MP3 Blind Willies - The Unkindness of Ravens

A soulful mix of folk, country, rock, and blues. Alexei's lyrics are an intimate exploration of America's psycho/social landscapes. The music is spare and evocative, Annie Staninec's fiddle flowing like a river through the songs.

10 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Power-folk, ROCK: Roots Rock



Details:
Blind Willies is Annie Staninec, multi-genre fiddler, and Alexei Wajchman, guitarist/singer/songwriter. They met and began playing together at San Francisco School of the Arts.

Annie has been playing bluegrass/old time fiddle for more than a decade. She's a regular on the bluegrass festival circuit where she tours and records with Lost Coast. In 2006, she toured with David Grisman and the Gypsy Caravan as the featured fiddler. Annie is Djangofest Northwest's 2006 recipient of the Dudley Hill Award for exceptional young artist.

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. His early influences included Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Velvet Underground, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors. His music is a soulful mix of folk, country, rock, and blues, and his lyrics are an intimate exploration of America's psycho/social landscapes.

Blind Willies made their professional debut at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in 2004. They've also played SF's Great American Music Hall, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Zeum, and the SF Folk Festival. In January 2007 they performed with Peter Stampfel(The Holy Modal Rounders, The Fugs) in New York, and opened for Penelope Houston(Avengers) in San Francisco.

Their debut album, The Unkindness of Ravens, was recorded and mixed by Lemon DeGeorge(Jolie Holland, Genghis Blues) at Crib Nebula in San Francisco, and mastered by Paul Carlsen(Nirvana's Nevermind) at the Russian River. It's been getting radio and podcast play across the US.