Band Details

From the Promoter

ROOSTER DAVIS

Edmonton based pianist and organist, Rooster Davis, specializes in the New Orleans traditions of seminal players such as Dr. John, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, and James Booker. His own style is a combination of everything he has learned from these great players, giving him a driving, rhythmic style of playing the blues, and a heavy NOLA second line funk feel.

Rooster Davis has toured around the world and has a strong following in Western Europe and Australia. He has appeared at many festivals nationally and internationally including; Edmonton International Jazz Festival, Beaumont Blues and Roots Festival, Pembina River Nights Festival, Come by the Hills Festival, Calgary International Blues Festival, Kitchener Blues and Roots Festival, Toronto Blues Summit, Memphis International Blues Challenge, Vienna Blues Festival, Sydney Blues and Roots Festival, and Australian Blues and Roots Festival. Roosters latest recording, For Saints and Sinners, won best blues recording from the Edmonton Blues Society, and was nominated for best blues and roots recording at the Edmonton Music Awards in 2016. The Rooster Davis Group went on to claim Best Band in the Memphis Blues Challenge for Northern Alberta and attended the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, a competition that features over 200 bands from around the world, and became the first Edmonton band to make it to the semi-finals.

In addition to leading and fronting the Rooster Davis Group, Rooster Davis is a renowned freelance keyboard player. He has recorded with producers such as 10 time Grammy Award winner Joe Chiccarelli, John Whynot, and Hawksley Workman. He is the musical director of Canadian gold platinum selling country artist Adam Gregory, and Rooster also regularly performs with award-winning roots artists such as Ridley Bent, The Dungarees, Jay Sparrow, Jay Gilday, and many more.

In the short 5 years since the Rooster Davis Group's first performance the band has shared the stage with 2016 Grammy Award winner Jon Cleary, acclaimed NOLA artist Aurora Nealand, Joe Galindo (musical director of Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding), Brad Shigeta (a 17 year member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra), and many others besides. His album has already garnered play on blues stations across North America, and across the pond in Europe. It is only a matter of time before he is a staple in the Canadian blues scene and beyond.

ROTT'N DAN AND THE LIGHTNIN' CHILD

Rott'n Dan and the Lightnin' Child is an acoustic duo focusing on Pre War, Piedmont and Country Blues. In doing so they are paying homage to the greats such as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Robert Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller and Mississippi John Hurt, to name a few. For all those with a hankering for some old timey roots music that'll take you to the front porch and caress you like a warm southern breeze, this is for you!