COMBO presented guest speaker Erica Brown, a well-known Denver area Blues & Jazz singer, who talked about the history of great Black artists like Big Mama Thornton, Billie Holiday, and many more. She also told us a little about her own history starting with being born in small town Sikeston, Missouri and how she ended up in Denver.
Erika also pointed out the lack of full-time blues clubs in the state, a point that was confirmed by Carla Jordan. Many venues are presenting “blues jams” or open mics but no longer book-to-pay bands. Sad.
We’ve included Erica’s Bio from her website for your reference:
Miss Erica Brown is a Singer, Songwriter, Recording Artist and Actress based in Denver, CO.
She has been singin’ the blues all her life and has truly seen and lived the Blues. As she shares her gifts with the world, the world has taken notice, from publications like Living Blues and Chicago Blues Guide in the US to Blues Matters in the UK, and Rootstime in Belgium.
Erica has long been a mainstay in Colorado’s Music scene. From 1998-2008, as frontwoman for the Award-winning Erica Brown Band, Erica electrified audiences all over the Rocky Mountain region with the band’s brand of searing blues rock. The band won nearly every award the region offered, including Best Blues Band (Westword Magazine) Best Underground Blues Band (Denver Post, multiple years) and The Rocky Mountain News’ Best of in the Blues Category. The band released two critically acclaimed CD’s, “Body Work” in 2000, and “Rough Cut Stone” in 2003. Erica was dubbed “Denver’s Queen of the Blues”, a moniker that was used by the Altitude Network in their concert showcase feature “OnStage”, which was broadcast to five million households in ten western states in 2005.
In 2008, Erica began her Solo career.
In 2013, Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band featuring Erica Brown garnered 3rd Place Honors in the International Blues Challenge (IBC) sponsored by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN. That year, over two hundred bands competed in what is the premier competition for blues bands worldwide.
In 2016, Erica was contacted by Grammy-nominated Bluesman Carl Gustafson of the Blinddog Smokin’ Blues Band and was asked to contribute vocals to a project he was producing, along with 2017 Grammy Winner in Traditional Blues, Blues Man Bobby Rush. That project has blossomed into the epic music novel “MOJA: A Music Saga”, the story of Rush’s family, the Ellis Family. Erica voices Bobby’s Rush’s ancestress on the song “She Did What She Had to Do.” Artists from around the world have contributed to this incredible telling of an important African and American Story.
Along with Rush on harmonica, a fraction of the other musicians on the project include “The 500” (the 500 musicians and artists on this incredible Project!!) Blues Woman Teeny Tucker (daughter of Tommy Tucker, writer of the 1963 Hit “Hi Heel Sneakers”), Ms. Tata Vega (the “musical voice” of the character “Shug” in the movie The Color Purple), gospel vocalists The McCrary Sisters, 2020 US Artists Fellow Dom Flemons, Harmonica Master Billy Branch, vocalist Natalie Cadet, famed gospel, rock, blues, jazz and funk B-3 organist Cory Henry, along with Mississippi Hill Country blues (and sons of R.L. Burnside) brothers Gary and Duwayne Burnside, Blues Guitar master Lightnin’ Malcolm, African Folklorist and master Djembe player Weedie Braimah, West African Ngoni Master Bassekou Kouyate, Cuban drummer Pedrito Martinez, multi-instrumentalist Fabian Chavez, guitarist George Dez, and scores more Artists!! The massive, 8-volume project released in early 2022, in individual Volumes. To purchase the project on Spotify, or listen to an episode, go here: https://bit.ly/MOJA-SpotifyArtist
AWARDS:
Erica has been awarded Colorado’s Five Points Jazz Festival’s Tribute Award for significant and lasting contributions to music and culture in the historically African-American Five Points Neighborhood, and throughout Colorado!
In 2013, Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band featuring Erica Brown garnered 3rd Place Honors in the International Blues Challenge (IBC) sponsored by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN. That year, over two hundred bands competed in what is the premier competition for blues bands worldwide. Since then, in tandem with the IBC competition, Erica conducts the Livestream Interviews for the National Women In Blues Showcase Day during IBC Week.
In 2016, what would become a double page “Center-Magazine-Splash” photo of Erica taken during the Women In Blues Showcase by Superstar Photographer Danny Clinch was featured in Smithsonian Magazine’s Historic September 2016 companion issue for the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington DC. Attendees of the Museum opening on September 24, 2016 included a Dedication by then-President Barack Obama. Erica is deeply honored to be included in such a special Smithsonian issue.
STAGE AND THEATER:
Erica has been featured in a number of stage productions throughout her career. In 2018 Erica took a star turn as the character Nancy Foster in Emancipation Theater Company’s World Premiere of its’ inaugural stage production Honorable Disorder. The show received rave reviews from multiple publications, including the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA).
https://www.ericabrownentertainment.com/press-kit/biography/
Photo: Erica Brown (By Michael Mark | http://www.michaelmarkphotography.com)
Our Sincerest Thanks to Erica Brown for Speaking at the February Program
