Episode 205 - Selwyn Birchwood

Although award-winning Florida musician Selwyn Birchwood is firmly rooted in the tradition, the young guitarist, lap steel player, songwriter and vocalist sets a course for the future of the blues with his visionary, original music. Birchwood, whose band features the pulsating interplay of his blistering guitar, deploys a singular sound and style all his own. He calls it “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.

On his new release, Exorcist (his 4th for Alligator and 6th overall), Birchwood delivers the most far-reaching, musically adventurous album of his career. Exorcist was recorded and produced by Grammy Award-winner Tom Hambridge, with each of the 13 vividly detailed songs written and arranged by Birchwood. The soul-baring tracks all hit with lasting rhymes and unexpected rhythms.

Live, Birchwood is a force of nature. His ability to win over an audience is proven night after night on the bandstand. With his warm, magnetic personality, Birchwood is as down-to-earth as his music is thought-provoking and electrifying. With his band feeding off his energy, he roams the stage barefoot, ripping out memorable guitar licks with ease, his soulful, rocks-and-gravel vocals firing up his fans. When he sits down to play his lap steel, he takes the crowd to a whole other level.

After winning the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Birchwood found doors swinging open. He took a giant step forward in 2014 with his Alligator Records debut album, Don’t Call No Ambulance. Rave reviews ran in publications from Rolling Stone to The Wall Street Journal, from The Chicago Tribune to The San Francisco Chronicle. The album won both the Living Blues Award and the Blues Music Award (BMA) for Best New Artist Debut. He followed in 2016 with fan-favorite Pick Your Poison and, in 2021, with the groundbreaking Living In A Burning House. He won the coveted BMA Song Of The Year Award for “I’d Climb Mountains”.

Living In A Burning House has been his most successful record to date. The album appeared at or near the top of every significant domestic and international blues chart, including #1 on the Living Blues Radio Chart. In addition, Birchwood had multiple songs reach heavy rotation on SiriusXM’s Bluesville, while crossing over to jam band specialty shows.

The Selwyn Birchwood Band has toured extensively, performing at some of the most popular blues festivals worldwide, including The Chicago Blues Festival, The Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival and countless others.

Now, with Exorcist, Selwyn Birchwood and his band are ready to get back on the road and deliver the new songs live to expanding, enraptured audiences around the world, lifting spirits while banishing demons. One listen to Exorcist will no doubt convert many new true believers: this is visionary contemporary blues written and performed by an endlessly creative, modern-day blues master.