I’ve told this story before but I love it so much, I can’t help but repeat it.
Around 2011, only a few years into my tenure at the Palladium, I heard about this young bluesman named Selwyn Birchwood, who was tearing up bars like the Ringside Café, then in its old Fourth Street location.
Blues bands at that point were mostly middle-aged white guys in berets and shades. And here was Selwyn, tall and strapping, with a magnificent Afro, fronting an all-black band, built around his smoking guitar and the old R&B staple, the baritone sax.
We booked him for the fledgling Side Door cabaret and his first show sold a whopping 41 tickets. But that night Selwyn delivered the goods. He came out of his shiny shoes, he duckwalked barefoot around the room, firing off scorching guitar riffs that seemed to come from another time and place.
We quickly brought him back and he sold out the nightclub. Then we booked him for several two-night stints, and he sold out both shows. He won a couple of Blues Music awards, signed with Alligator Records, released some hit albums, and now, Selwyn tours the world and plays his Palladium shows upstairs in the 800-seat Hough Hall.
A native of Florida, who once lived in Tampa, Selwyn said he considers the Palladium his “home venue.”
“They took a chance on me when I was first starting out and I appreciate that, man. It feels like home coming back here,” Selwyn said recently.
His homecoming is this Friday, Sept. 5, in a show that celebrates his Alligator release The Exorcist, and his new project, Old School, a rootsy collection of songs that features Bobby Rush on the title track.
The new project is no surprise. Selwyn has always loved the roots of the blues, along with the next generation of guitarists, like Jimi Hendrix, who took those sounds to a broad swatch of music lovers. Birchwood was born in Orlando in 1985. His father is from Tobago, his mother from the UK. He first grabbed a guitar at age 13 and soon became proficient at mimicking what he heard on the radio. But the popular grunge rock, hip-hop and metal of the 1990s didn’t move him. And then he discovered Hendrix.
“He was larger than life. What he did was mind-blowing.”
As luck would have it, just as Birchwood was Hendrix riffs, the legendary bluesman Buddy Guy–a major influence on Hendrix–was scheduled to perform in Orlando. Birchwood was there, front and center.
“I was floored,” he recalls. “I completely connected with the blues. I knew this was my path, and I had to make this music.”
He dove deep, listening to icons including Albert King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins and of course, Buddy Guy. “The flood gates opened,” says Birchwood, “and at that point I started trying to absorb as much as I could.”
Selwyn’s concerts, like his records, look forward and backward, and showcase an artist who celebrates his own style, while acknowledging blues traditions. Selwyn’s shows feature him on electric guitar, lap steel, and vocals. He’s more than a great player, his songwriting skills set him apart from the pack.
I love the pulsating interplay of his guitar with Regi Oliver’s driving baritone sax. He calls his singular sound: “Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues,” an intoxicating mix of deep blues, blistering, psychedelic-tinged rock, booty-shaking funk and sweet Southern soul, played and sung with the fire-and-brimstone fervor of a revival tent preacher with a hellhound on his trail. Tastemaker Americana music magazine No Depression says, “Selwyn Birchwood reaches back in the blues tradition to launch something out of this world.”
Rolling Stone Magazine called Selwyn: “A remarkable, contemporary bluesman…
a powerhouse young guitarist and soulful vocalist…a major player…highly recommended.”
Selwyn and his band take the stage on Friday, September 5, at 8 p.m. Another rising guitarist, singer and songwriter, Tampa’s George Pennington, opens the show with a solo set. For tickets and information, you can follow this link.
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