Called a "73-year-old vocal and harmonica genius" by Big City Blues magazine, Mississippi-born Big George Brock knows his music. And when he sings his blues, he ain't lying. When he sings "they call me a lover," know that he has 42 kids. When he talks about "that lonesome cotton field," understand that he grew up a Delta sharecropper. And when he boasts about beating a rival and "[taking his] little girl home," remember that in his younger days, Brock once wrestled a bear for money and flattened pre-world champion Sonny Liston in a boxing match. Even when Brock covers blues classics by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and others, note that he learned these songs firsthand -- not just from a record. Between his youth in the Mississippi Delta and his years as a blues club owner in St. Louis, Brock has shared the stage with everyone from Muddy and Wolf to Jimmy Reed and Albert King. Today, over 60 years after he first picked up a harmonica, Brock is in the midst of a much-deserved comeback. His newest "Club Caravan" CD (that Juke Blues magazine described as "Contender for album of the year. Fat Possum meets Chess? Irresistible.") is up for a Blues Music Award the same week Brock storms the stage at the Ponderosa Stomp. From recent all-star recording sessions for actor Steven Seagal to filmings for Mississippi Pubic Broadcasting, from blues festival dates in Italy to national airplay on XM Satellite Radio, Brock proves he's back and as real-deal as they come. According to Blues & Rhythm magazine, Brock "transports us back fifty years to a Mississippi juke joint." And Mojo magazine sums it up this way, "Not exactly the way things were. But damn close." Coming in May 2006, watch for a new "Hard Times" DVD on the Cat Head Presents label and a new CD on the APO/Acoustic Sounds label. For more information on Big George Brock, log on at http://www.cathead.biz

« Artists