BLACK MARKET III (BORDER BLUES • AMERICAN ROOTS • ROCK • SOUL)
Formed in the Fall of 2011 by Scottie ‘Mad Dog’ Blinn, former front man for the iconic, multi-award winning San Diego band The Mississippi Mudsharks. He has been no stranger to doing 300+ nights a year with his former band, and is pushing Black Market III every bit as hard, if not harder. BMIII crosses over, using the Blues as the root of the sound. In addition to their original music, BMIII features more obscure covers from Tom Waits, Tito & Tarantula, Leadbelly, Dead Weather, Social Distortion, Led Zeppelin and many more. No pigeon holing this band--Blues and American Roots firmly planted, yet not like anything you've heard or seen before. The band prides itself on it's ability to perform diversely and dynamically, playing full blown concerts to small 'stripped down' semi-acoustic shows, traditional blues to their trademarked ‘Grease Punk’ sound.
Vinyl Paradise is a Maltese blues/blues-rock trio made up of Ben Bailey (guitar/vocals), Patrick Camilleri (drums) and Antoine Tonna (bass). Their collective love for the blues and knowledge of its conventions and techniques has resulted in the band delivering their own masterful take on the genre to audiences right across Malta. The three have had years of musical focus to develop their unique style, first meeting in the band The Creepers - another blues band focused on replicating the sound of ‘vintage American blues’ - and later forming the trio Vinyl Paradise in January 2017. Their style mixes together blues, funk, rock n’ roll, and soul, with arrangements featuring solid grooves on the bass and drums which lay the foundation for deft guitar-work and 60s-soul-inspired vocals.These elements are immediately recognisable in their original work, as well as any covers in their set, which are always reworked to satisfy these criteria. Vinyl Paradise takes inspiration from the likes of the “3 Kings”, Cream, Gary Clark Jr, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer, Jimi Hendrix, amongst others.