THE BRAND-NEW RELEASE FROM JAMES BASS, WAY DOWN SOUTH, IS NOW AVAILABLE!
CLICK THE PLAYER BELOW FOR SAMPLES FROM ALL THREE CDS
CLICK THE PLAYER BELOW FOR SAMPLES FROM ALL THREE CDS
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CHECK OUT THE NEW VIDEOS!
You wouldn't know it to look at him, and he's too self-effacing to brag, but singer/songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and publishing company owner James Bass has done it all.
He began playing coffee houses in Washington, D.C. in the sixties, and eventually played the White House. He studied guitar at the world-renowned Berklee College of Music, earned Bachelors in Music Education and Master of Music Degrees from Southeastern Louisiana University (where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was named "Most Outstanding Graduate"), eventually learning - and teaching - guitar, piano, sax, harmonica, dulcimer, and fiddle. He's played nation-wide, entertaining small crowds and huge audiences (the Memphis Blues and New Orleans Jazz Festivals) alike. He's worked as a Musical Director for stage productions, and toured with Big Al and the Heavyweights as well as The Greasy Greens. Through it all, he's remained a simple, fun-loving Southern boy (one newspaper referred to him as "ever-adolescent"), with a deep love of the musical traditions on which he was raised, as well as a spirit of adventure to see just how far he can take it. |
HIS ALBUMS OF ALL ORIGINAL MATERIAL
WAY DOWN SOUTH, LIVE AT SUGACANE'S , DESTINY STREET
ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON CD BABY! Listen to selected full-length tracks at REVERBNATION
James Bass and the Louisiana Blue Hounds
Originally from North Carolina, Bass has lived all over the South, hanging his hat in Florida, Arkansas, and Nashville (where he was a member of the uproarious country-comedy trio the Wizenheimers), but it's Louisiana he calls home. And the Pelican State is proud to have him - his prowess as a blues guitarist is near-legend there, earning him back-to-back "Louisiana Northshore Blues Artist of the Year" awards, along with multiple other honors, including the New Orleans Guitar Center's "King of the Blues" in 2011.
Yet to label Bass simply a "bluesman" would be a gross over-simplification. His playing and songwriting run the gamut - from country to gospel to folk to rock to zydeco - with bits and pieces of his musical influences finding their way into much of his work. He's as at home composing and producing movie soundtracks for the Gifted and Talented Theater Program of Tangipahoa Parish School System as he is jamming with the legendary guitarist Sonny Landreth - which he did in 2014 - or playing a reunion show with the Greasy Greens, as he did in Little Rock in the summer of 2017.
SEE JAMES BASS AND THE LOUISIANA BLUES HOUNDS PERFORM "WHIPPING POST"
SEE JAMES BASS AND THE LOUISIANA BLUES HOUNDS PERFORM "WHIPPING POST"
These days Bass is going as strong as ever. Playing gigs with The Reed Alleman Band, Emmanuel Church God Worship Team and James Bass and the Louisiana Blues Hounds. He is currently filming a video to support the release of his new album - Way Down South. A long-time member of BMI, he recently started "Soul Up Music," a publishing company formed as a vehicle for his hundreds os songs. The artist in him continues to look for new opportunities to expand his musical horizons in new and challenging ways.
He may not be as young as he once was, but - as he humorously says in one of his songs - "as long as I have these two legs, I'm gonna swagger like Jagger for the rest of my days." James Bass has a lot to swagger - and brag about.
He may not be as young as he once was, but - as he humorously says in one of his songs - "as long as I have these two legs, I'm gonna swagger like Jagger for the rest of my days." James Bass has a lot to swagger - and brag about.
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