis, Elmore James, Blind Willie Johnson, Lowell Fulson and Eric Clapton. “We play many original tunes with adaptations and covers of our liking thrown in.”
As song writers we hope the tunes stand on their own and speak for themselves. Like any other songwriters we just write from an outpouring of our souls. We write a lot of Gospel-oriented lyrics as a result. Blind Willie Johnson was considered as much a storefront preacher as a musician in his day. We can only hope to say what we feel in a heart felt and straightforward much as Blind Willie did over 70 years ago.
George Dudley-Guitar and Vocals.
George has been playing the guitar for more than twenty five years. In that time it’s fair to say his approach to the guitar is unique. His blues playing for example is true to the genre but totally fresh. He has played with numerous club bands in the New England area. His session work can be found on several fine local productions.
Bruce Andrews –Harp, Vocal
Bruce has been playing the harp and singing with bands for over 20 years now. His parents had him listening to the likes of Ray Charles, Josh White, Sonny Terry and Bessie Smith from the time he can remember. Bands of his past include; Dusty Wax, NiteLite, Logic, Rear View Mirror and the Po Monkey blues band. Bruce has played harp and/or vocalized on numerous recording sessions in the last 15 years.
2BLU has shared the stage or been on the same bill with the great John Hammond, Pat Ramsay and the Blues Disciples, Hubert Sumlin, Willie King, Bob Carlisle, The North Mississippi All-stars, Sean Costello and many more.
This will be good practice for their entry into the International Blues Challenge to be held next February in Memphis. No strangers to this competition 2BLU was a 2003 semi finalist in the International Blues Challenge. Bruce and George also played in an award winning “electric band” called the Lucky Stiffs a 2002 competitor.
Posted by bluesy on 08/14 at 10:16 PM
Blues Fest 2007 •
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