About us

Regulars at Buddy Guy’s Legends acoustic dinner set, this is some fans favorite combo. Using a live looper and Lil’ Red’s percussion, you have the sense you’re listening to full band with the energy that comes along with that. They call it they’re mini-band.

• Nothing is prerecorded, everything happens live.

• This combo can swing slightly more Blues or Jazz for your taste.

• They’ve played everything from MainStage festivals, to clubs, to high class restaurants, to coffee shops and retirement homes. Adjusting for each venues needs, they’re perfect for any event.

• They’re available for corporate and private events.

• Young kids love their music and lyrics can be tailored to young ears, but this is the Blues.

Ditch the looper and get Lil’ Red on her feet with a guitar & washboard! The music stays pretty much the same only difference is a deep in the groove rhythm section. They’ve played as a combo in Festivals and music venues like Buddy Guy’s Legends, Space, Cognac Blues Passion Festival as well as corporate events and private parties. They’re not a traditional bar band, they focus on concerts and festivals.

SIZES:

• Basic - is a four instrument band with drums and bass

• +1 - add keys or horn or harmonica or second guitar. Depends upon budget, availability and location of concert.

• +? - add as many as you want! They have lots of friends including additional singers. Check out some of our featured options in the next tabs!

This is a brand new combo that’s come out of our newest album that will release in 2025. Available in Europe early November 2025 for a few dates only.

• All travel expenses must be covered.

• Concerts and festivals only.

• B3 organ and or a high quality keyboard required in backline.

• This combo is Headliner pricing.

Bobby’s Bio:

piano, keyboard & organ

Grammy and Emmy Award winner, Bobby Floyd has had a very successful and rewarding career, his talent putting him in demand and making him one of the first-call pianists/organists for many well-known artists. He traveled the world accompanying Ray Charles on piano and organ.  He has also toured nationally and internationally as organist for the Grammy Award winning Dr. John.  He was the feature pianist occupying the chair of the great late Count Basie accompanying his world-famous orchestra for 6 years.

Floyd currently makes guest appearances with Byron Stripling, collaborating with some of the most distinguished orchestras, including The Boston Pops, Rochester Philharmonic, and Detroit Symphony.

The prestige associated with Floyd's worldwide appearances has also been witnessed at home where Floyd has been recognized as central Ohio’s number one “Favorite Musician” for more than 10 years (2010-23) according to Columbus Monthly’s “Best of Columbus”.  In his hometown, Bobby has been feature pianist & organist with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra where he has performed with a large number of major artist for many years.  He is occasionally featured with The Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and other arts organizations and venues throughout Ohio.

Floyd has taught at The Ohio State University, Otterbein University, at the world-famous Jamey Aebersold Jazz Workshops, and in his own private studio.

He has also served as artist in residence at Michigan State, Indiana University,  Miami Dade,  George Mason, Elmhurst College, and many more colleges throughout the country.

His critically acclaimed recordings, demonstrate his ability to electrify audiences and have received the highest praise from critics and musicians alike. 

Youtube links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1KPb8v6SvA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCPsMTdtrZg

Dave produced their first album “Soul Burnin’” and played on several tracks. That collaboration lead them to the 2018 BayCar Blues Festival & 2022 Beautiful Swamp Blues Festival in France. This is an exquisite guitar lover feast!

• All travel expenses must be covered.

• For festivals and music venues.

• This combo is headliner pricing.

Dave’s Bio:

“One of the few top-tier guitarists” - Downbeat

“Dave Specter is a global ambassador of Chicago Blues” - Chicago Sun-Times

GUITARIST, SINGER/SONGWRITER, BANDLEADER, RECORDING ARTIST, PRODUCER & PODCAST HOST

Dave Specter has earned an international reputation as one of the premier talents on the Chicago music scene. Since 1985 Specter has performed regularly at top venues and festivals throughout the USA and has toured internationally in 19 countries.

Before forming his own band in 1989, Specter toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe behind such blues greats as Son Seals, The Legendary Blues Band, Hubert Sumlin, Sam Lay and Steve Freund. Specter has also performed and/or recorded with such artists as Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Jimmy Rogers, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Jimmy Johnson, Jack McDuff, Johnny Adams, Snooky Pryor, Kim Wilson, Tad Robinson, John Primer, Johnny Littlejohn, B.B. Odom, Mighty Joe Young, Magic Slim, Lonnie Brooks, Ronnie Earl, Otis Clay, Floyd McDaniel, Pinetop Perkins and Jorma Kaukonen from Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane.

Dave has performed for the President of the United States, the Governor of Illinois and the Mayor of Chicago.

Dave appears on over 50 albums and DVDs as a guitarist, bandleader and/or producer, with 13 albums as a leader or co-leader on Delmark Records. His double album, Six String Soul 30 Years on Delmark was released in 2021 on CD and vinyl. He’s currently working on mixes for a live album recorded at Evanston SPACE in March of 2024.

Specter’s guitar playing is featured on the 2023 Grammy nominated “Into The Little Blue House” by Wendy and DB, nominated for Best Children’s Music Album.

Specter appears on compilation albums with artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, T-Bone Walker, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana and Mike Bloomfield.

Dave was inducted into The Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2018.

Recently featured in Rolling Stone, Dave’s handwritten song lyrics are on display at The Woody Guthrie Center’s Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom exhibit in Tulsa alongside Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics.

Dave is also partner at one of the Chicago area’s most acclaimed music venues, Evanston SPACE and hosts the podcast, Blues From The Inside Out.

This is their Supreme Combo featuring the son of Muddy Water’s drummer, Willie “Bigeyes” Smith on drums. Kenny plays on their album “Keep On” and they’ve enjoyed diving deep in the groove on stage as well.

• All travel expenses must be paid from Chicago.

• This is Headliner Pricing.

Kenny’s Bio:

Kenny Smith was unquestionably born into blues royalty. He grew up in the same house where Muddy Waters once lived in Chicago, the home of the blues in the North. Throughout his childhood, Kenny was surrounded by Muddy and his friends, including his own father, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith (1936-2011). These same blues icons helped mold him into the person and drummer he is today and later in life asked him to provide his famous backbeat on some of the largest and most respected stages and recordings in the world. Kenny has played thousands of live performances to date and is a true gem amongst his peers and music lovers. His father, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, played drums for the Muddy Waters band in the early 1960’s and then again from 1968 through 1980 and was featured on all of Muddy’s Grammy-winning albums. Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, one of the best known living blues drummers today, learned 99% of what he knows about drumming from his father and was also inspired by acclaimed drummers: Odie Payne, Fred Below, Earl Phillips, Ted Harvey, Louie Bellson, S.P. Leary, Francis Clay,  Sam Lay, Art Blakey, Sonny Payne, Clifton James and many others who paved the way. And with those experiences, Kenny has revitalized and created new interpretations of the legendary blues drummers and modern drummers as he pushes blues drumming to new innovative and traditional styles.

Grammy Award Winner – Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith is also a world-famous, multi-award-winning blues drummer extraordinaire who in 2011 won a Grammy award for his remarkable work on Joined at The Hip with Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Kenny had the honor and privilege of contributing to that project through songwriting and drumming. He is delighted that his accomplishments and talents were recognized by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Honored all across the globe for his exceptional achievements, Kenny won the Living Blues awards for the most outstanding musician (drums) in 2008 (shared with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith), 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2023. In 2009, an album entitled “Chicago Blues: A Living History” on which Kenny recorded was nominated for a Grammy Award. This same album won Best Blues Album in 2009 by the Academie de Jazz de France. Kenny is a 12-time nominee and a 2021, 2023 and 2024 winner of the Blues Music Awards for Best Drummer by the Blues Foundation. 2023 Blues Blast Music Award winner. He performed at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2008 with Koko Taylor and B.B. King during a tribute for actor Morgan Freeman. And in 2010, Kenny toured with the Taproot group and the U.S. State Department in Africa, where the group played for ambassadors, returnee/refugee camps and taught workshops to local musicians. Kenny’s also passionate about the Blues in the Schools program. He is spreading the Blues message by providing education to students both in the United States and internationally.

Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith knows that his blues values go beyond just “choppin’ wood” to the backbeat. He was told by his father, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and many other legends (whom he considered as family members at an early age) to carry on the blues and to not just play it- he was told to “live it, learn it and breathe it” and from those experiences he would be able to keep the past and present history of the blues alive and kicking all over the world. When Kenny is not stroking a blues groove, he is an active entertainment agent, bringing all-star musicians together for a fun-filled night of blues at many events and festivals worldwide. Kenny is also a producer for many record labels/bands/ musicians in the studio, bringing out the best in their music for all of us to enjoy. Through his hard work and drumming over the years with these blues experts, Kenny has imagined and perfected several blues shuffles. Kenny’s roots with a modern traditional, inventive flavor. 

Kenny Smith has a stellar reputation for being an outstanding all-around studio musician as well as performer, has spent hundreds of hours in recording sessions working every day with an extensive range of brilliant artists, and is credited on numerous music albums with some of the top blues artists and legends in the world. Several music labels on which Kenny has been featured are impressed by his authentic and modern versatile drumming skills. He brings new and innovative ways of drumming to the forefront while keeping the blues traditions alive. Kenny is honored to know and have played with so many of these top all-time blues legends and friends:

• Honeyboy Edwards

• Homesick James

• Pinetop Perkins

• Willie “Big Eyes” Smith

• Buddy Guy

• Billy Boy Arnold

• Hubert Sumlin

• Dave & Louis Myers from the original Little Walter Aces

• Taj Mahal

• Mick Jagger -The Rollin Stones

• Larry Mud Morganfield

• Eddie Shaw

• Sunnyland Slim

• Demetria Taylor

• Eddie Taylor Jr.

• Nappy Brown

• Shemekia Copeland

• Matthew Skoller

• Nick Moss

• Katherine Davis

• Fernando Jones

• Eddie C. Campbell

• Sue Foley

• Jimmy Dawkins

• Piano Willie

• James Cotton

• Carrie Bell

• Koko Taylor

• Junior Wells

• Louisiana Red

• John Brim

• Big Jack Johnson

• Detroit Jr.

• Jerry Portnoy

• Anson Funderburgh

• Sam Lay

• Henry Gray

• Lazy Lester

• Billy Branch

• Mojo Buford

• S.P. Leary

• Zora Young

• Milwaukee Slim

• Eric Clapton

• Christone Kingfish  Ingram

• Oscar Wilson

• Rick Estrin

• Pierre Lacocque

• Jon McDonald

• Little Smokey Smothers

• Oscar Wilson

• Dave Specter

• Big Bill Morganfield

• Lurrie Bell

• Jimmy Rogers

• Calvin Fuzz Jones

• Paul DeLay

• Luther Guitar Junior

• Aaron Burton

• Bob Stroger

• Henry Townsend

• Buddy Scott

• Keb Mo

• Paul Oscher

• B.B. King 

• Sunnyland Slim

• Jody Williams

• Barrelhouse Chuck

• Deitra Farr

• Mary Lane

• Lil Ed

• Bill Sims

• Joe Nosek

• Rockin Johnny

• Andre Taylor

• Jimmy Burns

• Johnny B. Moore

• Mark Hummel

• Joey Saye

• Muddy Waters

• Bob Margolin

• Kim Wilson and the Fabulous Thunderbirds

• Charlie Baty

• Billy Flynn

• The Legendary Blues Band

• Tail Dragger

• Easy Baby

• Little Arthur Duncan

• Lovie Lee

• Guy King

• Willie Kent

• John Primer

• Sugar Blue

• Willie Kent

• Pee Wee Madison

• Charlie Musselwhite

• Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater

• Omar Coleman

• Quon Willis

• Greg Guy

• Mike Wheeler

• Magic Slim

• Joseph Morganfield

• Mike Avery

• Donna Herula

Without the amazing contributions of many of these musicians listed above, for which Kenny is extremely grateful, he would not have the opportunities he has today to play with such remarkable, phenomenal artists on a daily basis.

In an article in the Living Blues magazine, David Whiteis says “Since the beginning, Smith has been a roots-loving bluesman, immersed in the traditional postwar style he learned from his father and still cherishes.” Now one of the savviest drummers out there, Kenny is also gifted in learning and mastering different playing music methods, making him one of the most in-demand and sought-out drummers in the world. Kenny’s also a true leader and one that understands the music industry to a great extent. Whiteis quotes Kenny in saying:

“If you’re really taking the music seriously,  You need the discipline. And when you really dig into the music, it can take you to some wonderful and different places. When I’m on stage performing with others, I always remind myself that we are a team and must be team players. treating every musician on stage with respect.”

Later, Whiteis goes on to say about Kenny that “balance, perspective, and focus are more than mere musical values to him.” Quoting Smith, Whiteis writes, “I focus up there, I listen to the music around me, and I try my best to play the best that I can, and I feel good about myself when I’m finished.” Kenny’s stand-up reputation in the music business is based on these philosophies, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Also known as Roosterphonic, this fun trio grew out of their desire to ditch the looper for a true bass player. Lil’ Red plays the full kit and sings. This combo can also be expanded like any of our other combos. We recommend our rhythm guitarist singer, Lauren Tucker or harmonica or keys.

They won the Appalachian Blues Challenge in 2023, played their festival in 2024 and will return in 2025.

https://www.facebook.com/1463687537/videos/1536065053982040/

https://fb.watch/vVHCpYpIM5/