In 2011, Andy played in a tribute to Pinetop Perkins with The Nighthawks and Daryl Davis at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis and the State Theatre in Falls Church, VA. Andy also performed at the 2011 Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival with Daryl Davis and with the Andy Poxon Band at the Colonial Beach Blues Festival and Artscape 2011 in Baltimore, MD. Andy opened for Joe Louis Walker and for Coco Montoya at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis, and has opened for Richard Ray Farrell, Billy Thompson, and The Idle Americans at the Old Bowie Town Grille. Andy performed in the South River High School jazz ensemble, and in 2009 and 2011 was the guitarist for the Anne Arundel County All-County Jazz Band. In August 2009, he won first place in the Youth Arts Forum young artists cover contest for his interpretation of "Don?t Burn Down That Bridge." In 2010, Andy received Wammie nominations for Best New Artist of the Year, Best Debut Recording, and Best Blues/Traditional R&B Recording. Andy is currently enrolled in Towson University, in the Jazz Guitar/ Commercial Music degree program.

Click here for additional info about Andy Poxon and his amazing Debut release "Red Roots".

She is known across Canada as the "Goddess of the Blues". Chiarelli is a gifted songwriter and an entertaining performer, but it is her soaring 3 octave voice that sets her apart from her peers, inspires awe and often tears in her audiences, and causes critics to gush. " a voice so blue it could make the angels weep"... "a voice that can growl at her demons or soar with the angels, a gift for lyric, an ear for melody and the heart to combine them".

The one thing Chiarelli is not; is predictable. Over the past five years she has releasedCuore, a recording of traditional Italian folk songs, which won the World music category at the prestigious Canadian Folk Music Awards; Uptown Goes Downtown Tonight, a highly acclaimed collaboration with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra; and Music From the Big House, a documentary movie filmed in Louisiana, at Angola prison, which premiered in New York and L.A. Her CD Sweet Paradise, heralds a return to Chiarelli's blues roots, and is her first album of all original tunes since 2001's JUNO nominated Breakfast at Midnight.

As if creating beautiful music wasn't enough, Rita has entered the film world starring in the critically acclaimed Music From The Big House. She also developed the original concept for the film, one that takes Rita on a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the blues, Louisiana State Maximum Security Penitentiary a.k.a Angola Prison. She never imagined that her love of the blues would lead her to a historic jailhouse performance with inmates serving life sentences.

Over the past decade Rita Chiarelli has won every major Canadian blues award, including multiple Maple Blues awards, CBCs Great Canadian Blues Award, Toronto Independent Music Awards, Hamilton Music Awards, Manitoba Blues Society and the Hamilton Blues Society's Lifetime Achievement Awards. Most recently Rita was awarded the prestigious Maple Blues 'Blues With A Feeling Award' for Lifetime Achievement.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Chiarelli continues to tour incessantly in North America and Europe and intends to spend more time performing in the U.S. over the next few years.

More information on Rita Chiarelli visit www.ritachiarelli.com

This year saw the release of Rita's 9th Recording, "Music From The Big House", the Soundtrack. My review of that release can be read here...