Chris Cain Band - Jazz-tinged, blues soaked guitar and deep, warm vocals.

Event details: Chris Cain has the maturity and authenticity of bluesmen many years his senior. His expressive style is the result of a lifetime of study and the relentless pursuit of music mastery. His passion and intensity are a blend of his mother's Greek ancestry and his father's soulful black heritage. Cain was raised on stories of his father's childhood upbringing on Memphis' historic Beale Street. As a child, Chris was taken by his parents to concerts by B.B. King, Ray Charles, Johnny Otis, Fats Domino, and Freddie King - often viewed from atop his father's shoulders. He began teaching himself to play guitar at the age of eight in a home where blues music played continuously. Cain recalls, "I can remember when I was a kid, my dad would be mowing the lawn with the stereo blasting Muddy Waters on 10. When I look back - that was pretty cool!" The gifted and soulful San Jose, California native has been performing as a professional musician since he was fifteen. Chris studied music at San Jose City College, and was soon teaching jazz improvisation on campus. Over the next twenty years, Cain would also master piano, bass guitar, clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone. The combination of his blues upbringing and his jazz studies melded to form the searing guitar style that sets Chris Cain apart, and has moved him to the top ranks of the blues music scene. Through his guitar mastery and remarkable creativity as a songwriter, Cain has carved a sound that's unmistakably his own. As San Jose Mercury News music critic John Orr writes, "Chris Cain, more than anyone else, anywhere, represents the future of the blues."

Event website: http://www.westsidetheatre.org