Conflagrations

Nick Hambone Hamstra is 27, white as a ghost, and sounds like Muddy Waters. He has made waves in the Louisville, KY blues 'scene' for many years now and amazes folks as he typically plays all by himself and sounds as if he's lived a rougher life than most. He beats a drum with his foot and plays the harmonica all the while playing some of the tastiest blues licks heard in quite some time. At times he has a drummer or other musicians play along side him, but the sonic landscape these guys create is unbelievable, pretty simple but at the same time so beautiful. Their music is lay and by rolling slowly it makes the listener wish it never ended. Nick is blessed with a voice many people would die for. His singing is intense but without being forced, emotional but without falling into silly clichs. The same is with his guitar playing - his deep love and understanding of the blues is in every note he plays, it's not something you can learn from books of music. Some people call Hambone's blues authentic. We don't like that word as it is often used by white people to describe blues played by white people and for white people. Guys like Fred McDoell or RL Burnside weren't authentic, they were real. And this is the.