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Homemade jamz blues band |
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As Seen/Heard On: CBS Morning News The Today Show NPR’s All Things Considered American Routes |
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The universal question regarding this sibling trio is not only how can three youngsters sing the blues…but do it this well.
The Today Show, USA Today, CBS Sunday Morning News and others have posed the same question as host Michelle Norris on NPR’s All Things Considered when she asked: “So how does the band sing the blues about experiences it hasn't necessarily had yet?”
"To this day, I still don't know," Ryan says. "I think it's just a talent, a natural talent we all have. A God-given talent. And I think we're all grateful to have that talent. And, hopefully, none of those experiences will hit us too hard if we have them. But if they do, they'll do nothing but help us in our career."
The question and answer in whatever form acknowledges the irony of world-weary children yet more importantly demonstrates the simple, youthful concept of doing what comes naturally.
In three fluid years, the Homemade Jamz Blues Band has earned a place of distinction in the world of blues, commanding respect reserved for long-running and more experienced bands.
HJBB started in Baumholder, Germany, when father Renaud Perry returned from military service in Korea. Young Ryan found a Stratocaster copy among dad’s bags and wanted it. A week later, Ryan had composed a short instrumental tune (which he’d play at his school talent show) and was playing along to commercials. When the family relocated to Tupelo, Miss., the passion stayed with him. Returning home, Ryan, now 11, dove headfirst into the blues.
“I heard B.B. King, Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan,” he recalls, “and I would listen to them all the time and try to emulate them.” Having found his muse, Ryan’s playing progressed “like, tenfold. As soon as I knew which direction to go, it really took off.”
Two years later, Ryan was playing live with a drum machine and little brother Kyle, then nine years old, wanted in on the action. After first trying piano and becoming frustrated that he didn’t progress as fast as Ryan, Kyle switched to bass, teaching himself the nuances of the instrument and its role in the blues. Soon he was playing out with his brother, as confident as any wizened old pro and digging his role. “[I] keep the timing and lock down the beat along with the drummer, which allows the lead guitar player to do his own thing while everyone is juking to the beat.”
To nobody’s surprise 7-year-old Taya wanted in too. Already possessing a rhythmic sense from playing tambourine, Taya settled onto the stool and in two months was providing the beat behind Ryan and Kyle. “It's very exciting to play drums,” she says.
Soon the cherubic trio was a hot ticket. Ryan’s gruff vocals and visceral, stinging, guitar licks, Kyle’s solid rumble and Taya’s cool stomp have electrified crowds across the country, up and down Memphis’s famed Beale Street and on the festival and blues cruise circuit. The band grew quickly despite not having a CD or label. They saturated their local media, were featured in national and international blues magazines, and on local and national TV — including a late 2007 feature segment on CBS Sunday Morning. Even B.B. King said in a YouTube video, “In my 82 years, I’ve never seen something musically… so remarkable.”
In early 2007 HJBB was the youngest band ever to compete in the International Blues Challenge, taking second in a field of 157 bands. Fred Litwin, president of the esteemed label NorthernBlues Music, was a judge for the event. Fred called HJBB and announced he was keen to make them the youngest blues band to sign with a major record label. “Mister Fred,” as the Perrys call him, made it happen. True to their name, the band recorded Pay Me No Mind at home, over three days in January 2008.
The debut CD earned critical acclaim from top news outlets around the world and quickly became the #1 download in iTunes Blues category. Pretty soon a band with a combined age less than 36 was touring the U.S., Canada and Europe. In 2008 they became the youngest band in history to be nominated for a Blues Music Award, the blues industry’s highest honor.
On June 9, 2009 the band releases its sophomore CD I Got Blues for You. Rife with powerful, puissant songs (lyrics by Renaud, music by HJBB) that lyrically and musically epitomize the blues, it blends Chicago and Mississippi juke joint blues, copping the gritty slickness of the former and the dirty soul of the latter—never betraying its authors’ age. The trio exudes nothing but confidence and attitude as they sing of betrayal, love, hard times and other bad things gone down as if they’ve lived a life rich in strife. They are, to be sure, a veritable blues explosion poised to make the big sound.
Which again begs the question: how do these siblings get the blues? Ryan says they just “connect” with the music, like it’s hard-wired into them. He and his siblings don’t think in those terms. “We all love the blues,” he says matter-of-factly. “For some reason it just comes naturally to us.”
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Label: NorthernBlues Music – info@northernblues.com, 866.540.0003 Booking: Piedmont Talent – info@piedmonttalent.com, 704.399.2210 Publicity: Michael McClune – info@michaelmcclune.net, 310.319.1199 |
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Music : Media : Marketing : Management |
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Michael McClune’s |
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“These young kids have got energy, talent and do the blues proud with their own flavor. I believe they’ve got a GREAT future ahead.” - B.B. King
Ryan Perry (17) – vocals, guitars / Kyle Perry (14) – bass / Taya Perry (10) – drums, backing vocals |
