Roy Rogers & The Delta Rhythm Kings

Virtuoso slide blues guitarist and Grammy nominated producer and recording artist Roy Rogers released his 12th solo album Into the Wild Blue in 2015. Into The Blue Wild wails, squawks, stomps and boogies with blues authenticity. Rogers is no purist. Years of working with the likes of John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Sammy Hagar and Steve Miller have leavened his love of blues, but with a wide-ranging pop musicality. As a solo artist, Rogers has repeatedly cracked the Billboard Blues Chart Top Ten with #3 best seller Slideways, and #10-ranked Split Decision and #1 Translucent Blues on the Americana Roots chart. For the last eight years, Rogers collaborated with titanic rock and roll figure Ray Manzarek of The Doors. The seemingly odd pairing released Ballad Before The Rain (2008), Translucent Blues (2011) and Twisted Tales (2013). Despite losing Manzarek, other friends, and his younger brother, Rogers’ 2015 release, Into the Wild Blue finds the slide master ever-positive, full of feverish solos, and an openness to experimentation in pursuit of a good song. In 2018, StringShot launched, Rogers’ band with Carlos Reyes and Badi Assad, along with their self-titled debut album.

Kevin Hayes is a San Francisco Bay Ares based drummer and songwriter, probably best known for his 20 years as the drummer for The Robert Cray Band. During his time with Cray from 1989­‐2008, he recorded 9 studio albums, including the 1999 Grammy winning Take Your Shoes Off, as well as a double live disc, Live From Across The Pond, recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall. During his time with Cray’s band he also played on records by John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, and Van Morrison, among many others. His live show credits include performances with B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Allen Toussaint, Roy Rogers & The Delta Rhythm Kings, Tracy Nelson, Jon Hendricks, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Vaughan, Lee Dorsey, Curtis Salgado, Bonnie Hayes, and many others. Since leaving Cray’s band, he has worked independently on a variety of musical projects, including playing and recording with virtuoso slide guitarist Roy Rogers and The Delta Rhythm Kings, recording and touring in the Manzarek­‐Rogers Band with Roy Rogers and the late Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, as well as recording and touring with the sensational British blues guitarist and singer Matt Schofield.

Steve Ehrmann was born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin, where he fell in love with Blues and Rhythm & Blues music, and began playing electric bass. Since moving to Northern California in the 1970’s, Steve has played in the bands of, among others, John Lee Hooker, Charlie Musselwhite, Roy Rogers, Elvin Bishop, Coco Montoya, Katy Webster, The Gospel Hummingbirds, Mighty Mike Schermer, Angela Strehli and The Blues Broads. He has also had the privilege of backing up blues and R&B/Roots Music greats Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Walter Horton, Johnny Adams, Earl King, Luther Tucker, Tad Robinson, Sista Monica Parker, Terry Hanck, and many more. Since the mid-1970’s, Steve has enjoyed an ongoing music association with slide guitar-master Roy Rogers, and for most of those years has performed with Roy as one of the Delta Rhythm Kings.