Violet's Venue is offering a special Double Bill event on October 30, 2015. You only need to purchase one ticket to view both live acts. Tas Cru will be opening for Victor Wainwright.
Victor Wainwright
Musicians learn and hone their craft in a variety of ways. Renowned piano player Victor Wainwright was fortunate enough to learn directly from Blues players right in his own home – his father and grandfather. Not to mention receiving direction from a family friend, and master of Blues piano, the one and only Pinetop Perkins. So it comes as no surprise that Wainwright made his first public appearance, wowing family and friends, at the tender age of 10.
Born in Savannah Georgia and now residing in Memphis, the 34 year old Wainwright’s star is on the rise. His first release, a solo project, Piana From Savannah, demonstrated some already fully realized musical ideas across the board – singing, songwriting, and playing. Wainwright partnered with guitarist / bassist Stephen Dees who produced the album and co-wrote the majority of the tracks with Wainwright. The enterprise led to Dees and Wainwright forming Victor’s main project, Victor Wainwright & The Wildroots, (not to be confused with the Southern Hospitality collective).
The band has released 3 critically acclaimed CD’s: Beale Street To The Bayou, Lit Up, and the latest, Boom Town. All feature Wainwright leading a gifted band on Honky Tonk, Jazz-Swing, Boogie, Gospel, and Blues excursions centred around his vast vocabulary of piano stylings. Victor has earned well deserved recognition for the recorded works as well as well received live performances. And, the icing on the cake: consecutive Blues Music Awards, (2013, 2014), for “Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of The Year”.
Victor Wainwright & The Wildroots will be laying down a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a whole lotta great piana in a special double bill with Tas Cru at Violet’s Venue.
“His songs are blues poetry – crafted with rare verbal flair and his ability to cast a memorable hook is magical” - Downbeat Magazine
In Tas Cru’s world it’s all about the song. His mindset is that the song is an end in itself, not a vehicle to display musical skills; and that it’s the song that sustains long after the familiar “too many notes” lightning fast guitar solo finishes. Tas Cru, (real name Rick Bates), is an educated man able to reflect on life experiences; doing so succinctly with humour and in a vernacular that’s understood universally. In lockstep with this outlook is the full performance name: Tas Cru & His Band of Tortured Souls.
Cru combines his songwriting skills with vocals and guitar playing that match the mood and occasion as he weaves his stories into song. His vocals can be gruff or sweet; the tone he squeezes out of his guitar can be sinewy or fat and brassy. His slide playing in particular is used to maximum effect. In fact it was his slide combined with his tough vocals that prompted a Quebecois fan to give him the name, “Tas Cru” or loosely translated “raw potato”.
Tas has used these talents effectively on 6 CD’s to date including the most recent,2014’s You Keep The Money, that debuted at # 1 on the Roots Music Report and # 2 on the Living Blues Radio Charts. These releases don’t include the 2009 children’s disc, Even Bugs Sing The Blues, that he donates to schools, hospitals, and community centers specifically for fund raising ventures in the course conducting his Blues Education programs. An endeavour that earned Cru a Blues Foundation 2014 Keeping The Blues Alive Award.
Combined with Rock / Blues, Cru’s first love was the Rock, Blues, and Rockabilly emanating from the Sun Records studio in Memphis. His first real introduction to the Blues came upon his release from the U.S. Navy when he joined forces with a Bluesman / shipmate Delray Streeter. It was Streeter who introduced him to Country Blues and the beginning of a musical education and discovery of number of aligned styles including Urban Blues, Gospel, and Country that form the basis of Cru’s sound today.
All of these influences can be found on his recordings and all will be on full display at Violet’s Venue when Tas Cru will be half of a special twin bill with Memphis’ own Victor Wainwright.
