Keyboard wiz Wayne Sharp was born on the Louisiana bayous, south of New Orleans, in the small town of Houma. His love of music starts with his mother but it was his older sister Dianna who f ...
"I've known Wayne Sharp for a few years and every time we talk I hear something about him that surprises me. When I met Wayne he was on tour with the Michael Burks Band and had been for more years than I have fingers to count them on. I've come to know him as a great B-3 player, a genuine Bluesman, and we've become fast friends in a short time." - Casey Reagan - Blues-E-News
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0)You'll be dancing "all night long"!
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Take what you know about Wayne Sharp: his tenure alongside guitar virtuoso Michael Burks, his career with Jaimoe and Lamar Williams of The Allman Bros and his current project touring with his sons as Wayne Sharp & The Sharpshooter Band, and that is everything you hear lovingly concentrated into his album “Living With The Blues.”
The album has all the moody grittiness that initially drew fans to the Michael Burks’ sound, only this time it is unequivocally Sharp’s own vision. It’s a vision that embodies an unparalleled maturity and musical wisdom that few of today’s artists can ever hope to achieve. To refine his ambition even further, he enlisted the talent of the acclaimed Jimmy Hall, who is about to embark on a world tour alongside Jeff Beck and who is known most notably as the founder, lead singer and harmonica player for Wet Willie. Second only to family, you can tell that music is Sharp’s core passion and you can hear that in every note and syllable.
Though Sharp’s precision on his old Hammond B3 organ is the heartbeat of the album, it is his voice, deep and slightly rough around the edges, that directs the bittersweet heartbreak in many of the tracks, especially evident in “Runnin’ Out Of Time” and his cover of “A Whiter Shade Of Pale.” His first cover off the album, originally written by Willie Dixon and made a hit by Koko Taylor, “Wang Dang Doodle,” breathes fresh life into the original with the "Legendary Jackie Avery”(Writer, Prod / Otis Redding / Wilson Pickett / Allman Bros.) sharing the lead vocal, this will surely have you dancing “all night long."
The last song on the album “Empty Promises” is a Michael Burks composition and serves as tribute to Burks’ soul and legacy. It is a heartfelt rendition that once again highlights heavy emotions that pair perfectly alongside each organ chord progression and guitar riff. It is hard not to get lost in the instrumentals that escalate to a soul wrenching crescendo that refuses to let go until the final notes ring in with profound resolution.
If you have fallen in love with the album, it would be an injustice not to see his live performance with his sons by his side because there are some experiences that words simply cannot convey. Despite a long hard road through the music biz and the untimely death of Michael Burks, Sharp sees his efforts validated in performing alongside his sons, and it is that family chemistry that really earn Wayne Sharp & The Sharpshooter Band’s spot as one of the best blues bands on the circuit today.
Wayne Sharp & The Sharpshooter Band will set off on another US tour this spring with their first date set for March 14.
1)LIVING TO TELL IT WITH DEEP SOUL AND STYLE
"When Michael Burks invited him to join his band, Wayne Sharp put a promising solo career on hold and never looked back until Burks’ untimely passing in 2012. After establishing himself as an integral part of the Michael Burks Band sound for twelve years, Sharp picked up where he left off and is now carving out his own legacy with the release of “Living With the Blues,” a solo project started before his musical journey with the “Iron Man.”
Wayne Sharp’s music is a well- crafted blend of deep southern soul, Cajun rhythms and roadhouse rock that he and his Sharp Shooter Band deliver with precision and style. His original songs are honest and heartfelt, conveying the spirit and wisdom acquired from years of traveling on the road and around the world. “Southern Storm” is rich in imagery and deep in emotion, each verse and chorus ebbing and flowing like ocean waves. “Runnin’ Out of Time” is another deeply soulful gem, with Wayne giving his most powerful and poignant vocal performance on the album, belting out sublime, self-penned lyrics that confirm his exceptional songwriting talents.
Wayne also puts his personal stamp on songs he chose to interpret, breathing new life into classics by Willie Dixon (a jazzy “Wang Dang Doodle,” sharing vocals with soul legend Jackie Avery) and Jimmy Reed (“Baby What You Want Me To Do,” set to a groove that flows like molasses). Wayne keeps his rendition of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” true to the Procol Harum original, instead putting emphasis on his soul-drenched vocal delivery, as he does with the album-closing Michael Burks composition, “Empty Promises,” a fitting finale that pays tribute to his departed friend and collaborator.
Even though he began working on this project many years ago, the finished product was well worth the wait and shows no signs of age, past or future. This album deserves to be regarded as a “timeless classic,” forged from the heart and soul of an accomplished world-class artist who lived the blues and tells it in his songs with finesse and master craftsmanship." - Steve Cagle - Radio Broadcaster & Writer, “Blues Spectrum”, KVMR Community Radio, Nevada City, CA
3)Arcadia Blues Club
"This band is one of our favorite bands. Great crowd response and solid ticket sales." - Bobby Bluehouse - Arcadia Blues Club - Arcadia CA
4) DIAMOND STATE BLUES SOCIETY
“It was great having you and your band grace the grounds in Saint Georges..." Gene Fontana - Diamond State Blues Society-Delaware
6)Interview with Wayne Sharp by Paul Stadden - Blues Society of NW Florida
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"Wayne Sharp of Wayne Sharp & The SharpShooter Band, you put on a killer show at Lili Marlene's [Seville Quarter-FL) -Podcast
2)Skippers Smokehouse
"Wayne blew the roof off the Skipperdome!! Incendiary!!" - Tom White - Skippers Smokehouse, Tampa FL
5)I Feel Like I Know Them! Wayne Sharp and The Sharpshooter Band – "Living With The Blues" - Bruno Conti -Pubblicato in Carbonari
His face painted in the back cover of the CD and the internal picture of Wayne Sharp with children,friends and family, I said absolutely nothing, the surname awakened some vague memory, but then I started to hear the CD, the first track sounds like Wang Dang Doodle indeed is "Wang Dang Doodle, a nice blues with Hammond organ and two solo guitars and a pleasant vocione who knows how to treat the topic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxAHL-VjXU. Then you go deeper in the notes and see Wayne is like his "brothers in Blues", including Lamar Williams, with whom, along with Jaimoe, had shared a band at the beginning of the 80 's, from the Allman Brothers, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwPrNThQZ28.
But the name that leaps to the eye is that of Michael Burks, whose Sharp has shared four albums for Alligator and a dozen years on the road, as organist of his band and everything becomes clearer. Another bluesman which makes record debut, the class is there, playing in the Band his children Sharpshooters Sean and Grayson...The "Legendary" Jackie Avery, a musician who wrote songs for Arthur Conley, Dells and Johnnie Taylor (in addition to being married to one of the Wet Willie vocalist), appears on backing vocals and piano in the above piece of Willie Dixon. And to finish, guest on harmonica on some tracks, there's Jimmy Hall, typical of Wet Willie, to complete this "Southern" reunion.
Southern Storm another beautiful ballad that smells of the South, written by Sharp that engages even on the piano. Drivin' Though The Delta, again with Hall, is another track still very southern, while "Runnin' Out Of Time confirms the creation of Wayne for the slow songs, confirmed by a beautiful reading, very close to the original spirit of the super classic" A Whiter Shade Of Pale ", a must for any self-respecting organist, which is always a nice feel… I Got My Gris Gris On You, without infamy and without praise and Put Me Down and Let Me Walk again with incisive harmonica on getting good Jimmy Hall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1LGHI4sZOk, bring us to a final homage to the great Michael Burks, one of the best bluesmen of the last generations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1hUzJlzHJQ, who died prematurely of a heart attack in 2012 http://discoclub.myblog.it/2012/09/01/l-ultima-prova-dell-uomo-di-ferro-michael-burks-show-of-stre/ with Empty Promises…a version made with heart, and feels - Bruno Conti - Pubblicato in Carbonari
8)Interview with Wayne Sharp - Michalis Limnios - BLUES AT GREECE
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Interview with organ player, Wayne Sharp, a recognizable known talent on the blues and rock circuits...
7)"Living With The Blues" CD Review by Casey Reagan - Blues-E-News
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"NAILED IT! I knew the CD was gonna be good, but not THIS good. TOP SHELF!
9)Wayne Sharp & The SharpShooter Band
"I've known Wayne Sharp for a few years and every time we talk I hear something about him that surprises me. When I met Wayne he was on tour with the Michael Burks Band and had been for more years than I have fingers to count them on. I've come to know him as a great B-3 player, a genuine Bluesman, and we've become fast friends in a short time." - Casey Reagan - Blues-E-News