Tickets go on sale tomorrow, March 13 at 10 am (MT)
The upcoming summer summer in the mountain town of Durango, Colorado peaks on a high note on August 16 & 17 as the Durango Blues Train announces its artist lineup. The Durango Blues Train is excited to kick off it's 9th year rockin' and rollin' aboard the the historic Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad with Duwayne Burnside, Blackfoot Gypsies, Molly Gene - One Whoaman Band, Kirk James, Low Volts, and Randall Conrad Olinger.
Duwayne Burnside
Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Duwayne Burnside is one of 14 children born to legendary North Mississippi musician R.L. Burnside and his wife, Alice. He has been a frequent performer with the North Mississippi Allstars since the early 1990s, when that group, fronted by Luther and Cody Dickinson, formed. The young Burnside learned his first few guitar licks and chords from his father, but proved a quick study and soon began playing with local club owner Junior Kimbrough and the Soul Blues Boys. Growing up in Holly Springs, he was close to Memphis, and as soon as he was able to get to Memphis, he did, and soon had the chance to sit in with Little Jimmy King, Albert King, B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and others.
Duwayne also began playing in his Dad's band, Sound Machine Groove, where he further honed his skills as a guitarist and showman. He recorded for Hightone and Fat Possum Records with his father's group before moving to Memphis, where he opened his own club, Burnside Kitchen and Grill, near Highway 61. He booked the music, cooked the food, sold the beer, and had his own band perform there on a weekly basis.
In 1998, Duwayne traveled to Los Angeles to record his first album, Live at the Mint, as Duwayne Burnside & the Mississippi Mafia. After returning to Memphis, he decided to take a break from the bar business and settled back home in Holly Springs. In 2001, he joined the North Mississippi Allstars on-stage for the first time in Birmingham, Alabama, and that led to incessant touring with the band. He recorded with them on their third album, Polaris, and is featured on two of the group's EP's. In 2004, he opened another version of the Burnside Blues Cafe in Holly Springs and formed a new band that fused soul blues with hill country blues. His albums under his own name include Live at the Mint (1998) and Under Pressure (2005), both for B.C. Records. An album celebrating his father's life and music remains in the works. One of the last things he asked his father to do -- R.L. Burnside passed at age 80 in 2005 -- was sing with him at the massive, popular Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee. Burnside continues to tour, helping to keep the North County, Mississippi hill-style blues flourishing.
Blackfoot Gypsies
The Blackfoot Gypsies have unleashed a set of original roadhouse rockin' tunes with To the Top, on Plowboy Records. The Nashville, Tennessee based powerhouse quartet demonstrate raucous energy and soul on this collection delivering their take on white-knuckled rock'n'roll.
Across the 15 tracks of To the Top, the Blackfoot Gypsies fuse their influences -- swamp blues cool, downhome hillbilly funk and homegrown punk panache -- into a lean, mean machine invoking such classic musical malcontents as the Rolling Stones, the Faces and Mott the Hoople, while sparking and spitting 21st-century fire. It's the type of record that could only come from a band that learned to rock the old-fashioned way -- one sweaty, full-throttle live performance at a time.
Molly Gene - One Whoaman Band
Molly Gene One Whoaman Band has been performing solo for the past decade, recording and issuing albums (six to date), and organizing endless tours that eventually got her noticed in Europe.
Finally, after touring Europe and recording a live disc in Switzerland she came home to roost a few years ago, but continued to ramble. All of this is not that atypical except for the particular musical species that Molly Gene has cultivated.
Her sound is a raucous, bluesy map of her journey so far.
Keeping her music and her lifestyle simple and self-contained, she planted her flag on the edge of the blues — as close to soul as to rock as possible — and created what she calls Delta Thrash.
Before Molly Gene took on her unique delta thrash sound, she started out playing folk music. She claims that Bob Dylan was the reason why she even picked up a guitar in the first place, 16 years ago. Below is one of Molly Gene’s newer songs she wrote titled, “I’m On My Way”. She plans to release this song on her seventh album this coming year, 2019.
Low Volts
Three-time San Diego Music Award winner Low Volts is giving the music world a much needed shock to the heart with his fuzzed-out, one-man, dirty blues-rock n’ soul performances. Armed with only a gritty old slide-guitar, thunderous kick drum laden with tambourines and dark, howling vocals, Low Volts creates a thick and swampy sound equivalent to the force of a four-piece band. Having performed to a sold out crowd at The Ryman, nationally touring with Brian Setzer, and landing songs in the smash comedy Super Troopers 2 alongside Eagles of Death Metal, Low Volts is on a steady path of rock and roll righteousness.
Great-grandson of a traveling gospel singer who was framed for murder and sentenced to the ELECTRIC CHAIR, Low Volts would not exist today if it wasn’t for a key witness that helped pardon his distant kin in the final hours of his uncertain fate. Doc wrote and published a book about his story titled 'Up From The Depths' "The Miracle That Saved Me from the Electric Chair". This is the story that inspired the stage moniker 'LOW VOLTS’.
Kirk James
Randall Conrad Olinger (RCO) creates a cunning brand of Americana that whips through the saloon doors on a warm breath of wind, settles onto the barstool next to you and keeps you company through the next morning’s hangover.
RCO is an original act, and the music generated by this one-man melodic powerhouse conjures images of a six-string balladeer rolling amid a New Orleans cavalcade on a rickety oxcart drawn by an ornery one-eyed mule.
RCO’s musical journey began as a teenager, jamming with high school friends before enlisting in the Navy with just a rucksack and an old electric guitar. Years of playing incognito in what he refers to as “a floating prison” readied him for the real world -- where music could be indulged in without consequence. His prolific work as the creative force behind legendary Denver band Workhorse and the inimitable Nautilus gradually gave way to his solo act, which he began in earnest in 2011.
RCO’s multi-instrumental attack slings forth an eclectic array of textures. Imagine: percussive rhythms stomped onto self-styled contraptions accompanied by a resonant banjo twang or the amplified caterwaul of slide guitar.
RCO sings of waterways, revenge, wanderlust and redemption with a hybrid howl that is equal parts road-tested rock and roller and soulfully embattled southern bluesman. This former sailor’s musical creations are not merely songs. Rather, they are movements that draw you in, sweep you up and carry you along with the current -- sometimes delivering you to portside solace and other times pulling you out unto the bedlam of the open sea.
Randall Conrad Olinger
Randall Conrad Olinger (RCO) creates a cunning brand of Americana that whips through the saloon doors on a warm breath of wind, settles onto the barstool next to you and keeps you company through the next morning’s hangover.
RCO is an original act, and the music generated by this one-man melodic powerhouse conjures images of a six-string balladeer rolling amid a New Orleans cavalcade on a rickety oxcart drawn by an ornery one-eyed mule.
RCO’s musical journey began as a teenager, jamming with high school friends before enlisting in the Navy with just a rucksack and an old electric guitar. Years of playing incognito in what he refers to as “a floating prison” readied him for the real world -- where music could be indulged in without consequence. His prolific work as the creative force behind legendary Denver band Workhorse and the inimitable Nautilus gradually gave way to his solo act, which he began in earnest in 2011.
RCO’s multi-instrumental attack slings forth an eclectic array of textures. Imagine: percussive rhythms stomped onto self-styled contraptions accompanied by a resonant banjo twang or the amplified caterwaul of slide guitar.
RCO sings of waterways, revenge, wanderlust and redemption with a hybrid howl that is equal parts road-tested rock and roller and soulfully embattled southern bluesman. This former sailor’s musical creations are not merely songs. Rather, they are movements that draw you in, sweep you up and carry you along with the current -- sometimes delivering you to portside solace and other times pulling you out unto the bedlam of the open sea.
Refreshments will be available for purchase on board. Guests can enjoy light snacks, bars with wine and craft beer from award-winning regional brewery partners Telluride Brewing Company, Ska Brewing and Big B’s Hard Cider.
Tickets August 16 & 17 are set to go on sale on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 10 am (MT). Tickets are $119 per person per night, plus a Historic Train Preservation fee. Tickets are limited and will sell out in advance. Purchasers must be 21 years old to participate. Tickets will be available online here.