Noah Hunt & Mato Nanji
11/25/15
Taft Theatre, 317 E 5th St, Cincinnati, OH
7:30pm doors, 8:30pm show
$18 adv, $20 adv, Buy Tickets
Cincinnati’s own Noah Hunt and Mato Nanji first met in 1998 on the BB King Blues Festival tour. They have become brothers of the road and like true brothers in real life. They’ve toured and shared the stage many times together on the Experience Hendrix tours, celebrating the life and Music of Jimi Hendrix. They’ve finally decided to team up and do a side project of all new music to be released in 2016. A short tour in November 2015 is an opportunity for the fans to get a preview of this new project. It will feature a full night of Blues, Americana, and Rock (Scroll down for dates.)
Noah Hunt has been the voice of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band since 1997 when he teamed up with the guitar prodigy. The first record released, Trouble Is, went on to yield three number one singles at rock radio. The song “Blue on Black” was number one for 17 straight weeks and went on to receive the Billboard Music Award for Rock single of the year. The record sold over 1 million copies and also received the Billboard award for Blues Album of the year. Their next record, Live On yielded two more number one rock songs and also went platinum. The 2007 blues project Ten Days Out went platinum and was nominated for two Grammy Awards and won a Blues Music Award. The album Live in Chicago won another Blues Music award and was also nominated for a Grammy. Noah and Kenny’s most recent project, Going Home, was once again the top Blues Album on the Billboard charts in 2014.
The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band continue to tour the world relentlessly, and have shared the stage with The Rolling Stones, BB King, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, and Jimmy Page, among many others. Most recently the band did it’s own tour of Europe and North America and then opened for Van Halen for the entirety of their 2015 tour. They will release their next project in 2016 and continue to tour the world
Mato Nanji is the vocalist, guitarist and founding member of Native American Blues/Rock band Indigenous. The group released their debut album, Things We Do on Pachyderm Records in 1998. In 1999, Indigenous won three Native American Music Awards for their debut record, including two top honors: Album of the Year and Group of the Year. A video for the lead single and title track was directed by. The track “Now That You’re Gone” peaked at #22 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, making Indigenous one of the first Native American bands to break into that realm.Amazon.com named the band Blues Artist of the Year, and soon after they were featured on broadcast shows such as NPR’s “All Things Considered”, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “CBS Saturday Morning,” and “Austin City Limits”. B.B. King became a self-proclaimed fan, and invited the band to join his Blues Festival Tour. Later that year, Indigenous released an EP, Blues This Morning, and a full-length album, Live at Pachyderm Studios in 1999 and continued the momentum. Live at Pachyderm won two Native American Music Awards for Best Blues Album and Group of the Year in 2000. Their next LP, Circle, settled into place in Billboard’s Top 10 blues albums after its release in 2000.
Mato’s 2014 release Time is Coming” proved to be one of his best recordings so far. This follows the last CD entitled “Vanishing Americans”(2012) that paid special homage to Mato father, Greg Zephier, Sr. It is dedicated to indigenous youth and all young people on indigenous reservations. His 10th commercial album, Vanishing Americans, released on Blues Bureau International, a division of the Shrapnel Record Group, is yet another testament to the master songwriter/guitarist and lyricist’s long-running commercially successful career. The CD is stunning evidence of his growth, enhanced, and ever-improving vocals, song writing, and guitar playing and is sure to WOW even his staunchest music fans. It won the Native American Music Award’s “Album of the Year” award in 2014. The CD honored Greg, who was a well known and highly respected spiritual advisor and spokesperson for the International Indian Treaty Council, an organization based in New York City near the United Nations that represents over 175 Indigenous Red “Indian” Nations and Peoples across Great Turtle Island (the “western hemisphere”). Nanji said about Greg, “he was my favorite musician…I just felt it was time to pay tribute to him and his band.”
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TOURDATES
Nov 21 New Hope, PA Havana
Nov 22 Annapolis, MD Ram’s Head
Nov 23 Vienna, VA Jammin’ Java
Nov 24 Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
Nov 25 Cincinnati, OH Ballroom @ Taft Theatre
Nov 27 Edwardsville, IL Wildey Theatre
Nov 28 Glendale Heights, IL Q-Bar
