JAMES COTTON BLUES BAND @ Stafford Palace Dec 7 2014

“The blues is all about feeling,” says Grammy Award-winning harmonica legend James “Mr. Superharp” Cotton. “If I don’t feel it, I can’t play it.” Now in his 69th year as a professional musician (starting at age nine), James Cotton not only feels it, he lives it. His overwhelmingly powerful harmonica is one of the iconic sounds of the blues. His skills are unrivaled, his story the stuff of legend. ...Born on a cotton plantation in Tunica, Mississippi on July 1, 1935, Cotton learned harmonica directly from Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) as a small child. He toured with Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf, recorded for Sun Records, and spent 12 years with Muddy Waters before stepping out on his own. Leading his own band, he earned his reputation as one of the most commanding live blues performers in the world—a man who could literally suck the reeds out of his harmonica from the pure force of his playing—one high-energy performance at a time.

His new Alligator album, COTTON MOUTH MAN, is a joyous celebration of his life in the blues. Recorded in Nashville and produced by Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/drummer Tom Hambridge (Buddy Guy, Joe Louis Walker, Susan Tedeschi), the album is a riveting, good-time musical journey through sounds and scenes from Cotton’s long and storied career. With seven songs co-written by Cotton (more originals than he’s ever included on one release) and Hambridge (who co-wrote five additional tracks), the stories the album tells are Cotton’s own, inspired by his colorful and sometimes perilous life. Throughout the CD Cotton’s blast-furnace harmonica sound and larger-than-life personality are front and center.

Helping Cotton tell his stories and showcase his music are GUESTS GREGG ALLMAN, JOE BONAMASSA, RUTHIE FOSTER, WARREN HAYNES, DELBERT MCCLINTON AND KEB MO. Forming the core of the backing band on the CD are Hambridge (drums), Rob McNelley (guitar), Chuck Leavell (keyboards) and Glenn Worf (bass). Tommy MacDonald and Colin Linden each add guitar to one track. Darrell Nulisch, who has been singing in Cotton’s band for many years, expertly handles the vocals on five tracks, while the other members of Cotton’s road band—Tom Holland, Noel Neal and Jerry Porter—are also on board on some of the songs. Cotton, who, after a bout with throat cancer turned the vocal duties over to others, was inspired by the sessions to return to the microphone. He brings the album to a warm-hearted close singing his own Bonnie Blue (the name of the plantation where he was born), helping to make COTTON MOUTH MAN the most personal, celebratory and just plain fun recording of his seven-decade career. According to Cotton, “I feel so happy about the music in this album. My hope is that everyone who listens feels it. I know I sure did!”