Excited to here you tonight at City Winery!

I love this stuff! I wish you'd do a real solo album.. Also can't wait to see those Santa Cruz guitars!

Texas Town 
Honkytonk Homeslice
Just Passin' Thru

Texas Town

Patterns in Repeat

Caroline (Live at Albert Hall)

In South Louisiana, Clifton Chenier (1925-1987) grew up hearing his father play a style of music known as La La at house dances held in Black French Creole communities. It had a percussive and syncopated sound, played in spare combinations of an accordion and a washboard used to scrub out a rhythm. After picking up accordion as a curious teenager, Chenier soon brought into this sound the rhythm and blues that dominated radios and jukeboxes, crafting a new style that would be called zydeco. In the 1950s, he recorded for Elko, Specialty, and Chess, and joined national package show tours with stars like Little Richard and Etta James. A decade later, Chenier was quietly settled in Houston, the big stages seemingly behind him. But one rainy Saturday night at a Houston neighborhood bar, Chenier’s cousin Lightning Hopkins introduced him to Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records, where zydeco and Clifton Chenier would find a new home and champion.  

King of Louisiana Blues & Zydeco is a 4 CD/6 LP retrospective box set assembled in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Chenier’s birth. The set features a chronology of Chenier’s landmark work with Arhoolie and other labels, alongside a healthy dose of previously unissued gems. The 160-page book includes photos, posters, and other graphic artifacts from the Strachwitz Collection and deeply researched liner note essays by Grammy award-winning writer Adam Machado, public folklorist and radio host Nick Spitzer and longtime Louisiana journalist Herman Fusilier, along with a moving personal remembrance by Clifton’s son, Zydeco musician C.J. Chenier. The set is the first release on Arhoolie since the label became a part of Smithsonian Folkways.  

With music and storytelling and abundant visual imagery, this set demonstrates Clifton Chenier's life as a transformative artist -- from his earliest days practicing in the barn back home, to his reign as the undisputed King of Zydeco. 

Clifton Chenier - "Calinda (Live from Austin City Limits)"

Clifton Chenier - "My Mama Told Me" (Live)

From Under The Cork Tree

Dance, Dance (The Lindbergh Palace Remix)

From the saloons of Telluride to the some of the most sought after venues in America, Bill Nershi has delighted countless fans as a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and founding member of the String Cheese Incident, Honkytonk Homeslice and The Emmitt-Nershi Band. A seasoned veteran of flat-picking and a variety of acoustic styles, Bill adds a unique, colorful perspective to virtually any musical situation he encounters, and his enthusiasm and playful spirit encourage an interactive, participatory experience for musicians and fans alike. Billy still calls Colorado home and when he’s not on tour he is writing, recording and producing in his own studio, The Sleeping Giant.

Texas Town

Bill Nershi

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