The Blues is My Biography Billy Branch & The Sons of Blues

• 1 Hole in Your Soul 03:46
• 2 Dead End Street 04:47
• 3 Begging for Change 03:45
• 4 Call Your Bluff 04:13
• 5 The Blues is My Biography 04:23
• 6 The Harmonica Man 05:47
• 7 Real Good Friends 03:42
• 8 How You Living? 05:32
• 9 Ballad of the Million Men 04:00
• 10 Toxic Love 04:51
• 11 Return of the Roaches 04:06
• Total Runtime 48:52

Info for The Blues is My Biography

The highly anticipated album, The Blues Is My Biography, was produced by Larry Batiste and recorded at Infinite Studios in Alameda, California, and JoyRide Studio in Chicago, IL. In addition to Bobby Rush, the album also features Shemekia Copeland, who adds guest vocals to “Begging For Change.” Billy’s band, The Sons of Blues, provides the instrumental accompaniment, while Larry Baptiste arranged the horns.

The music on the album runs the gamut from the soulful strains of “Toxic Strain”” and the rugged R&B that identifies “All Your Bluff,” to the propulsive pacing of “Roaches,” the resolve and reflection shared in the title track, and the tell-tale call of “The Harmonica Man.” There’s an emphatic emotion echoing through “Toxic Love,” while “Real Good Friends” comes across as a good-time, upbeat romp. “How You Living?” is a pure hip-hop gem, an ideal companion piece to “The Ballad of the Million Men,” which finds Branch and company incorporating a solid reggae rhythm. The most telling song on the album may well be “The Harmonica Man.” “It’s as autobiographical as you can get, ” Billy insists.

“Every song on this album has special meaning to me in terms of my journey,” says Billy, “This is the most important work I’ve ever done, and it’s the best work I’ve ever done as well.”

At the age of 10, Billy bought his first harmonica at Woolworth’s and taught himself to play. A few years later, he delved into the Chicago blues scene and was mentored by such iconic individuals as James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell, Willie Dixon, and Big Walter Horton. In 1975, he gained his first high-profile experience performing with the Willie Dixon Chicago Blues All-Stars, a role he held for seven years. It eventually led to his signing with Alligator Records, where he performed on 1978’s Living Chicago Blues Volume Number 3 and 1990’s Harp Attack, featuring him alongside Carey Bell, Junior Wells, and James Cotton. He calls that album “My diploma and my PhD.”

In 1977, Billy became a band leader for the first time when he formed the group The Sons of Blues. This ensemble currently includes drummer Dionte “Musik “Skinner, keyboardist Sumito Ariyoshi, aka Ariyo, bassist Ari Seder, and guitarist Giles Corey. The prestigious Chicago Blues Festival honored the band in 2007 on their 30th anniversary and again ten years later, for their 40th.

In addition to recording 15 albums with The Sons of Blues, he’s contributed harmonica playing to over 300 albums by such notables as Vince Gill, Billy Gibbons, Stephen Stills, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Lou Rawls, Johnny Winter, Taj Mahal, Son Seals, Mike Mills of REM, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, and scores of others.

As an ambassador for the blues, he has taken his music to the People’s Republic of China a dozen times, to the halls of Parliament in Turkey, to South and Central America, Mexico, Israel, throughout Europe, Africa, and Australia. He has also performed at numerous high-profile festivals, including the Chicago Blues Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Long Beach Blues Festival, and the San Francisco Blues Festival.

Billy is an award-winning musician, actor, and educator who carries the torch for the promotion and preservation of the blues. He’s been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and has received numerous awards and accolades throughout his 50-year career. He’s received an Emmy, three Grammy nominations, three Blues Music Awards, two Living Blues Awards, a pair of Keeping the Blues Alive Awards, the Jus’Blues Willie Dixon Lifetime Songwriters Award, and the Charles Walton Award for Outstanding Contribution to Black Music, to name just a few. He’salso served on the Grammy Board of Governors, the Board of Directors of the Little Walter Foundation, and the Blues Foundation Board of Directors.

Billy’s work has also been included in the Grammy Museum’s Woody Guthrie installation, “Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom.” And he’s also received two proclamations from the City of Chicago acknowledging his ongoing commitment to maintaining the legacy of Chicago Blues.

“My wife, Rosa, keeps saying that my life is like a movie,” Billy nods. And indeed, the variety of music and messaging on the album fully reflect Billy’s commitment to craft and communication.”

Billy Branch

Billy Branch
Blues giant Billy Branch is among today's greatest harmonica players. With his inventive, deeply rooted playing and gritty, soulful vocals, Branch carries on the Chicago blues tradition that he learned first-hand from icons including Big Walter Horton, James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell, Willie Dixon and many others. His famous teachers made it clear to anyone who would listen that Branch was the heir apparent to the Chicago blues harmonica throne. With his instantly recognizable sound and his band, The Sons Of Blues, Branch has traveled the world, creating living, breathing and evolving Chicago blues for over four decades. In addition, he's dedicated years of work to the Blues In The Schools program, helping children—the next generation of blues artists and fans—develop a love for and understanding of the genre.

Branch is among the very last living bluesmen to have been tutored and mentored by the original blues giants. The young bluesman was able to absorb the tradition and over the years develop a style and sound all his own. With a huge blues vocabulary and dynamic versatility, Branch brings elements of soul, funk and rock to his playing. His upper register licks and his emotional, melodic ballad playing define his sound even further. He is a gruff and potent vocalist, a groundbreaking solo artist, an in-demand session player and consummate band leader. He is a three-time Grammy nominee, a three-time Blues Music Award winner, a two-time Keeping The Blues Alive Award winner (for Education) and a two-time Living Blues Critics' Award winner. Branch has recorded eleven albums under his own name and has appeared on scores of other recordings.

Born William Earl Branch in Chicago on October 3, 1951 and raised in Los Angeles, Branch first picked up a harmonica at age ten and began picking out tunes on his own. In his words, "I've never been without a harp since." He grew up listening to Motown and classic rockers like The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Beach Boys and folkies like Pete Seeger. But it wasn't until he returned to Chicago in 1969 and enrolled at the University of Illinois that he fell in love with the blues. In August of that year he attended a blues music festival in Grant Park organized by legendary songwriter and bassist Willie Dixon. That afternoon, Dixon and his all-star group backed up Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker and more top level artists. Billy was an instant convert (and only a few years later was playing in Dixon's band). When not attending classes, Branch immersed himself into the local blues scene, spending time at many of the famous blues haunts like Theresa's and the Checkerboard Lounge. Branch was "adopted" by Jimmy Walker, Homesick James and almost every older bluesman on the circuit. After learning from the masters, he developed his own signature sound—powerful, melodic, funky, jazzy and contemporary.

Branch's big break came in 1975 on the night he entered a harmonica battle royale against veteran Chicago harp man Little Mac Simmons at Chicago's Green Bunny Club. Among the blues dignitaries in the audience that evening was Alligator Records founder Bruce Iglauer, who witnessed Branch besting Simmons at his own game. From that night on, Branch began regularly sitting in at blues clubs all over the city. He recorded his first track for an anthology on Barrelhouse Records in 1975. Willie Dixon then invited Branch to join his Chicago Blues All-Stars, where he was groomed to take the place of his friend and mentor, harmonica ace Carey Bell. Branch stayed with Dixon for six years, soaking up the lessons offered up by Dixon and the other band members—both musical and professional.

With Branch's blues education well underway, his reputation as one of Chicago's best harmonica players grew swiftly. In 1977 (while he was still playing with Willie Dixon), Branch was recruited by the Berlin Jazz Festival to choose and lead a band of "next generation" blues musicians. He gathered some of the top young talent in Chicago, including Lurrie Bell (Carey's son) and Freddie Dixon (Willie's son). They performed to a wildly appreciative German audience. This core group, along with drummer Jeff Ruffin, became the original Sons Of Blues. In 1978, they made their recording debut, cutting three songs for Alligator Records' Grammy-nominated Living Chicago Blues series.

In 1990 Branch, along with his mentors Junior Wells, James Cotton and Carey Bell, recorded the Blues Music Award-winning album, Harp Attack! for Alligator. "That," Branch recalls, "was my diploma. My PhD." He's recorded several studio and live albums with The Sons Of Blues—most recently 2014's Blues Shock (Blind Pig)—and has appeared on countless other releases as a session player with blues stars including Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Lou Rawls, Son Seals, Willie Dixon and Johnny Winter.

In addition to his recordings, Branch is also a tireless educator. His Blues In The Schools program has earned him praise both inside and outside of the music world. Branch shares his knowledge of the music with students in Chicago and other cities around the world, where he teaches blues history as well as providing instrumental instruction to children. In 1996, members of his classes, with Branch at the helm, performed on the main stage at the Chicago Blues Festival, which was broadcast on NPR. He has appeared on NBC's The Today Show and CBS's Sunday Morning and can be seen in the feature films Adventures In Babysitting and Next Of Kin.

Billy Branch & The Sons Of Blues can be found performing in clubs, concert halls and festivals all over the world. From the United States and Canada to South and Central America, the Caribbean, China, Africa, Israel and all throughout Europe, Branch and his band soulfully deliver their music with a concentrated, raw Windy City authority. Now, with Roots And Branches–The Songs Of Little Walter, Billy Branch & The Sons Of Blues continue to spread the gospel of the blues, reigniting the magical, timeless power of the music of Little Walter Jacobs, and in turn the soul-cleansing power of the real, living, evolving Chicago blues, as only Billy Branch can play them.

"A potent blend of rootsy integrity and exploratory zeal." — Living Blues

"Branch has a warm, open vocal style and a full command of the blues harp, from wailing notes to chugging rhythms." — The New York Times

As a committed Chicago blues harmonica player, Branch has almost no rival…He’s set the gold standard. - DownBeat

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