With Great Respect for the tradition of Juke Joint Blues; Modern Blues in the traditional style.

5 MP3 Songs
BLUES: Jazzy Blues, BLUES: Rockin' Blues



Details:
Formed in 1999, Scott Prater and the djangobilly is a jump, swing and juke joint blues band which demonstrates the wide array of styles embedded in the blues. Originally called "Jet Plane Blues", the band has played in the Dallas area for the last four years. Originally a three piece, the band began with Bryan Lunos on bass guitar, Kevin Jones on drums & Scott Prater on guitar and vocals. A few months later, Dave Burris swingset.com joined the band as second guitarist. Dave Burris was playing with several bands (Swingset and others) and when time constraints became obvious the band again became a three-piece. After recording the rhythm tracks for "Bluesabilly", the bands debut album, Kevin Jones and his wife Alayna had their second daughter and began concentrating on their own project, "Junius Heights". {In early September 2001 Kevin Jones died in his sleep of a heart ailment no one knew he had. He will be very much missed by the band along with many, many other friends and of course his wife and family.}Adding Tony Hull, on drums (which coincidentally was the same lineup that had been together a few years earlier in the punk rock band, "Miller Lowlife"), the band opened up their dynamic and expanded their musical interaction.The djangobilly approach to the blues is inspired by a deep appreciation of the "less is more" philosophy which lends itself well to improvisation over a backdrop of wellhoned, high impact song structure

Scott Prater and the djangobilly consists of Scott on vocals/guitar, Steve Rolandelli on drums and Deep Ellum alumni Michael Byron michaelbyron.com on bass. "the djangobilly" is a throwback to the raucous juke joint era of high quality musicianship in a happy go lucky environment. Along with originals penned for the "Bluesabilly" and the "self-titled" albums, the djangobilly performs an amazingly diverse set of standards hailing the Chicago, Mississippi Delta and Southern Blues, Jazz & Swing styles.

Scott Prater, born in Neosho, Missouri spent his "very long and miserable" childhood between Southwest Missouri, Northeast Oklahoma and North Texas, changing school districts an average of once a year. After high school, he joined local band "the Resistance", and later hitchhiked from Grand Prairie to Anaheim, California, sleeping in "men's shelters", cardboard boxes, and an abandoned camper top behind a manufacturing plant. Scott learned self-reliance, a healthy general mistrust of society, and the appreciation of the simple things in life from this experience. Scott puts it this way, "I was raised in Texas but I grew up in California." Upon returning to Texas, Scott started busking on the streets of Dallas' West End and Deep Ellum districts and soon began helping to develop Dallas "Galaxy Club" into a self-supporting, progressively booked live music venue which is still going strong today. Scott recruited former band mate, Mitch Eggers to replace him as club manager and joined "James Curtis and the Barflies Blues Band". In the "Barflies", Scott was able to flesh out the different areas of his blues style, which had always been the foundation of his guitar playing. After forming djangobilly and going through several line-ups, Scott put together a crack rhythm section with drummer Steve Rolandelli and Deep Ellum veteran and bassist, Michael Byron. The band is a swinging three-piece with a full sound, augmented on certain nights by visiting musicians.