Zac Harmon Band
8-9-2018
Zac Harmon is an award-winning guitarist, organist, singer and songwriter whose distinctive style combines the best of old-school soul-blues artists with modern lyrics and themes that bring the blues into a new century. His new Blind Pig CD, “Right Man Right Now,” is contemporary music that proves just how alive and relevant the blues is today.
Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Harmon is a true embodiment of the music that emanated from the city’s historic Farish Street district, home of blues legend Elmore James. His mom played piano, and his dad, the city’s first black pharmacist, played harmonica and tended to the needs of artists like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, Albert King and Little Milton. His next door neighbor was a music instructor who would host friends such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Harry Belafonte in her home. In the early eighties, at age 21, Zac moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a studio musician and eventually established a very successful career as a songwriter and producer, working on major films, television shows and well-known national commercials. He was hired at one point by Michael Jackson as a staff writer for his publishing company.
His first album, “Live at Babe & Ricky's Inn,” was an electrifying testimony to Mississippi blues, showcasing the sound at its best and introduced Harmon as a true torchbearer for the “next generation of the Blues.” In 2004, Harmon and his band, the Mid South Blues Revue traveled to Memphis and won the Blues Foundation’s prestigious International Blues Challenge title of “Best Unsigned Band." In 2006, Harmon won the coveted Blues Music Award for “Best New Artist Debut” for "The Blues According to Zacariah." Later that year, he was featured in Blues Revue Magazine as one of the 10 artists that “represent the future of the blues.” In 2009, Zac was honored for his career achievements in his beloved hometown at the Jackson Music Awards, and weeks later in Nashville, the Jus’ Blues Music Foundation bestowed the “Little Milton” Guitar Award for “Outstanding Guitar Player” upon him. Since then he’s been on a roll, becoming one of the blues' strongest live performers, thrilling fans everywhere from Memphis to Mumbai. Blues Revue called him “a masterful musician and performer of the blues.” JazzReview said, “With his big blues sound from Mississippi, Harmon can go toe to toe with the best blues men in the business.”
With “Right Man Right Now” Harmon finally brings that excitement to a brand new CD, his bluesiest ever, presenting them in a fresh original style built on the best blues tradition. And he has some incredibly talented musicians helping him - guests include Bobby Rush, Lucky Peterson, Anson Funderburgh and Mike Finnegan. The new album provides definitive proof that Zac Harmon is indeed the right man, right now to firmly establish all that blues can and should be in the second decade of this new millennium.
VIDEO
Open: The Clavis Brudon Band - Formerly The Stephen Clarke Trio: Stephen Clarke, Kevin Visnaskas, John Bruner, with the added talents of Otis Doncaster to make it a quartet.
Zac Harmon is an award-winning guitarist, organist, singer and songwriter whose distinctive style combines the best of old-school soul-blues artists with modern lyrics and themes that bring the blues into a new century. His new Blind Pig CD, “Right Man Right Now,” is contemporary music that proves just how alive and relevant the blues is today.
Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Harmon is a true embodiment of the music that emanated from the city’s historic Farish Street district, home of blues legend Elmore James. His mom played piano, and his dad, the city’s first black pharmacist, played harmonica and tended to the needs of artists like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, Albert King and Little Milton. His next door neighbor was a music instructor who would host friends such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Harry Belafonte in her home. In the early eighties, at age 21, Zac moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a studio musician and eventually established a very successful career as a songwriter and producer, working on major films, television shows and well-known national commercials. He was hired at one point by Michael Jackson as a staff writer for his publishing company.
His first album, “Live at Babe & Ricky's Inn,” was an electrifying testimony to Mississippi blues, showcasing the sound at its best and introduced Harmon as a true torchbearer for the “next generation of the Blues.” In 2004, Harmon and his band, the Mid South Blues Revue traveled to Memphis and won the Blues Foundation’s prestigious International Blues Challenge title of “Best Unsigned Band." In 2006, Harmon won the coveted Blues Music Award for “Best New Artist Debut” for "The Blues According to Zacariah." Later that year, he was featured in Blues Revue Magazine as one of the 10 artists that “represent the future of the blues.” In 2009, Zac was honored for his career achievements in his beloved hometown at the Jackson Music Awards, and weeks later in Nashville, the Jus’ Blues Music Foundation bestowed the “Little Milton” Guitar Award for “Outstanding Guitar Player” upon him. Since then he’s been on a roll, becoming one of the blues' strongest live performers, thrilling fans everywhere from Memphis to Mumbai. Blues Revue called him “a masterful musician and performer of the blues.” JazzReview said, “With his big blues sound from Mississippi, Harmon can go toe to toe with the best blues men in the business.”
With “Right Man Right Now” Harmon finally brings that excitement to a brand new CD, his bluesiest ever, presenting them in a fresh original style built on the best blues tradition. And he has some incredibly talented musicians helping him - guests include Bobby Rush, Lucky Peterson, Anson Funderburgh and Mike Finnegan. The new album provides definitive proof that Zac Harmon is indeed the right man, right now to firmly establish all that blues can and should be in the second decade of this new millennium.
VIDEO
Open: The Clavis Brudon Band - Formerly The Stephen Clarke Trio: Stephen Clarke, Kevin Visnaskas, John Bruner, with the added talents of Otis Doncaster to make it a quartet.