Playing five show in MS April 14 through 17! Specs at scissormen.com
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Scissormen
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Scissormen's Discussions
The “Real” Ike Turner…
3 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Ricky Stevens Mar 5, 2008.
RIP Buddy Miles
1 Reply
Started this discussion. Last reply by Blind Rat Mar 20, 2008.
Scissormen - Cauterwaulin' juke joint blues and soul medication dispensed here
Latest Activity
Status posted by Scissormen
Lots happening. Starting preproduction for the next album, a documentary featuring Scissormen is in the works, back in NYC March 20 and more
Status posted by Scissormen
U.S. Gig Finder
Let's help pool our resources to name those great venues for blues artists. Provide such info. as venue name, website, booking contact person, crowd response, how cool are staff, what to expected for $, sound quality (or bring your own PA), etc...
Scissormen joined Moreland & Arbuckle's group
Scissormen left a comment for Scissormen
Well, I guess we'll see what they've got soon!
GW left a comment for Scissormen
Now that you mention it, I don't know of any Hill Country at the IBC. If there is I'd hate to miss it.
It was accidental that I ever met Jr. and R.L. I sure glad we played some music when I did. They seemed to enjoy singing and playing an…
Scissormen left a comment for GW
Thanks much! I am really curious about the IBC, having never been there. Without Junior, R.L. and Jessie, I wonder how much of the hill country sound will make its way into the whole genre this year?
GW left a comment for Scissormen
Did I say I enjoyed the music!
I hope to hear some Hill Music at the IBC.
It's getting rare in Hill Country.
Scissormen left a comment for GW
No sweat. We're coming back to Memphis in April and playing long and late. My Tele's a weirdo. It's actually an early ’80s Japanese Esquire reissue with jumbo frets, a solid steel bridge plate and a pair of late ’60s…
Profile Information
- About Me:
- “This isn’t just a band — it’s a mission,” says Scissormen’s slide guitar demon Ted Drozdowski. “We believe the blues is as blood and guts vital and relevant as it was when the music’s giants walked the Earth, if it’s played right. So that’s how we play it — respecting the music’s roots, but not at the expense of its future.”
If that sounds audacious, you haven’t seen one of the Nashville-based group’s live shows, where just a guitarist and drummer harness up the spirit of the Mississippi hills and make it sound like a juke joint armada. That approach has won Scissormen fans across the US and Europe, where they’ve played everything from jukes to coffeehouses to blues, rock and punk clubs to major festivals including Bonnaroo 2008 and France’s prestigious Cognac Blues Passions Festival.
“Our gigs prove that the blues can reach everybody — including people who think its music only their parents or grandparents would like,” says Ted. “Of course,” he adds, “our music also reaches their parents and grandparents.”
And Scissormen’s live audiences reach back, challenging Ted’s unique, fiery slide guitar approach by passing him, well, just about anything to play with: shoes, straws, martini glasses, keys, a lit blowtorch, full dinner plates, a machete, a 9-mm pistol.
Critic Anthony DeCurtis (Rolling Stone, VH-1, etc) has proclaimed Ted “a guitarist of spellbinding invention and intelligence. His slide playing shears the skin off your bones, and he can unleash roaring gales of sound. But lyricism and musicality lie at the heart of even his wildest moments. I have never listened to him and not been transported to a strange, beautiful place I&’d never been before.”
Now that place has a name: Luck in a Hurry. Scissormen’s first nationally distributed album packs the band’s inventive and exciting energy into 11 slide-powered songs including nine originals. The music knits the inspiration of Ted’s musical mentors and friends like R.L. Burnside, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Junior Kimbrough and Sonny Sharrock together with his experience as a rock-based improviser and songwriter.
Scissormen’s guests on Luck in a Hurry include Morphine drummer Billy Conway, the late veteran blues pianist Teo Leyasmeyer (who was a sideman with Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Luther Allison, Johnny Copeland and G. Love), and Dicky Barrett, the powerhouse frontman for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Dicky applies a layer of vocal gravel to the defiant anti-anthem “Whiskey and Maryjane,” which also guests Ted’s former psychedelic rock band Devil Gods. Ted’s longtime musical foil Rob Hulsman, a vet of cow punk renegades 9 Pound Hammer, and Larry Dersch play drums. And Dan Kellar adds violin to two songs, including the guitar-violin-drums trio “Mattie Sweet Mattie.”
Luck in a Hurry expands the sound of Scissormen’s previous albums, their all-duo debut EP Jinx Breakers and the solo acoustic When the Devil Calls&ellips;.
“What these songs have in common are deep roots, great big guitar tones, and a lotta soul,” says Ted. “They were performed live in the studio so we could keep things raw and spontaneous — the way we like ’em. ”
And that’s just one more reason why Luck in a Hurry captures the heartbeat of modern blues — and the pulse of its future.
But the band’s story begins back in 1991. Ted was already a rock guitarist/songwriter and an internationally respected music journalist with a passion for blues when he was introduced to the sounds of North Mississippi’s juke joints by one of his mentors, the late musicologist Robert Palmer.
“As a guitar player in punk, psychedelic rock and improv bands, I’d digested a lot of music by then, but when I heard R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Jessie Mae Hemphill — thanks to Robert — they totally blew my mind,” Ted recounts. “Their music had the deepest spirit of blues as well as the transporting qualities of psychedelic rock. It was a sound I’d wanted to hear my whole life, without even knowing it still existed.
“I’m just a guy whose family crawled out of the coal mines in Pennsylvania,” Ted continues. “I still can’t believe how lucky I was to meet and to be befriended by R.L., Junior and Jessie Mae, and to have R.L. talk me into trying to play his music. I resisted for three years, because I revered R.L. and his sound. But eventually I caved and after the first time I played with him on stage I guess I had the fever. It just took a while to spread.”
Once it did, Scissormen began — with just two rules.
“The first,” Ted says, “ is to always move ahead and blaze our own musical trail while honoring the musicians who’ve touched our lives and inspired us. And the second is to pack every gig we play with all the heart, soul and energy we can muster. Playing the blues for keeps is not a job for slackers.”
- Favorite Blues Artists and Bands
- R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphiill, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Sharrock, Kenny Brown, the damn Stones, Coltrane, Muddy, the Wolf, T-Model Ford, Bobby Rush, Buddy Guy, Ronnie Earl. John Coltrane and soooo many more.
- Your Website Address
- http://www.scissormen.com
- Are you a:
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Scissormen's Photos
Scissormen's Videos
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Scissormen Blurt - Web HQ
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Tupelo
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Scissormen's Blog
Scissormen in Fort Wayne, Indiana tonight - Friday, Dec. 12
Hey we're coming to Fort Wayne for the first time tonight and it's in the 20s and there's snow on the ground. Come out to hear us blow the house down and makes us feel warm at the Brass Rail with Left Lane Cruiser and some band with "Poop" in its name - hey, i don't ask, i just play the shows and spread the love - and besides, I have a dog, so poop doesn't confront me, as John Lee Hooker might have put it. Anyway, the music starts at 10 p.m. at 1121 Broadway. Check www.brassrailfw.com or call… Continue
Posted on December 12, 2008 at 11:02am
Huge pig-pile of Scissormen live videos now at YouTube.com/Scissormem - opportunity for other bands touring in MA
Hey, wanted to let folks know that after about two years of having one humble little video we shot and edited ourselves, there's a ton of live performance footage on YouTube now. Am trying to figure out how to post some of it here. Meanwhile, check it out there if you like. There's fun stuff from this year's Deep Blues Festival, a couple handheld vids from Croco-stimpy in New Haven, Ct - and then a boatload of stuff from a TV show called Don O'Dell's Blues Time in Western, MA, which goes out to… Continue
Posted on November 22, 2008 at 12:01pm
Scissormen on the way to Deep Blues Festival this weekend
Hey, we're making some stops on the way to DBF. Tomorrow, Friday, in St. Louis we're at the Schlafly Tap Room; Saturday at the Rox in St. Cloud with the Pack A.D. and Mudlow, Sunday at DBF with everybody and then Monday at Big V's in St. Paul with Mudlow and more. And stay tuned for more info coming up on our next album Luck in a Hurry, out nationally on the VizzTone label on September 2. Stay cool and have fun. - Ted
Posted on July 17, 2008 at 4:09pm
Read about Scissormen's show at Bonnaroo 2008
I got asked to write about Scissormen's gig at Bonnaroo by Gibson.com. It was an awesome experience. You can read about it here: http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Features/I%20Played%20Bonnaroo%5F%20A%20Dirty%20Lit/
Also a couple fun pictures from the gig and an MP3 of the new version of our song “Tupelo” recorded for Luck in a Hurry, which will come out on September 2 nationwide. Should have some copies for the Deep Blues Festival. Stay cool everybody! - Ted
Also a couple fun pictures from the gig and an MP3 of the new version of our song “Tupelo” recorded for Luck in a Hurry, which will come out on September 2 nationwide. Should have some copies for the Deep Blues Festival. Stay cool everybody! - Ted
Posted on June 23, 2008 at 11:02pm
New Scissormen album comes out bad and nationwide on September 2
Well, stay tuned or visit your local cool music shop or do whatever you do these days when new music you wanna hear is on the way, because we are finally having our first full tilt boogie nationwide CD release for our next disc on September 2. It's called Luck in a Hurry and it gets way down in the dirt and rolls around like a dog. It follows our two indie discs which are available at iTunes and CD Baby: our electric debut Jinx Breakers, and the acoustic When the Devil Calls… (Also… Continue
Posted on June 9, 2008 at 2:14pm
Comment Wall (32 comments)
- At 12:45pm on January 11, 2010,
Scissormen said… - Well, I guess we'll see what they've got soon!
- At 7:22am on January 11, 2010,
GW said… - Now that you mention it, I don't know of any Hill Country at the IBC. If there is I'd hate to miss it.
It was accidental that I ever met Jr. and R.L. I sure glad we played some music when I did. They seemed to enjoy singing and playing an acoustic, for me and each other, and drinkin' beer one Sunday afternoon, not long after Johnny Woods (harmonica) died. They wern't far from Holly Springs. They didn't mention Jr's Juke Joint, which I didn't understand then, that I'd have been welcome. The Joint burned after my only time I went there. I got there after the band had left, and they had run out of beer. Even so, It was a cool place. I think I saw some of the future NMAllstars leaving, but otherwise did not know anyone.
Your music here is VERY good to listen to.
- At 8:12am on January 8, 2010,
GW said…
- Did I say I enjoyed the music!
I hope to hear some Hill Music at the IBC.
It's getting rare in Hill Country.
- At 8:06pm on January 4, 2010,
GW said…
- I hate I didn't make the Memphis show, but thanks for the head's up.
I'd like to read the words to Tupelo. That was where I had the best gigs in the late 60s.
I also have a vintage 72 tele deluxe.
I'm enjoying your music!
Happy New Year
- At 2:08am on September 16, 2009,
Jim Chilson said… - Oh yeah, The "Swallow" has ALOT of character...good, bad, every adjective you can think of...but between 12am and 2am the place pretty much rocks as the liquid and other stuff kicks in. Think about this one, last year we played Halloween there....Halloween at The Swallow!! It was some of weirdest "things" I have ever seen....what a great show!! haha
- At 1:38pm on September 6, 2009,
Tony Lee King said… - HELLO THERE...You can promote your act on reverbnation too...
God Bless You and your work....
- At 7:49pm on July 19, 2009,
Migue de Oca,Havana,Cuba said… - Yes, sure!, You could try to send me some tunes by email to rocadura1960@yahoo.com or some cds to: Miguel de Oca, Apartado 113, CP 10100, Ciudad Habana, Cuba, also you could send the cds to Sergio Rodriguez in Miami, he will arrenge to bring them back to me, his email is: stopafreebird@yahoo.com, contact him in my name and he will give you the address. THANKS
- At 7:06pm on June 10, 2009,
Migue de Oca,Havana,Cuba said…
- Hello man is Miguel de Oca this is an invitation, I host a blues radio show here, also I lead a blues band, hope you could listen to my show someday, the links to my radio show:
LA ESQUINA DEL BLUES
RADIO SHOW
SUNDAYS
9:00 P.M( EASTERN TIME)
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO:
WINDOWS MEDIA LINK
http://media.ohc.cu/habanaradio
WEBSITE
www.laesquinadelblues.webs.com
OPEN-LINES(LIVE)
011-53-7-8615463
011-53-7-8649000
BLUES4ALL
THANKS
- At 9:50am on March 13, 2009,
scissormen fan said… - Hey Ted, Brian, Matt, I hope you fella`s are doing well. Ted thanks for the support during the rough time I am going thru, maybe I can dig deep and make something beautiful out of all this misery!!! Bruce
- At 12:46pm on March 5, 2009,
Becky (Old School) said… - Hey, I got you guys on the cover of the newspaper I work for!
You can download it at www.thelocalvoice.net (Issue #75)
I'm so excited about seeing y'all next week in Oxford!
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