Madman Sam's Page

About Me:

Madman Sam is what happens when you forget to tell a man that he's just one guy playing an acoustic guitar. Best described as "hard acoustic blues", his guitar playing is heavy and rhythmic, his vocals loud and powerful, and his intense songwriting brings true excitement to acoustic blues. This is not your typical "sit and play quietly in the back of the coffee shop" acoustic blues. Despite being "just one man with an acoustic guitar", Madman Sam's big sound fills the room and completely grabs the attention of everyone in...and even out of the room - often more successfully than a 5+ piece band!

While heavily influenced by the Mississippi Delta blues of the 1920s and 30s, and the Chicago blues of the 1940s and 50s, Madman Sam is no history teacher - these are today's blues for today's people. His overall "feel" is very raw and traditional sounding, yet he delivers it in a way that attracts many new and young listeners to the blues, while still retaining the attention of the more experienced blues fans.

"Madman Sam without doubt has got to be recognized as one of the most authentic traditional blues players today that does not come from the Mississippi Delta or the Piedmont, but rather the urban sprawl of Southwest Portland, Oregon. His playing harkens back to the traveling musicians of the 20s and 30s, armed with only their guitar and voice to carry them through. And to catch the attention of the crowds on streets or the noisy juke joints, your voice had to boom over the cacophony of noise ever present. Madman Sam's voice has that range. He belts out his lyrics over his vibrant strumming and sliding. Like Skip James whose voice was instantly recognizable, Sam has his own unique growl that would be hard to mistake for anybody else."
- Greg Johnson, Cascade Blues Association

Madman Sam was born an "army-brat" in Frankfurt, Germany, but grew up in Southern California. His first taste of the Blues came from an old Muddy Waters record that he bought as a kid. He traced the roots of Muddy's music backwards discovering and learning the Blues from it's originators like: Son House, Johnny Shines, Bukka White, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, R.L. Burnside, Mississippi Fred McDowell, John Lee Hooker, Robert Pete Williams, Sonny Boy Williamson and Charlie Patton. Sam lived and played in just about every city, small town, and wide spot in the road of California, Arizona, and Southern Oregon before moving to Portland, OR in 2008.

Madman Sam has released 4 solo albums of original material to date: Back On My Feet Again (1994), Madman Blues (1998), I Feel So Evil (2010), and Nothing In The Clouds But Rain (2011). He is always writing "the next album" and will be releasing a new CD in 2012. Madman Sam will be representing the Cascade Blues Association in the International Blues Challenge in 2012.

"My songs are exaggerated reality, cynically simmered in a pot of sarcasm, and lightly seasoned with humor...If a juke joint was picked up by a tornado in Mississippi and dropped on top of my ex-wife in Chicago - this is the music the munchkins would be singing."

Favorite Blues Artists and Bands

Johnny Shines, Son House, Muddy Waters

Your Website Address

http://www.madmansam.com

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