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Blind Willies is Alexei Wajchman, guitarist/singer/songwriter; Adam Coopersmith, drums; Misha Khalikulov, cello; Max Miller-Loran, keyboard/trumpet; Daniel Riera, bass. Max Miller-Loran is a trumpeter, keyboardist, producer, and graduate of Berklee College of Music. He's performed extensively around Boston and the Bay Area with The Kev Choice Ensemble, The Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, The Dave Scott Nonet, The Getback, The Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra and many others. Misha Khalikulov graduated from UCLA with a concentration in Classical Cello. He's toured the world this year with Rupa and the April Fishes. Daniel Riera is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, beatmaker, award-winning (ASCAP) composer, and arranger. He graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Music Synthesis. Adam Coopersmith is a composer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer/beatmaker. He recently moved back to Half Moon Bay after 6 years in Brooklyn/NY where he graduated with a BFA in Jazz from New School. Alexei grew up in San Francisco's Mission District. After learning to play clarinet and sax, he taught himself to play guitar and began writing songs at 15. He was awarded the Blue Bear Celebrity Scholarship to study guitar and voice in 2002 and 2003, and he was a 2003 California Arts Scholar in sax. His early influences included Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Velvet Underground, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors. His music is a soulful mix of folk, rock, jazz, and blues. Writing in the popular online zine Delusions of Adequacy, editor Jennifer Patton wrote "Blind Willies play incredibly wonderful music. Alexei is a remarkable songwriter." Alexei recorded the first two Blind Willies CDs with fiddler Annie Staninec. Blind Willies has played San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival(NY), Berkeley's Freight and Salvage, SF's Great American Music Hall, The Folk Project's Minstrel Concert Series(NJ), San Luis Obispo Folk Music Society Concert Series, SF's Summer Sailstice Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Zeum, and the SF Folk Festival. In 2007 they performed with Peter Stampfel(The Holy Modal Rounders, The Fugs) at New York's Sidewalk Cafe. Both Blind Willies albums, The Unkindness of Ravens(2007), and Everybody's Looking for a Meal(2008,) were recorded and mixed by Lemon DeGeorge(Jolie Holland, film Genghis Blues) at Crib Nebula in San Francisco, and mixed and mastered by Paul Carlsen(Nirvana's Nevermind, Neil Young, John Prine) at Paul Carlsen Productions in Guerneville on the Russian River. Confirmed radio play includes Better Days Radio, Vancouver, BC; Pirate Cat Radio, SF; KPIG, KRSH, WXPN, WFUV Woody's Children, KPFA, WFDU, KALW, KZSC, KUSP, KYOU, KQED, KDVS, KKUP, WOBC, WTJU, WTSR, WDVX Writer's Block, WCOM Taproot Radio, Americana Roots, WWUH, KZSU, KRCB, KSCL, WBGU, KAOS, WTUL, WCBN, KBCS, WEFT, WMBR, KCBX, KBGA, WSDP, WDCB, KXCI, WRKF, KACI, WLRN, KCSC, WFHB, WMUD, KAFM, Thayrone's The Bone Conduction Music Show(syndicated), WRFL, WDBX, KGLP, Radio Marabu/Europe/No Pigeonholes, Hanx/Netherlands, Crossroads/Netherlands, Heart of the Night & TransAtlantic Acoustic indieheart.com podcasts, indieSF.com, Todd Mack's Off the Beat-n-Track, Suffolk 'n Cool/UK, CKUA Tom Coxworth's Folk Routes/Canada, WYEP, WGDR, CJLX, CKHA, WHAY, WBSD, WKZE, WHDD, NHPR, KRCC, KLOI, CHES Erin Radio, CJTR, Progressive Roots/WSJF, WHJX, WFJO, KFOK, WMRD-AM, WLIS, WMPG, WXIN, KVMR, WMUC, WPSU, 2 MAX/Australia, Triplej/Australia, 3 INR/Australia, 2AIR/Australia, 4RED/Australia, Radio Upper Galilee/Israel, Highway 61 Radio Voce Spazio/Italy, Radio EVW/Germany, Radio ZuSa/Germany, Radio Shalom/Canada. |
