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Texas Blues Evolution features a number of acts who have already established a presence on the national and international scenes, such as Guy Forsyth, Teddy Morgan, and Lafeyette, Louisiana's C.C. Adcock. It also samples some of the acts currently making waves in the Austin clubs such as George Devore, Monte Montgomery, Scrappy Jud Newcomb and Matt Powell, alongside Houston blues women Carolyn Wonderland and Tracy Conover. Houston's Jesse Dayton, best known for his country-rock work, shows his blues side on Texas Blues Evolution, where listeners are also introduced to the prodigious talents of Jonas Wilson. The CD is rich with hot axe-slinging and modern variations of the sound and spirit of the blues, and serves as a benchmark in the evolution of blues music, capturing tomorrow's potential stars and legends on the rise today.

Austin, Texas is the Western capital of the Southern blues belt, a city that has nurtured such noted contemporary blues stars as Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Texas Blues Evolution gathers together in one set some of the rising acts from Austin and nearby locales carrying on the blues tradition. It offers an overview of how the blues continues to influence and inform the music of a variety of artists, and a glimpse at the directions in which contemporary blues is headed here in the 21st Century.

Read XLent's review of this CD