Selwyn Birchwood
Description
"Rising blues star Selwyn Birchwood is the real deal. He puts his own fresh spin on the blues, taking the tradition and making it into something new." –Guitar World
"A remarkable, contemporary bluesman...a powerhouse young guitarist and soulful vocalist. A major player...highly recommended." –Rolling Stone
"This singer-songwriter continues to leap forward…intent on both working in the blues idiom and expanding on it. Stories and sounds combine to haunt beyond their specific references, as the best blues songs will." –The Wall Street Journal
"No one in blues compares to young Florida-based guitarist Selwyn Birchwood. With the quality of his material, combined with a vibrant stage persona, there’s no need to borrow tunes from the greats who went before him. Lean yet mean and tough…lyrically and musically intense" –American Songwriter
Although
award-winning Florida musician Selwyn Birchwood is firmly rooted in the
tradition, the young guitarist, lap steel player, songwriter and vocalist sets
a course for the future of the blues with his visionary, original music.
Birchwood, whose band features the pulsating interplay of his blistering guitar
with Regi Oliver’s driving baritone sax, deploys a singular sound and style all
his own. He calls it “Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues,” an intoxicating mix of
deep blues, blistering, psychedelic-tinged rock, booty-shaking funk and sweet
Southern soul, played and sung with the fire-and-brimstone fervor of a revival
tent preacher with a hellhound on his trail. Tastemaker Americana music
magazine No Depression says, “Selwyn Birchwood reaches back
in the blues tradition to launch something out of this world.”
On his new release, Exorcist(his
fourth for Alligator and sixth overall), Birchwood delivers the most
far-reaching, musically adventurous album of his career. Exorcistwas recorded in Florida and produced
by Grammy Award-winner Tom Hambridge, with each of the 13 vividly detailed
songs written and arranged by Birchwood. The soul-baring tracks all hit with
lasting rhymes and unexpected rhythms. Each twists its own tale, ranging from
the love-gone-wrong Horns Below Her Halo to
the love-gone-terrifying Exorcist to
the ripped-from-the-headlines escapades of FLorida Man and Swim At Your
Own Risk to the autobiographical Underdog. According to Blues Music Magazine, “Selwyn Birchwood heralds a fresh,
exciting new direction in the blues. Toe-tapping, hip-shaking, joyful and
inviting…expansive and focused, exploratory and time-honored, but always
original.”
Live, Birchwood is a force of nature. His ability to win over an audience—any
audience—is proven night after night on the bandstand. With his warm, magnetic
personality, Birchwood is as down-to-earth as his music is thought-provoking
and electrifying. With his band feeding off his energy, the 6’3” musician roams
the stage barefoot, ripping out memorable guitar licks with ease, his soulful,
rocks-and-gravel vocals firing up his fans. When he sits down to play his lap
steel, he takes the crowd to a whole other level, with the music exorcising any
bad times and troubles.
Birchwood, his father from Tobago, his mother from the UK, was born in 1985 in
Orlando, Florida. He first grabbed a guitar at age 13 and soon became
proficient at mimicking what he heard on the radio. But the popular grunge
rock, hip-hop and metal of the 1990s didn’t move him. And then he discovered
Jimi Hendrix. “He was larger than life. What he did was mind-blowing.” As luck
would have it, just as Birchwood was learning Hendrix’s guitar playing was
steeped in blues, legendary bluesman Buddy Guy—a major influence on Hendrix—was
scheduled to perform in Orlando. Birchwood was there, front and center. “I was
floored,” he recalls. “I completely connected with the blues. I knew this was
my path, and I had to make this music.” He dove deep, listening to icons
including Albert King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’
Hopkins and of course, Buddy Guy. “The flood gates opened,” says Birchwood,
“and at that point I started trying to absorb as much as I could.”
At 19, Birchwood met and connected with veteran blues guitarist Sonny Rhodes,
who was instantly impressed by the enthusiastic young guitar slinger. Within
one month’s time, Rhodes asked Birchwood to pack his bags and join him on the
road. Rhodes took the young man under his wing, teaching him not only guitar
and lap steel, but also how to conduct business, how to run a band, and how to
reach an audience. “Sonny always said, ‘Play what’s in your heart.’ I’ve never
lost sight of that,” says Birchwood.
Birchwood treasured his time with Rhodes but was adamant about completing his
college studies. Rhodes, as a tribute to Birchwood’s drive and talent, made it
clear to the young musician that he would hold the rhythm guitar spot in his
band open for Selwyn whenever he was available. Birchwood—through hard work and
scholarships—received his MBA from The University of Tampa. Combining the
musical lessons learned from Rhodes and his business acumen, Birchwood created
The Selwyn Birchwood Band in 2010, featuring seasoned, veteran musicians who
had chosen to play with the new kid—a testament to Birchwood’s talent and
leadership skills.
In 2011 the self-released, self-produced FL Boy helped
the band land gigs outside of their Florida base, where they were already
becoming local heroes. After winning the 2013 International Blues Challenge in
Memphis (beating 150 other bands), Birchwood found doors swinging open. He took
a giant step forward in 2014 with his Alligator Records debut album, Don’t Call No Ambulance. Rave reviews ran in publications
from Rolling Stone to The Wall Street Journal, from The Chicago Tribune to The San Francisco Chronicle.The
album won both the Living Blues
Award and the Blues Music Award (BMA) for Best New Artist Debut.He followed in 2016 with fan-favorite
Pick
Your Poison and,
in 2021, with the groundbreaking Living In A Burning House. He won the coveted BMA Song Of The Year Award for that album’s I’d Climb Mountains.
Radio has supported Birchwood from the beginning, with Living In A Burning House being his most successful record at
radio to date. The album appeared at or near the top of every significant
domestic and international blues chart, including #1 at the Living Blues Radio Chart. In addition, Birchwood
had multiple songs reach heavy rotation on SiriusXM's Bluesville, while
crossing over to AAA (Adult Album Alternative) stations, jam band specialty
shows and tastemaker NPR Music stations, including acclaimed Americana
influencer WMOT in Nashville.
The Selwyn Birchwood Band tours virtually non-stop. They have performed at The
Chicago Blues Festival, Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival, The Mississippi
Valley Blues Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival, The North Atlantic Blues
Festival, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, as well as on The Legendary Rhythm
& Blues Cruise and Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive At Sea Cruise.
Internationally, they have appeared at The Great British Rhythm & Blues
Festival, Jazz a Vienne in France, the Rawa Blues Festival in Poland, the
Moulin Blues Festival in the Netherlands, the Ottawa Blues Festival and the
Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, as
well as playing concerts in Spain, Norway, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Belgium
and Mexico.
Now, with Exorcist, Selwyn Birchwood and his band are ready to get back
on the road and deliver the new songs live to expanding, enraptured audiences
around the world, lifting spirits while banishing demons. Asked what fans can
expect when they see him, Birchwood replies, “My goal is to be sure you cannot
listen passively. We’re going to make you dance, and we’re going to make you
think.” One listen to Exorcist will no
doubt convert many new true believers: this is visionary contemporary blues
written and performed by an endlessly creative, modern-day blues master