 For
Booking
|
  On Stage 1:30 > 2:45 PM Annie
Raines was born near Boston, Massachusetts on July 3rd 1969. She took up
harmonica while still in high school, and dropped out of her freshman
year at Antioch to pursue a musical career. Fascinated by the sounds of
Muddy Waters, Little Walter Jacobs, Big Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson,
she spent countless hours listening to, and absorbing the music of the
Chicago blues masters. She began to play gigs at local Boston clubs, and
later traveled to Chicago where she met and played with Pinetop Perkins,
Louis Meyers, and James Cotton. While
working regularly on the local blues circuit, Annie taught harmonica and
began developing a style of her own within the blues tradition. Fast
becoming one of the most sought-after harmonica players in New England,
she had earned a reputation for playing with energy, soul and taste, but
she was ready to take her musical education to a deeper level. It was at
that time that she began working with country blues master Paul Rishell,
who lent musical support to her harmonica, piano, singing and
songwriting skills. This gave her the perfect opportunity to study
Country Blues innovators such as Noah Lewis and Sonny Terry, and, more
recently to take up the mandolin. Paul
Rishell was born January 17, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York. His early
musical experience was as a drummer playing rock 'n' roll and surf music
in Connecticut in the early 1960's. In 1963 a friend introduced him to
the country blues recordings of Son House and Robert Johnson, Charlie
Patton, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Thus began Paul's lifetime devotion
to this truly American form of music. By 1970 he was proficient on both
acoustic and electric guitar and worked as a side man and studio player
in Boston. He played with Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry and
Brownie McGhee, and Howlin' Wolf, and shared the stage with many of his
blues heroes. In 1975, Paul began performing regularly as a solo
acoustic blues artist, and also attracted a strong local following with
his own blues band. In
the mid-eighties, Paul took some time off to start a family. In 1987,
his daughter Vanessa was born, and he began work with Tone-Cool records
on his first CD "Blues on a Holiday", released in 1990 to
remarkable critical acclaim and recognition of his contribution to the
blues tradition. He has dedicated himself to teaching the guitar styles
of the masters and to educating his audiences about the original
recordings of country blues that inspired him. While
working on his second Tone-Cool CD, "Swear to Tell the Truth",
Paul Rishell met Annie Raines. Her work on the project heralded the
beginning of a productive musical partnership: Paul and Annie have
become a steadfast touring and recording team, working as an acoustic
and electric duo, as well as with a full band. For the past five years
they have been gaining an ever greater following in the U.S. and
overseas, performing and teaching at festivals, workshops, clubs and
concert halls, and doing session work as well. Paul and Annie dynamic
musical interplay was captured on their first totally collaborative CD
on Tone-Cool; "I Want You To Know" (1996). It features them in
solo, duo, trio, and band settings with guest appearances by Ronnie Earl
and John Sebastian. The
duo's most recent CD, "Moving To The Country", was released in
1999. It features original songs, arrangements of classic blues numbers
by Jim Jackson, Leadbelly and "Ma" Rainey and a wonderful
version of Django Reinhardt & Stephen Grappelli's "Tears".
Propelled by Paul's marvelous guitars and vocals plus Annie's tasteful
harmonica, "Moving To The Country" not only connected Paul
& Annie with a wider audience but won the prestigious W.C. Handy
Award for "Acoustic Blues Album of the Year" at this year's
ceremony in Memphis. As
members of John Sebastian's J Band, Paul and Annie can also be heard on
the J Band's 1996 release, I Want My Roots (Music Masters/BMG) and on
their 1999 CD on Hollywood Records, "Chasin' Gus' Ghost",
which also features Geoff Muldaur & Jimmy Vivino. Paul
Rishell and Annie Raines form an explosive blues combination, infusing
their musical performances with the inspiration of blues tradition as
well as the power of their unique musical chemistry.
|
