New Nick Gravenites Coming April 5th, 2024

M.C. Records Signs Blues Legend
Nick Gravenites
Rogue Blues Coming April 5th!

February 23, 2024 – Northport NY –   M.C. Records is thrilled to announce the upcoming release on April 5th of Rogue Blues, the first release from groundbreaking Chicago blues legend Nick Gravenites in eight years.

Recorded in 2022 and 2023, Rogue Blues features special guests Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Vivino, Barry Sless, Wally Ingram, and Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers. Pete Sears co-produced the record and is featured throughout. Renowned illustrator Thomas Yeates designed the cover and photo art and is also a co-producer. The record features 7 songs many never released.

Check out “Poor Boy” from Rogue Blues – Harmonica: Charlie Musselwhite – Piano & Bass: Pete Sears – Drums: Wally Ingram

You can order the 7-song CD for only $12 delivered in the U.S.  It will ship the first week of April.    Click HERE!

The seven songs on Rogue Blues are personal favorites of Nick’s that he would often play live but which have mostly not been previously released. Against a spare and naturalistic band, Nick’s weathered vocals and phrasing carry along songs that move from plaintive to cheeky to ironic. Encountering them is like hearing the irresistible sound of a honky tonk in the dead of night from outside a cloudy window. You must follow it and, when you do, you enter a smoky world of reminiscence, brimming with tortured lovers, down-and-outers, hard-luck scammers, and those simply looking for a good time. Though Nick no longer plays guitar due to arthritis, his iconic voice and craft-forward songwriting carry the day here, a fitting addition to the body of work of a songwriter who has helped shape the American blues canon over more than six decades.

I’ve known Nick since 1961–and have always admired his singing and songwriting—this record really shows off his stuff beautifully—his music is grounded in the classic Chicago blues of the ’50s and ’60s, but he doesn’t try to imitate anybody—is always just himself—the songs are well written and strongly sung—always come at you from a totally unique angle.  Charlie Musselwhite adds some way cool touches on harmonica—the production, by Pete Sears (who also plays piano and bass) is spare and tasty and really complements Nick’s voice perfectly—there’s a beautiful flow to the whole thing and I love it.
Elvin Bishop

      About Nick Gravenites

It’s been seventy years since a scruffy, rebellious, wicked smart local Greek kid wound up hanging around Chicago’s south side club scene with friends and fellow blues enthusiasts Michael Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop, and Paul Butterfield. Soaking up legends like Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, and Otis Rush, Nick began composing and playing songs of his own. As Nick himself has said of that time, “Man, it was blues heaven in Chicago in the late fifties and early sixties, and I was an angel in residence.” When Butterfield recorded Nick’s composition “Born in Chicago” on his 1965 debut album, the world was introduced to the blues according to Gravenites, and the rest is history. In 2006, and in 2015, Nick was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, and the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, respectively, for his songwriting contributions. Currently, Nick lives in Northern California, playing the occasional gig.

Nick Gravenities, a seasoned veteran from the waaay back-in-the-day original Chicago Blues scene, is a masterful Blues singer & songwriter who penned such Blues classics as “Born in Chicago”He’s an OG …. an original, real deal, authentic Bluesman to the bone! He writes about what he’s lived, in all its funky vicissitudes, which is what makes his songs so immediate & moving.
On this collection of never-released recordings, Nick, accompanied by Pete Sears, lets loose with gruff, raw, impassioned vocals that do what the Blues was intended to do…. express the raw emotion and anguish of the human condition in a very very personal way!~Any lovers of the Real Deal Old School Blues are sure to appreciate this recording!”

  Maria Muldaur

Over his career, Nick worked with and wrote for many rock n blues luminaries. He worked closely with Janis Joplin throughout her career, becoming the “music handyman” for her Kozmic Blues Band after she left Big Brother and the Holding Company. Two songs penned for Joplin, “Work Me Lord” and “As Good As You’ve Been To This World,” appeared on her Kozmic Blues release. Another,“Buried Alive in the Blues,” was released as an instrumental only on her album Pearl, the vocal track unfinished when Jopin died suddenly. Nick also worked with Big Brother and the Holding Company, joining the band after Joplin left, and co-founded the Electric Flag band with Mike Bloomfield. He has also written songs for Pure Prairie League, Tracy Nelson, Roy Buchanan, and blues legends Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, and James Cotton, and produced the hit “One Toke Over the Line” by folk rock duo Shipley and Brewer.

Nick Gravenites is such a great no-nonsense artist….a huge part of the blues scenes of Chicago and California, in the 60s! Great songwriter and STILL performing and singing as great as ever! I’ve known Nick for about 60 years and he’s always been an inspiration and by golly, he continues to be!!!! I AIN’T LYIN’!!!”     Charlie Musselwhite

Click here for his official website,  https://nickgravenites.com

Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/nickgravenites

Click here for his discography, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/nick-gravenites-mn0000334363#discography

Article written by MC-Records