An Ode To The Blues ft. Soulmate, Rick Payne, Steve Treble, Madou Sidki Diabate at CounterCulture, Bangalore

RICK PAYNE:
Rick Payne is an established acoustic blues guitarist with many national and international tours to his credit. He has become especially well known for his authentic acoustic blues finger picking, in the many traditional styles of the blues including delta blues, piedmont, ragtime and slide and has recorded several albums of this kind.
Often compared with Ry Cooder, slide guitar maestro Rick Payne’s performances have taken him to prime time TV, to festivals and theatres throughout the UK and on tour to Europe, USA, Scandinavia and Greek Islands. He has provided music to a number of major TV productions, for programmes on Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. He has also featured on The Paul Jones and Mike Harding’s show on BBC Radio 2.

STEVE TREBLE:
Steve is a very well established guitarist from Bristol, England!
Playing a variety of styles, his preferred genre is Blues Rock when wrestling an electric guitar, and Blues and Country when in a more reflective mood on acoustic guitar! His electric playing is a roller coaster ride of tight, riff soaked rhythm, and searing, no nonsense lead, while his acoustic guitar strengths lie in his impeccable time keeping and wonderful syncopated bass and rhythm technique!
A showman to the end, Steve is a very entertaining, competent guitarist and singer who never fails to deliver!! A real treat for those who love Blues guitar in all its guises!

MADOU SIDIKI DIABATE:
Madou started playing the kora at age three. By the time he was six years old, he was playing his first concert as a representative of the 71st generation of korists in his family. He learned his art under his father, Sidiki Diabaté, a man generally referred to as the “King of the Kora”. His elder brother, Toumani Diabaté is also a famed korist and Grammy Award winner. If Madou Sidiki Diabaté’s lineage is formidable, then so is his talent.

In this 30-year-old’s hands, the kora is full of deception: it looks like a simple, even rustic instrument capable of basic sounds. But close your eyes and you hear many musicians in harmony. The kora is an instrument that refuses to be easily classified. It is made from the common calabash (bottle gourd) cut in half with cow-skin stretched taut over it, and a tall notched bridge with 21 strings. It is at once a harp, a lute, a blues guitar—even a percussion instrument.
He has performed on stages across the globe and collaborated with musicians such as Damon Albarn, Vieux Farka Toure, Lakha Khan, Painted Caves and more. His album ‘Mali Latino’ with Alex Wilson and Ahmed Fofana was a 2010 ‘Top of the World’ Album in Songlines. In 2012, Amarrass Records released his solo kora album ‘Madou Sidiki Diabate – Live in India’ to critical acclaim. Madou makes his fourth tour of India this summer, and his first appearance in Bangalore!

SOULMATE:
Soulmate is a blues rock band from Shillong, Meghalaya, India. The band is primarily made up of Rudy Wallang and Tipriti TIPS Kharbangar. Tipriti is considered as one of the finest female singers to have emerged from North East India and Wallang is considered one of the most respected blues guitarists of India.