Bio: April 2008
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Hi! After a long hibernation I decided I better blow out the cobwebs and get out there and play some blues. I have a few things booked just for that purpose. I booked 3 gigs at the 9th Street Deli, which are all Fridays, May 9th. June 20th 7 - 9 PM.
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Come on by the 9th Street Deli across from the Blue Note, and have a great deli sandwich and a beer/ soda and listen to some blues. My friend Scott "Harpcat" MucCulloughs will be joining me on harmonica. This guy can blow some harp. I'll also be trying out some new tunes on open D slide guitar tuning.
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Swing by MOJO's Happy Hour 5:00ish on June 21st and find me playing the blues on MOJO's patio. Bring some friends and Co-workers for a good time.
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Twilight Festival's in Columbia are every Thursday in June at about 6:00. You can hear Mr. Fletcher at Willies Field House on the patio, on East Broadway every Thursday in June. Come have a beer soda pop or burger.
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Of course, you don't want to miss the Sedalia Lions Club Blues Bikes and BBQ Festival June 13th and 14th


or the Bear Creek Blues Festival in Slater MO on June 28th.

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There are some great blues acts coming to both of these fine festivals.
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And then there is my other band, Big Medicine, who recently spent a weekend in one of the premier Midwestern roots recording studios located in Sedalia MO. We're making progress on our first professional recording. Big Medicine is playing April 25th (after my 9th Street gig) at the Blue Fugue. And also May 17th at the Fugue. I think we have something on April 30th at MOJOs also. Also, although this is tentative, watch the Blue Note as on June 27th, Big Medicine may get to open for none other than .... Leon Russel! Gross your fingers.
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Hope to see you. Thanks!
Keith Fletcher
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The "One Man Blues Band" is a unique show, in which "Mr. Fletcher" fronts his self-produced blues band tracks, shouting the blues and playing like his soul depended on it, and laying down guitar lines that sizzle, cry and growl in one number, and in the next ... they sing like the angels. Whether he plays for one person or for an audience of hundreds makes little difference to the intensity of his show because communing with his guitar and the blues is simply a personal spiritual experience in which you are welcome to come along. He likes to think of himself as a messenger taking the blues to the people, maybe folks who don't know of the blues. His musical mission is to bring the blues to as many as he can. He'll play for you anywhere and any time.
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Keith Fletcher is "Mr. Fletcher's One Man Blues Band." Mr. Fletcher's Blues Band was born some seven or eight years ago, when after decades of playing rock, jazz and country music, on and off again, Mr. Fletcher finally heard his true calling ... saw the light ... and became fully ... a true, baptized convert into the blues. Truth be known, looking back, he realized he was just playing blues from the beginning, but calling it by a different name. From his home base in Columbia Missouri, he has been preaching the blues steadily ever since.
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Keith is the band's singer, guitar slinger and slide guitarist (using standard tuning and open D tunings primarily, electric, acoustic resonophonic and occasionally some lap steel) and he plays a pretty darn fair blues harmonica too. Of course, sometimes guitar, slide, and voice as well as his soul blend into one musical entity, as at any moment he may erupt into spontaneous duo scat/guitar improvisations, singing along with his guitar lines.
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Mr. Fletcher plays the great time tested classic blues of past masters, but his show is a creative blend of the authentic and traditional with modern technology production tools such as computers and electronics. He uses them to bring you a truly unique show. And his arrangements are often singularly all his own too, as they should be for a one-man band.
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While you are likely to hear certain crowd favorites at his show, he could play many different shows and not repeat one of the hundreds of classic blues numbers in his repertoire, with a range in material from Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter and Howlin Wolf, to Freddie, Albert, and BB King, to Ray Charles, Etta James, Kokko Taylor, Billie Holiday and a little jazzy Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong, to Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, Hendrix to the Alman Brothers, and scores of others. He does write and play his own songs on occasion, but prefers to play the works of the masters.
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You might catch him tipping his hat just a little bit to "the offspring" ... rock, soul, R&B or roots country music, because after all ... these idioms are the children of the blues, and just part of the family. But in all of his shows, you'll most likely hear him paying his tribute to the roots, the source, the original force and soul of the music, by playing a great mix of blues classics .
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Places you might catch Mr. Fletcher might include some of the areas blues festivals. For example, and mark this in your calendar ...
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Mr. Fletcher is returning for his fourth year straight, to perform at the Bear Creek Blues Festival, in Slater Missouri, (a few miles North East of Marshall MO) and while Mr. Fletcher certainly delivers a show all his own, he contributes in a very special niche by keeping the music live throughout the day. No canned music at this festival. In 2008 Mr. Fletcher also brings a special guest, a harp player, who not so much plays his instrument but channels his soul through it, Scott "Harpcat" McCulloughs, providing an excellent compliment to Mr. Fletcher's style. Other incredible acts appearing are Little Ed and the Imperials, Mike Zito, The Dog House Daddies (the Mo Blues Associations International Blues Competition winners in 2007)and Lew Jetton and 61 South. check out more at the Bear Creek Blues Festival web site below. A few other local favorites and blues names of note who have performed at the festival include the Bel Airs, Bernard Alison, Bryan Lee, Blue Voodo and Chump Change. Plan to attend the next Festival June 28th. Watch his site for festival information.
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http://www.bearcreekblues.com/our_music.html
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He is also returning to the Sedalia Lion's Club Blues, BBQ and Bikes Festival, at the State Fairgrounds, where he's been invited back for the third straight year in a row. Once a festival promoter discovers what the Fletch can do for them, they like to keep coming around. Wink wink, to all the promoters out there looking to improve their festivals. He will play throughout Friday and Saturday June 13th and 14th the music alive. You will also see, Trampled Under Foot, Levee Town, The Serious Blues Band (winners of the 2007 King of the Roots competition), The Rain Dogs, Delta Highway and Blue Voodoo. Once again Mr. Fletcher finds himself in excellent company.
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http://www.mobluesandbbq.com/2007/blues.html
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Promoters! - Inquire about how Mr. Fletcher can give you a proven advantage with a special service that gives big festivals added marketable value for their ticket buying public.
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A few local venues you may have caught Keith at in the past year may have included the Boone County Fair, Cooper's Landing, Les Bourgeois Winery, Willies Field House, playing as a member of other bands such as Big Medicine at Mojo's, the Blue Note or the Blue Fugue or hosting blues jam sessions with The Fletch and Fro Blues Band, various private birthday or holiday parties, or perhaps at other Columbia Art League events, including serving as Emcee for Art in the Park one year. Winter Blues Festivals and gigs in Hannibal or museum functions such as the Chamber of Commerce after hours party at the Audrain County Museum, or also playing outdoor gigs such as the Farmer's Market or the Twilight Festival.
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There have been long periods, mostly in the summer, when he has played six gigs a week over a whole variety of types of venues. Although this year he has not been as active as the day job has been pretty grueling and he has also been more involved in another band he is currently recording with, Big Medicine. He's also been heavily involved in working on new music and perfecting his open tuning performances. He plays street, wine and art festivals, bars and clubs, restaurants, private parties, and has laid the blues down as the house-band in various local establishments and restaurants.
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Mr. Fletcher can pull out the hot stuff, get rowdy and scorch the joint when he finds a place wants to rock. Or, for those venues trying to establish a classy ambiance, he can lean in toward the sweet side of the blues with soulful torch ballads and even let a little jazz filter in.
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Besides conventional festival and bars and regular venues, out of his quirky sense of fun, Mr. Fletcher also likes to play unusual gigs too, once even playing for a heard of buffalo in South Dakota. He takes special pleasure in off beat venues like street performances in front of the US Post Office just before midnight on April 15th, Tax Day. Or, he'll turn the bus into a stage on wheels playing for tailgate parties ... or live on parade floats (Hint: a cool way to promote your business.) You might catch him giving an unofficial unsanctioned street performance for the True False Film Festival ... outlaw rebel bluesman that he is. On one occasion, as he was just passing through Memphis, he even delivered an impromptu blues show as he stood on a corner ... in the pouring rain ... at BB King's Blues Club ... on Beale Street, a legendary place known round the world as a holy center for the blues. He was just following the footsteps of the giants.
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Years after starting to play music, Mr. Fletcher was finally baptized into the blues playing for the sting rays in the Gulf of Mexico where the mother of the blues, the Muddy Mississippi, pours its waters. Now, that's his mission ... to preach the blues ... to bring the blues, and all its joys to you. So no matter where he plays, or how small or unusual the venue, go on out there and have Mr. Fletcher play for you, and bring you joy. Because, yes, blues can be about the hard stuff of life, and it might have been born in hard times, but it's cathartic joy, and he loves to play it, and to bring it to people. It can be sweet or sophisticated and it can be just rowdy fun. It's just drama and humor and just about folks. It's what most music is made from today and always has been. It's about people and their souls and their lives. It's story telling. Mr. Fletcher will deliver.
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http://www.livebluesworld.com/profile/MrFletchersOneManBluesBand





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