The Brass Rail – Fort Wayne Indiana – Rock Club dressed up as a dive bar

Hillgrass Bluebilly Presents: T-Model Ford, Left Lane Cruiser, Gravel Road, Chris Cotton & The OctoGatos

Sunday July 19th, 2009

Hillgrass Bluebilly Presents:
T-Model Ford
Left Lane Cruiser
Gravel Road
Chris Cotton & The OctoGatos
$6
8PM

About T-Model Ford & GravelRoad
T-Model’s 80-something years old … his Mississippi Driver’s License says he’s 84, his US Passport says he’s 87, and he says he’s 88 … so you decide. <><><><><><><> He started playing guitar based on Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, but T’s only got one style: his own. T’s illiterate, so no use in talking to him about tuning. We call it “open T” because it’s his own unique sound. T-Model says he doesn’t have a care in the world. I believe him. He’s acting like he is willing to die on the road, playing music and doing what he loves. So be it if it happens. We all gotta go sometime. Don’t you want to die with a smile on your face and a feeling of accomplishment up to and through that last breath? <><><><><><><>

Info on Chris Cotton

A dynamic roots blues singer with a colorful past, Cotton is celebrated for his modern-day take on the complex Piedmont style of guitar playing and his trademark live, loose approach to music. His fiercely original song structures have been likened to the rawness of Tom Waits and the haunting singing style of Leadbelly.

“I don’t shoot for perfection,” Cotton says of his recording aesthetic. “My goal is to capture a specific moment in time between musicians.”

Although Cotton’s music is rooted in old acoustic blues and folk, he has sought a very personal and unique mode of expression in The Big Sea. His song The Last Man even employs the sitar in a complex time signature, belying Cotton’s versatility.

While some listeners might label The Big Sea as Americana, Deep Blues, Outlaw Hillbilly, Fierce Hokum, or straight up Americana, Cotton’s talent for subtly defying each of these genres is what rings true in his songs.

“Everything I play is based on some knowledge of traditional American music,” says Cotton. “But I’m not doing it in a traditional way. I’m trying to create new music. Not just new words, but new musical forms to appeal to a broader audience than just hard-core blues or traditional aficionados.”

Hailed as “…a quiet gem,” “simple, beautiful,” and “shocking in its immediacy,” The Big Sea has been praised by popular blogs, magazines and print media including Musicgeek.org, Largehearted Boy and Berkeley Place. The album has been broadcast on satellite and syndicated commercial radio, including XM and House of Blues radio. The video for his song “Blues and Sadness” was promoted on the front page of YouTube and has been viewed 72,000 times to date. The song “.44 pistol Mama” and title track, “The Big Sea” will be featured in the sixth season of the popular PBS program “Roadtrip Nation” (http://www.roadtripnation.com/). Cotton also co-stars in the soon-to-be-released, award-winning documentary “Delta Rising,” which also features Morgan Freeman, Willie Nelson, BB King and other luminaries of Americana music and film.