Ronnie Earl is a four-time Blues Music Award winner as “Guitar Player of the Year,” and was the hit of the 2019 Blues Music Awards show in Memphis with his show-stopping live performance of the Junior Wells classic, “In the Wee Hours.”
Earl follows that up with his release of the latest Stony Plain Records album (on CD and vinyl formats) from the blues guitar master and his band, the Broadcasters, Beyond the Blue Door. Ronnie Earl believes in the power of music to heal the mind and spirit, and that’s quickly evident in the 15 tracks on his new disc. Special guests on the album include David Bromberg, acoustic guitar and vocals; Kim Wilson, harmonica and vocals; and Greg Piccolo, tenor sax.
The core group of Broadcasters – Ronnie Earl, guitar; Dave Limina, Hammond B3 and piano; Diane Blue, vocals; Paul Kochanski, bass and Forrest Padgett, drums – return to present a solid follow-up to their critically acclaimed and beloved release, The Luckiest Man. They are also joined by Anthony Geraci, piano; Peter Ward, guitar; Mario Perrett, tenor sax; Scott Shetler, Baritone Sax, Larry Luisgnan, guitar; Michael Rush, bass and Scott MacDougal, guitar.
“This is a band album – a community of souls with some guests, new directions and some good old down home blues with Kim Wilson, David Bromberg and Greg Piccolo,”Ronnie Earl says about the new disc.
Beyond the Blue Door confirms Earl’s status as one of the most soulful blues/soul/jazz guitarists working today. He’s also a DownBeat magazine winner for “Blues Album of the Year,” an Associate Professor of Guitar at Berklee College of Music and has taught at the National Guitar summer workshop in Connecticut.
Perhaps David Bromberg, himself a master guitar craftsman, said it best about him: “Ronnie Earl is an incredible musician. He plays with more emotion than anyone else who plays blues, or really anything, today, and he gets me every time I hear him. The Broadcasters are the quality of musicians you would expect Ronnie to be playing with: solid, tasteful, and moving. You can’t be better than that.”
