Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues with Tracy Nelson

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Corky Siegel, who with former Madison resident and one-time mayoral candidate Jim Schwall dominated the 1960s blues scene as part of the Siegel-Schwall Band, now blends his blues background with a classical string quartet and Indian tabla player in Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues. The unlikely pairing brings an unusual musical melange to the stage, one in which all of the players do their own thing, usually with amazing results. For this gig, Madison-born country-rock singer and Grammy Award-nominee Tracy Nelson, founder of the band Mother Earth, lends her considerable pipes to the proceedings. “I don’t know how this works, but it really does,” Nelson says. Sold out.

$35 adv.

press release: Two extraordinary powerhouses come together for a night of dazzling musical fireworks with riveting blues harp from one of the country's best, Corky Siegel, who will be joined by the compelling twice Grammy nominated country-blues vocalist Tracy Nelson, as well as Chamber Blues: Jaime Gorgojo (violin), Chihsuan Yang (violin/erhu/vocal), Jeff Yang (viola), Jocelyn Butler Shoulders (cello)  with Kalyan Pathak percussion

Siegel has earned an international reputation as one of the world's great blues harmonica masters. He is a composer, blues pianist, singer-songwriter and winner of the Lila Wallace national award for chamber music composition, the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award for Music Composition, a Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award, and a place in the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame.

Nelson is a fierce singer of truth and a fountain of the deepest heartache, she is an ultimate communicator and has regularly dissolved audiences across decades of performing. She is one of the few female singers who has had hit records in both blues and country genres, with Grammy nominations for both her country and blues efforts. Tracy’s signature song, “Down So Low,” has been covered by Etta James, Linda Ronstadt, Dee Warwick, and Cyndi Lauper.  Her duet, “ After The Fire Is Gone," with mega-country star Willie Nelson, was nominated for a Grammy Award

A 19 year old Tracy Nelson, the founder of Mother Earth, and a 23 year old Corky Siegel, a founder of the Siegel-Schwall Band, first met in 1967 in the hey-day of the rock revolution and San Francisco's “Summer of Love". They shared stages with their peers, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Sly and the Family Stone, and countless legends at San Francisco’s premier rock palaces, the Filmore, the Avalon Ballroom and Western Front. Corky and Tracy reconnected again in 2004, while touring and recording as part of an “all-stars” blues band, The Chicago Blues Reunion.  The project’s only CD, “ Buried Alive in the Blues," received four stars from Rolling Stone Magazine’s founder, David Fricke, and was called “One of the last of the real deals,” by Joel Selvin - San Francisco Chronicle.

Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues is celebrating more than 30 years of performances bringing this original genre to prestigious festivals and concert halls internationally including :  The Aspen Music Festival, Canada’s Banff Centre, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Blues Sur Seine Festival, France, The Grand Teton Music Festival, Chicago’s Symphony Center, and in January 2019, to Mexico's Teatro Angela Peralta Opera House, and the internationally acclaimed Noche de Primavera Festival of Mexico City in March of 2019.  Their most recent recording, “Different Voices,” received Downbeat Magazine’s 2017 Editor’s Pick, calling Siegel: “ A national treasure."  

“Corky Siegel is a phenomenon on harmonica.” - Washington Post

“Tracy Nelson proves that the human voice is the most expressive instrument in creation.”

~ Rolling Stone Magazine / John Swenson 

CHAMBER BLUES: “A significant step forward into new dimensions of feeling, content, and technique - A classification shattering mix.” - Jazziz Magazine