Nick Gravenites with Pete Sears (from the album Rogue Blues

Nick Gravenites with Pete Sears (from the album Rogue Blues

Nick Gravenites with Pete Sears (from the album Rogue Blues available on M.C. Productions) (by Danny McCloskey)
Outside of Chicago and San Francisco Blues circles Nick Gravenites is not the legend he is inside of those communities. Seventy years ago, Nick Gravenites was a kid talking his way into the Blues clubs on Chicago’s South Side, meeting and befriending other white boy Blues enthusiasts, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, and Elvin Bishop. For a young Nick the experience was life-changing…‘ man, it was Blues heaven in Chicago in the late fifties and early sixties, and I was an angel in residence ‘. For the debut album of Paul Butterfield Blue Band, the group opened the recording with Nick Gravenites “Born in Chicago”. Over the decades, Nick has written songs, working closely with Janis Joplin in her Kozmic Blues Band and penning songs for her solo releases as well as picking up the microphone to front Big Brother and The Holding Company when Janis departed.
 
For his recent release with Pete Sears, Rogue Blues, Nick Gravenites collects personal favorites from his live shows which have never really made it to official recordings. Rogue Blues is raw. Warm soulful grit, like river mud coming up between your toes, Nick Gravenites confidently drives the songs with the tender voice of experience. Blue soul pours on the tracks as Rogue Blues opens introducing “Poor Boy”, Nick joined by Charlie Musselwhite as a Blues bounce sets the groove of scratchy toe-taps and brushed drumbeats. Jimmy Vivino is on board when the album sings of old Bluesmen who would forget their chops as they fell prey to the moves of “Blues Singer”, returning to join in on a Cajun-inflected acoustic jam with “Brown Paper Bag”. The groove spreads thick over “Blackberry Jam”, Nick joined by Lester Chambers (The Chambers Brothers) on the tune as well on the somber, late-night piano wails asking how to ‘live in a right-hand world’ with a “Left Hand Soul”. Nick Gravenites exits Rogue Blues on a Country Blues crawl (featuring Barry Sless) admitting ‘I been drinking since the 4th of July and now its starting to snow’. Since his beginnings in late 50’s, early 60’s Chicago Blues and through the years in between, Nick Gravenites has burned with the passion of the Blues, honoring its legacy in each word and every note. (by Danny McCloskey)
 
 
Listen and buy the music of Nick Gravenites with Pete Sears from AMAZON
For more information, please visit the Nick Gravenites website