Caught the great young blues harp player Brandon Santini at the Dunedin Brewery the other night. Brandon was on a tour of Florida and on his way to the Daytona Blues Festival the following day.
Santini played the relatively small Dunedin Brewery last spring and was back in town again. This is a great “up-close” gig for the audience with the venue being small and holding only about 75 people around the band. As you can see from the videos, most of the crowd was within about 20 feet of the stage and got a great view.
If you are not familiar with Brandon here’s a little background…
Brandon hails from the Piedmont region of North Carolina, but he makes his home in Memphis Tennessee these days. He learned his trade in the clubs on Beale Street and around Memphis and in North Mississippi where the blues roots and the blues ghosts are strongly felt. He got his first harmonica at 15 and has never looked back. He’s now in his early 30’s and ready to take it to the next level.
He was nominated for the Sean Costello Rising Star Award this year at Blues Blast Magazine and we should be hearing the results at the end of October.
His past accomplishments include…
- “This Time Another Year” charted in Top 20 of Living Blues Radio Charts for three months in 2013
- Nominated for Blues Music Award in 2009 with his longtime band Delta Highway
- Nominated for Blues Blast Music Award in 2013
- Performed in countries such as Italy, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Germany, & Canada
- Was part of a BLUZAPALOOZA tour to Cairo, Egypt as part of The Memphis Blues Allstars
- Has received extensive worldwide radio play including SiriusXM Satellite Radio
- Represented The Memphis Blues Society in the 2006 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN
His Band
His band is also young. This night it included hot, young, 23 year old guitarist JL Fox from Boca Raton Florida and drummer Aaron Peterson and bass player Nick Hern. These young bluesmen understand the blues and especially know how to add the emotional dynamics required to turn simple blues changes into an emotional experience.
But see for yourself on these videos.
Enjoy!
