Fiona Boyes

Australian blues guitarist and singer Fiona Boyes soulful, authoritative style — brilliantly displayed on her current US release 'Blues Woman' — has earned Boyes unprecedented international recognition. For the past three years she's been a final five nominee in the Memphis based Blues Music Awards, the only Australian ever to be nominated in these awards, which are widely recognised as the Grammies of the Blues. She received a "Contemporary Blues Album of the Year" nod in 2007 for her Yellow Dog debut, the electric 'Lucky 13'. The next year she garnered a ballot for "Contemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year." In 2009 she received an "Acoustic Blues Album of the Year" nomination for the recording 'Live From Bluesville', which also won the Los Angeles based International Blues Critics Award for Best Live Album. In 2010, she has been nominated in the prestigious 'Traditional Female Blues Artist of the Year'.



It's worth noting that Boyes first arrived in America to claim yet another honor: winner of the 2003 International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis, where she swept away the competition in yet another incarnation — solo acoustic performer. Representing the Melbourne Blues Society, Boyes was the first woman and the first Australian to earn the title. Her current release 'Blues Woman' is all about Boyes' depth as an artist and the musical odyssey she's taken since that first visit to the US. Its songs capture the striking, original talent that allows Boyes to write, sing and play anything in the blues realm with total conviction, from the crunching ode to female empowerment "Woman Ain't a Mule" that opens Blues Woman to "Juke Joint on Moses Lane," a solo performance on resonator guitar that displays Boyes' roiling finger style attack while evoking the good-time spirit of a funky blues club. Boyes lives up to 'Blues Woman' title by negotiating the curves of all kind of subgenres. "Howlin' At Your Door" tackles the hypnotic grind of Mississippi hill country and "Look Out Love!" is a thumping shuffle. Chicago blues gets its due along with Texas guitar fireworks in "Got My Eye on You."
"When it came time to make 'Blues Woman', I decided to return to work with Kaz and his guys in Austin," Boyes explains. "But I wanted to make a really muscular, exciting electric guitar driven album that explored as many different regional styles as possible." Mission accomplished. To keep the sessions hot, Boyes and her studio accomplices played each song she brought in just a few times before hitting the record button. "That kept everybody on their toes," she relates. "Me, especially." "Coming to America and spending time where the blues began and developed, like the Delta, really gave me a sense of place about this music," Boyes says as she explains Blues Woman's genesis. "But what's been really wonderful and exciting is the opportunity to be mentoredby some great American players — and to record with them.



read more bio at www.fionaboyes.com



This profile was edited with Thomas' Myspace Editor V3.2b This profile was edited with Thomas' Myspace Editor V3.2b



**FOR BOOKING INQUIRIES CONTACT:
Steve Clarke - Blue Empress Music Group - steve@blueempressmusic.com



**FOR CD INQUIRIES CONTACT:
AUSTRALIA/NZ - John Ward - Only Blues Music - onlybuesmusic@aol.com
US/CANADA/EUROPE
Mike Powers - Yellow Dog Records, Memphis TN - info@yellowdogrecords.com
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4