'R&B' Bands // p 1 of 3

Black Pumas

Black Pumas is a funk and soul duo based in Austin, Texas, United States, consisting of singer Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada. Their work also has strong Latin music influences. The duo is a nominee for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards—its first-ever Grammy nomination.

History
The duo formed in 2017 and released their debut album, Black Pumas, on June 21, 2019. They performed at South by Southwest in 2019 and won a best new band trophy at the 2019 Austin Music Awards. On November 20, 2019, they were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Quesada was a member of Latin funk band Grupo Fantasma when it won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album for the 2010 album El Existential, and when it was previously nominated for the same award in 2008 for Sonidos Gold.

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Bobby "Blue" Bland

Robert Calvin Bland (né Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer.

Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as "among the great storytellers of blues and soul music... [who] created tempestuous arias of love, betrayal and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed." He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues" and as the "Sinatra of the Blues" His music was also influenced by Nat King Cole.

Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis's Beale Street blues scene".

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Brad stank

“I just thought it sounded funny,” Brad Stank says of his artist name. “I wasn't going to keep it at first. I just used it for posting stuff on Soundcloud, but then Flirting in Space started getting some attention and it just stuck. I’ve grown to like it. I guess B Stank is my alter ego now... a true love boy.” We’ve grown to like it too. Same goes for the Liverpool musician’s mellow music – in the vein of Mac DeMarco and his slacker pop disciples – which climaxed with the release of his debut EP Eternal Slowdown a couple of months back via Untitled Records.

Stand-out tracks from the EP will win you over with their lo-fi charm: Condemned To Be Freaky (on which Brad accepts his destiny), Flirting In Space (an ode to alien romance) and lead single Take Me To The Crib (a sweet invitation to come over for green and red wine). Serving up an introverted take on love and loneliness, there’s something charismatic and pretty hilarious about our Brad, who has already played shows with fellow bedroom pop head Clairo and reportedly has a headline UK tour coming soon.

Rumour has is that there are usually some Brad Stank-branded rolling papers floating about at his live shows, so if that's not worth leaving the house for, I'm not sure what is. Anyway, if you’re keen to know more about him, read through these 10 things you need to know about the man formerly known as Bradley Mullins and have a little smile to yourself...

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Eric Kranso

Soulive and Lettuce co-founder, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning songwriter-produce Eric Krasno continues to evolve with each record, project, and performance. Something of a musical journeyman, his extensive catalog comprises three solo albums, four Lettuce albums, twelve Soulive albums, and production and/or songwriting for Norah Jones, Robert Randolph, Pretty Lights, Talib Kweli, 50 Cent, Aaron Neville, and Allen Stone. As a dynamic performer, he’s shared stages with Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, and The Roots. Out of seven nominations, he picked up two GRAMMY® Awards for his role as a songwriter and guitarist on Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Revelator and guitarist on Derek Trucks Band’ Already Free. In 2019, he served up Telescope under the KRAZ moniker. The cinematic concept album earned widespread acclaim from the likes of Relix and Salon who hailed it as “a timely New York story.” On his 2021 fourth full-length solo offering Always, he defines himself as not only an artist, but also as a husband, father, and man across these ten tracks with inimitable instrumentation, eloquent songcraft, and raw honesty.

Grammys

• Tedeschi Trucks Band - Revelator (Best Blues Album Winner) Songwriter/Guitarist
• Tedeschi Trucks Band - Live In Oakland (Best Contemporary Blues Album Nominee) Guitarist
• Derek Trucks Band - Already Free (Best Contemporary Blues Album Winner) Guitarist
• Ledisi - Turn Me Loose (Best R&B Album Nominee) Producer
• Pretty Lights - Color Map Of The Sun (Best Electronic Album Nominee) Multi-Instrumentalist
• Tedeschi Trucks Band - Live in Oakland (Best Contemporary Blues Album Nominee) Songwriter
• Robert Randolph - Got Soul (Best Contemporary Blues Album Nominee) Songwriter/Guitarist

Producer Highlights

• Aaron Neville - Apache (Producer/Songwriter Full Album)
• 50 Cent - My Gun Go Off (Producer/Writer)
• Talib Kweli & Norah Jones - Soon The New Day (Producer)
• Talib Kweli & Justin Timberlake - Nature (Producer/Writer)
• Vieux Farka Toure - The Secret feat. Dave Mathews & various special guests (Producer Full Album)
• Lawrence - Breakfast (Producer Full Album)
• Marcus King Band - Producer

Collaborations

• Gramatik & Eric Krasno - Recovery
• Gramatik & Eric Krasno - Torture (featured on ‘Narcos’ & ’Step it Up’)
• Griz & Eric Krasno - Wicked
• Griz & Eric Krasno - Gotta Push On

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Faye Webster

Faye Webster is an American indie folk musician, singer, and photographer based in Atlanta, Georgia. She self-released her debut album Run and Tell in 2013. Webster has released three albums since: Faye Webster (2017) on Awful Records, Atlanta Millionaires Club (2019) on Secretly Canadian, and her most recent, I Know I'm Funny haha, was released on June 25, 2021.

Background

Webster self-released her debut album, Run and Tell on October 30, 2013. An early review compared Webster's sound to the likes of Kacey Musgraves and Sherri DuPree. Webster signed to Awful Records in 2017, and released her sophomore album, the self-titled Faye Webster in 2017. Webster signed to the record label Secretly Canadian in late 2018.

Webster released her third full-length album, Atlanta Millionaires Club, in 2019 via Secretly Canadian. Webster's song "Room Temperature" was featured in a Rolling Stone article, and she received further acclaim when one of her 2020 singles, "Better Distractions", was featured in a Pitchfork article and was chosen by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite songs of 2020.

In April 2020, Webster released the single "In a Good Way". In April 2021, she released the single "Cheers" and announced her fourth studio album I Know I'm Funny haha, which released on June 25, 2021.

Floyd Dixon

Dixon was born in Marshall, Texas. Some sources give his birth name as Jay Riggins, Jr., although he himself stated that Floyd Dixon was his real name and that his parents were Velma and Ford Dixon. Growing up, he was influenced by blues, gospel, jazz and country music. His family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1942. There Dixon met Charles Brown, who had an influence on his music.

The self-dubbed "Mr. Magnificent", Dixon signed a recording contract with Modern Records in 1949, specializing in jump blues and sexualized songs like "Red Cherries", "Wine Wine Wine", "Too Much Jelly Roll" and "Baby Let's Go Down to the Woods". Both "Dallas Blues" and "Mississippi Blues", credited to the Floyd Dixon Trio, reached the Billboard R&B chart in 1949, as did "Sad Journey Blues", issued by Peacock Records in 1950.

Dixon replaced Charles Brown on piano and vocals in the band Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in 1950, when Brown departed to start a solo career. The group recorded for Aladdin Records and reached the R&B chart with "Telephone Blues" (credited to Floyd Dixon with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers). Staying with the record label, Dixon had a small hit under his own name in 1952 with "Call Operator 210". He switched to Specialty Records in 1952 and to Cat Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records in 1954. "Hey Bartender" (later covered by the Blues Brothers) and "Hole in the Wall" were released during this time.

In the 1970s Dixon left the music industry for a quieter life in Texas, though he did occasional tours in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984 he was commissioned to write "Olympic Blues" for the 1984 Summer Olympics.

In 1993, Dixon received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In the mid-1990s, he secured a contract with Alligator Records, releasing the critically acclaimed album Wake Up and Live.

On June 1 and 2, 2006, Dixon hosted a concert with Pinetop Perkins and Henry Gray, celebrating the intergenerational aspect of blues piano. The band was led by Kid Ramos and included Larry Taylor and Richard "Bigfoot" Innes. Kim Wilson, Fred Kaplan (from the Hollywood Blue Flames) and Lynwood Slim also performed. This concert was recorded and released on the DVD Time Brings About a Change by HighJohn Records on March 6, 2013.

Dixon died of kidney failure in Orange County, California, in July 2006, at the age of 77, having suffered from cancer. A public memorial service was held in Grace Chapel, at the Inglewood Park Cemetery.

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HOMESHAKE

Homeshake (stylized as HOMESHAKE) is the solo musical project of Montreal-based singer-songwriter and musician Peter Sagar.

Featuring contributions from Mark Goetz, Greg Napier, and Brad Loughead, the project started in 2012. In 2014, he left Mac DeMarco's live band to focus on the Homeshake project; Fixture Records released his debut cassette, The Homeshake Tape, in January 2013 with a second, titled Dynamic Meditation released in October 2013 . This was followed by his debut full-length album, In the Shower (2014) and his second album, Midnight Snack (2015). His third album under the project, Fresh Air, was released in 2017.

James Brown

James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. A progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music and dance, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Soul". In a career that lasted 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres.

Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined an R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters (which later evolved into the Flames) founded by Bobby Byrd, in which he was the lead singer. First coming to national public attention in the late 1950s as a member of the singing group The Famous Flames with the hit ballads "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a tireless live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra. His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World". During the late 1960s he moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music-making that influenced the development of funk music. By the early 1970s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of the J.B.s with records such as "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and "The Payback". He also became noted for songs of social commentary, including the 1968 hit "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud". Brown continued to perform and record until his death from pneumonia in 2006.

Brown recorded 17 singles that reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts. He also holds the record for the most singles listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart which did not reach number one. Brown has received honors from many institutions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In Joel Whitburn's analysis of the Billboard R&B charts from 1942 to 2010, James Brown is ranked as number one in The Top 500 Artists. He is ranked seventh on the music magazine Rolling Stone's list of its 100 greatest artists of all time. Rolling Stone has also cited Brown as the most sampled artist of all time.

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