roots

Andre Williams (born Zephire Andre Williams in Bessemer, Alabama, on November 1, 1936) is an American R&B and punk blues musician who started his career in the 1950s at Fortune Records in Detroit. Some sources believe that Williams is the long-lost brother of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, a blues musician whose song "I Put A Spell On You" landed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll charts.

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The Gladiators were a Jamaican reggae band formed in 1967 in Kingston by four friends from the same neighborhood: Albert Griffiths, Clinton Fearon, Errol Grandison, and David Webber. In 1968, Griffiths and Webber joined forces with Errol Grandison, to form the Gladiators. The band soon topped the Jamaican charts with "Hello Carol" in late 1968. However not long after their first chart success David Webber started to show signs of serious mental illness. The decline in Webber's mental health meant that he was eventually replaced in the band by Clinton Fearon.

While it’s true that his music is steeped in the Delta blues tradition of the legendary acoustic musicians who proliferated in pre-World War II America’s deep South and the giants of electric blues who shaped rock and roll, it’s the young Victorian’s willingness to combine these influences with grooves and sounds common in contemporary music that sets him apart.

1.) Compelling Sydney two-piece, The Fumes burst onto the scene in 2004. The Fumes deliver multi-facetted stylistic raw blues tunes mashed with healthy rock riffs and snappy beats. Steve Merry (Vocals, Guitar) spent 12 months in the U.S where he took on some mentoring from Bob Brozman and an opportunity to immerse himself with many styles of music. It helped define and develop The Fumes. The Fumes complete with the addition of Joel Battersby, who had been drumming with members of The Beautiful Girls, proceeded to churn out an 8-track demo.