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Berklee American Roots Music series with Paul Rishell and Annie Raines
Made possible by the Sam Eisenson fund for Country music at Berklee.
Touring internationally at festivals, clubs, and concert halls, and teaching workshops and seminars, Paul Rishell & Annie Raines have earned loyal fans around the globe since they began playing together in 1992. Paul and Annie are featured in the new jug band music documentary, Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost, which debuted at the San Francisco Film Festival in August 2007. They have performed on diverse radio and TV shows including A Prairie Home Companion, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and PBS’s Arthur. They have performed and recorded with Susan Tedeschi, John Sebastian, Pinetop Perkins, and Rory Block. He paired up with harmonica ace Annie Raines in 1992, and together they have earned loyal fans around the globe. They have released seven albums together, including MOVING TO THE COUNTRY (2000), the W.C.Handy Award winner for “Acoustic Blues Album of the Year,” and have performed on diverse radio and TV shows including A Prairie Home Companion, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and PBS’s Arthur.
For nearly 50 years, Paul Rishell has built up a stellar reputation as a torchbearer of the country blues tradition. A master of the guitar styles of Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Boy Fuller, Scrapper Blackwell and other innovators of early 20th century roots music, he is one of the few artists devoted to preserving their work as both a classical and a living form. Paul was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1950. He began playing the drums at age 10, initially diving into rock ‘n’ roll until a friend played him a recording by the Delta bluesman Son House. Rishell would meet and play with Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee and Howlin’ Wolf after moving to Cambridge in the early 1970s.
Annie Raines was born in 1969 near Boston, MA. She picked up the blues harp at 17 and made her stage debut at the 1369 Jazz Club in Cambridge. Enthralled by the recordings of Muddy Waters, Little Walter Jacobs, Big Walter Horton and Sonny Boy Williamson, she became a fixture at Boston area blues jams. She started out playing the New England club circuit with local bands, and traveled to Chicago where she met and played with many of her musical idols including Pinetop Perkins, Louis Myers, and James Cotton.
Learn from the masters! Paul and Annie are teaching classes at the Passim School of Music this Fall:
With Annie: Beginning Harmonica and Harmonica Ensemble.
With Paul: Country Blues Guitar.
YOUR DINNER TABLE RESERVATION DOES NOT RESERVE SPECIFIC SEATS AT THAT TABLE. PLEASE NOTE THAT EACH TABLE SEATS FOUR. IF YOU DO NOT PURCHASE ALL FOUR SEATS YOU MAY BE SEATED WITH OTHERS. ALL TICKETS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.
