Performance Times
| Venue | Day | Start |
|---|---|---|
| The Elks Lodge | Sat | 8:30 PM |
Bobby Gentilo Biography
Bobby Gentilo will be performing 3 times on Saturday night this year. The first set is at 8:30 pm the Bobby Gentilo Trio at the Elks Lodge, then he and The Cornlickers will perform with the amazing singer and guitarist Carlos Elliott from Colombia, (The country!) at 10:00 pm. Just after that show Bobby will lead the Annual Juke Joint Midnight Jam featuring musicians from around the festival, starting at 11:30 pm. This is a festival highlight in each year.
Bobby Gentilo is an award-winning international record producer who has worked and performed with some of Mississippi’s most acclaimed blues artists over the last 15 years. Take a walk through the world-famous Cat Head Records in Clarksdale, MS, and you will find over a dozen albums with Gentilo’s name credited on the jacket.
Gentilo is also a member of The Cornlickers, the backing band for the late Big Jack Johnson. For the last several years, The Cornlickers has been knighted official house band for the world-famous juke joint Red’s Lounge, located in the very heart of Clarksdale. It’s here where Gentilo performed with and learned from Delta icons like Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Terry “Harmonica” Bean, T-Model Ford, “Cadillac” John Nolden, Robert Bilbo Walker, R.L. Boyce, and countless others.
Born and raised in Washington DC, Bobby was infected by Go-Go – funk, soul, and blues inspired music unique to the region. “There were few boundaries. The color of your skin didn’t dictate what music you could or couldn’t play,” he explains. “All that matters is – can you groove?” Go-Go and Mississippi blues both inspire couples to dance close and sweaty; it’s party music. The unique combination of these two genres became the foundation to Gentilo’s style.
Gentilo has been touring the United States, South America, and Europe, spreading the word of Mississippi Delta and Hill Country blues with Colombian born blues artist, Carlos Elliot. Together, they have reached #1 with three separate songs on the Colombian national radio charts. In early 2019, Elliot and Gentilo performed their music with a 50-piece orchestra for a sold-out theater in Pereira, Colombia – the first time in history that a symphony and hill-country blues came together.
BOBBY GENTILO TRIO
The Bobby Gentilo trio directs their sound with the spirit and energy of a raucous juke joint party. With over a thousand hours of performing in Mississippi juke joints, Gentilo has Delta and Hill Country blues ingrained in his blood. He’s shared the stage with countless Mississippi legends and frequently performs throughout the United States, South America and Europe, bringing this driving style of blues to people around the globe.
He’s joined by Christy Engel on drums and Logan Kurtek on baritone sax. Engel’s relentless rhythm and Kurtek’s powerful and gritty saxophone combine with Gentilo’s distinctive guitar and vocal to create a sound that gets people moving. Forgoing the traditional bass player forces the trio to find creative ways to produce the missing low frequencies, which adds to the uniqueness of their sound.
2021 will see the release of several albums under the production of Gentilo, including his self-titled solo debut. The spirited first single and video “Troublin” was released in May of this year and is currently enjoying radio play in multiple countries.
Connect with Bobby Gentilo
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