Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials

The Chicago Sun-Times called Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials “the hottest purveyors of bottleneck boogie to come out of Chicago since Hound Dog Taylor.”

Slide guitarist/singer/songwriter Ed Williams, born in Chicago in 1955, was taught by his uncle, the esteemed slide guitar master and songwriter J.B. Hutto.

He and his half-brother, bassist James “Pookie” Young, started The Blues Imperials more than three decades ago. Along with guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton, they have played together ever since. Their debut album, “Roughhousin’,” was released by Alligator Records in 1986 to rave reviews, and they released eight more albums with Alligator between 1986 and 2012.

Their latest album is ”The Big Sound of Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials” (2016). They have been nominated for the BMA Band of the Year Award eight times and won it in 2007 and 2009.

Guitarist/vocalist J.P. Soars, born in California in 1969, learned guitar from his father, a fan of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. At 16, living in West Palm Beach, Fla., he won an electric guitar and tickets to hear B.B. King in a raffle.

While he went on to play in heavy metal bands, touring with Raped Ape and recording with Malevolent Creation, the blues he had heard in that King concert stuck in his mind.

Then, in 2005, he fell for Gypsy Jazz through recordings of the late guitarist Django Reinhardt, and he formed a jazz combo of his own, with violin. In 2009 his band, The Red Hots, won first place in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. J.P. Soars and the Red Hots (with drummer Chris Peet and bassist Gary Remington) have toured internationally and recorded six albums, most recently “Let Go of the Reins” (2019). Soars has also performed with the all-star blues ensemble Southern Hospitality.

Chicago-based singer/songwriter/violinist Anne Harris will be featured in the Gypsy Blues Revue. Born in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1966, Harris studied classical violin as a child and earned a music degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She worked as an actor in Chicago, then joined local bands.

She started performing her own material, influenced by Celtic, folk/rock, Afrobeat, soul, chamber music and other genres. Harris has toured and recorded with Otis Taylor. Beginning with her eponymous debut album in 2001, she has released seven albums, most recently “Roots” (2019), on her own label, Rugged Records.