Keith Ruff - Advanced Band Leader

The Alabama Blues Project is fortunate to have Keith Ruff on our staff. Keith has been playing music for over 25 years and has toured all over the United States, as well as, China, Sweden, Iraq, and Canada. He is currently the lead guitarist for Bobby Rush and has produced music for Rush, DieDra Hurdle and PoohNanny. He has also worked with E.C. Scott and Freeman Lamar at Paisley Park Duo. Together with his wife DieDra Hurdle, ABP’s vocal instructor, Keith has become a valuable mentor for our burgeoning blues musicians.

Shar-Baby - Guitar & Band Leader

Shar-Baby discovered the blues at the tender age of 6 and started taking guitar lessons at the age of 11. She was inspired by Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s legendary guitarist. She has performed in many blues festivals such as the Pensacola Blues Festival and Willie King’s Freedom Creek festival, and in 2006, she competed at the Blues Challenge for North Michigan in a Solo/Duo competition. She has shared the stage with blues legends, Willie King and Sam Lay, and shared the bill with greats such as Honey Boy Edwards, Kenny Neal, Sweet Claudette, Otiel Burris, and Kent Burnside. She has a recently released album on Instant Karma Entertainment that features all original songs.

DieDra Hurdle - Vocals & Band Leader

At eight years old, DieDra Hurdle began her life long singing career in a family gospel choir. Since then, DieDra has become a sought after blues vocalist and teacher. DieDra sang for the group Melvin Dawson and the Genesis Ensemble, and she has worked with musicians such as Betty Wright, Denise Laselle, Al Green, Avant, Sunshine Anderson, Bobby Rush, and Carl Thomas. When she is not singing, DieDra teaches vocals to children at her church, as well as, the Alabama Blues Project and helps develop other artists. Currently, her latest blues CD, “Overcoming Hurdles” is on two separate southern soul charts. In May 2009, DieDra went on a “Divas of Blues” Tour with Denise Laselle and Betty Padgett. DieDra is married to ABP guitar instructor, Keith Ruff, who serves as her manager and loyal supporter. She has been nominated for Blues Critic's " Best New Female Artist of the Year 2009," Jus Blues Award "Song of the Year 2009 by a Female "Hip Swinging Blues," Jus Blues Award Female Artist of the Year 2009 and was an International Blues Challenge Competitor 2009.

Rick Asherson - Harmonica & Band Leader

Asherson first heard the blues in his native city of London, England, and began to play the harmonica, guitar and piano in the '60's. He has been playing harmonica and keyboards in bands in Europe and the U.S. for the past twenty years, and for the last four years played with the late blues legend Willie King and The Liberators, touring in the United States and Europe. He has played keyboards and harmonica for other Alabama blues greats, including Lil' Jimmy Reed, B. J. Miller, Carroline Shines, and Eddie Kirkland. Rick is Assistant Director of the Alabama Blues Project and a regular blues instructor with the ABP's after-school programs and artist residencies. He has worked closely in developing the Alabama Blues Project educational programs, curriculum and traveling exhibitions.

Jesse Suttle - Percussion & Band Leader

Jesse Diego Walker Suttle is the Project’s lead drum instructor. Music has always been a part of his life and in addition to drums he plays piano, guitar, bass and trombone. Jesse brings a wealth of experience having played in numerous bands and worked with some of the great names in blues music. His bands include Owsley, Topper Price and the Upsetters, Roosevelt Franklin, Teenage Daddy, South Southern Delta, the Crème Brulees, Shane Idols, and Lolas. He is currently playing drums for Shar Baby’s Blues Party. Jesse has also worked with Jerry “Boogie” McCain, Sam Lay, Shariff Simmons, Lil' Jimmy Reed, and Willie King. In addition to playing with Shar Baby, he is currently working with former Leon Russell guitarist Jason Speegle. When Jesse isn’t practicing, composing or producing music, he is raising his kids, Kathryn, Rachel and Ian with his wife Rebecca Brewer.

Blues vocalist, guitar player and songwriter Debbie Bond has played in her own blues band since 1981. She has shared her band with many blues greats, including Carroline Shines' father, the late, great Johnny Shines, Jerry “Boogie” McCain and James Peterson, and has opened for such artists as Dr. John, Charlie Musselwhite, Roy Buchanan, R. L. Burnside, Big Jack Johnson, Kenny Neal and more. In 1995 she toured Europe with Little Whitt and Big Bo and she continues to be a popular performer on the club and festival circuit around the South East. Debbie toured as second guitar player for Willie King's band the Liberators beginning in 2003 until his death in 2009.

Debbie released a solo CD titled What Goes Around Comes Around. She is featured on the Vent Records CD, Alabama Blues Showcase: A Compilation of Alabama Blues Artists and on a German release by Taxim Records called Blues from the Heart of Dixie which showcases contemporary Alabama blues musicians. Bond is a 2001 recipient of an Alabama State Council on the Arts Master Apprenticeship Grant to study guitar with Eddie Kirkland. A long time “blues activist,” she is the founding director of the Alabama Blues Project, an award-winning blues education organization. Debbie has been working with the Alabama State Council on the Arts and other arts organizations to develop a blues curriculum. She has a B. A. in Sociology and an M. A. in American Studies focusing on the blues.

Lonnie Holley

Lonnie Bradley Holley, sometimes known as The Sand Man, is an African American artist and art educator. When his sister's two children died in a house fire in 1979, he decided to do something constructive with his grief. As the family could not afford to buy tombstones for the children, he decided to make them himself. The tombstones were Holley's first works of art. He soon began to create an environment of found materials that he assembled in his yard. Eventually he took some of his carvings to the director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, who was so impressed that he contacted the Smithsonian. This resulted in Holly's work being included in the exhibition, "More Than Land and Sky: Art From Appalachia," which originated in 1981 at the Museum of American Art in Washington. Holley's work is in the permanent collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art after first being exhibited there in 1980. For the first few years, Holley worked almost exclusively with industrial-made sandstone. He then began to work with other found materials such as discarded wire, scrap materials, and wooden objects. In what is considered a natural progression of his work, Holley eventually began to paint. Self-taught and driven, Holley has made his life his art. His yard, his house, his car, his business. It's all art. He can make something out of nothing and instill it with so much meaning that you can't believe he stores it (and most of his art) out in the yard or eternally open garage.

Miz Thang

Miz Thang is a self-taught folk artist from Hawkinsville, GA. All of her blues art is original. Her wooden pieces are usually cut out of cabinet grade birch and then sanded. She paints with acrylic paint and sometimes she coats her pieces with shellac. She doesn't use brushes, but prefers to paint exclusively with her fingers. When her fingers are in the paint she feels connected to her art and feels she is passing along some of her special brand of mojo. Some of her creations have been on display at shows, museums and galleries throughout the USA and abroad. Her art is on display at the Smith Calloway Banks Southern Folk Art collection and Research Center at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA. Her blues art has been on display at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, Georgia since 2004. In addition to being an accomplished folk artist, Miz Thang is a certified music educator.

Linda Munoz

Linda Munoz has worked in the medium of glass for over 25 years. Her other artistic love is sewing, and she has won awards for her quilts. Although trained as a Registered Nurse, she gave up nursing to pursue art full time when she realized that art could bring healing in ways medicine could not. Linda has taught mosaic art to children and adults for the last 8 years. She has taught at the Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell, at Fine View Nursery in Ga., and at Black Belt Treasures in Camden, Ala. - just to name a few venues. Linda is also currently working on a 9x9 foot mosaic mural on the wall of the Gallery at Kentuck in Northport (pictured). Her art can be viewed at The Cotton Patch Art Studio in York, Ala.; The Gallery at Kentuck in Northport, Ala.; ORBIX Hot Glass in Fort Payne, Ala.; Black Belt Treasures in Camden, Ala.; Blackwood Gallery in Springville, Ala.; Lucas Road Gallery in Meridian, Miss.; and Mountain Mama's in Cloudland, Ga.

B.J. Miller

Born in Kansas City, Mo., B.J. Miller was destined for greatness. She is the daughter of Bettye Miller, reigning musician in K.C., known as the “Queen of Jazz”. To enhance the premier music atmosphere that was her home, Miller took formal studies at the university of Missouri-KC Conservatory of Music. She thrived in this total immersion in music, from trombone to electric piano and on to singing. Blessed with talents from both parents, B.J. has used her abilities to captivate audiences across United States, Canada, France, Spain and Tokyo. She has played and sung with a multitude of artist such as Ronnie Laws, Bloodstone, Bonnie Pointer, B.B. King, Fred Wesley, Marvin Cease, Roy Ayers and Sir Charles Jones. B.J.'s skills include writing, singing, playing, arranging, engineering and producing just to name a few of her talents. Among her production duties is the CD Better Man by the talented Mack Davis on the Mixed Company label. Clearly, Miller is a multi-gifted artist.

Carroline Shines

One of Alabama’s best kept secrets is the talented blues diva Carroline Shines. Carroline is carrying on the blues tradition she learned from her father, the late, great, world renowned Johnny Shines. As a legendary guitar player, singer and song writer, Johnny Shines lived the blues, performing and writing songs his entire life, even traveling with Robert Johnson in his youth. He was always a great educator and supporter of the blues, and passed on his passion to his daughter, Carroline Shines. Carroline grew up in this rich musical environment with her father as her mentor. She dedicated her early years to raising her own family and singing in the church and local bands while putting her own career on the back burner. In 2004 Carroline began working with the Alabama Blues Project after-school program, teaching young singers and helping to educate the next generation about the blues. Those who have long been aware of Carroline’s extraordinary talent are so excited that she is launching her performing career.

Big Joe Shelton

Big Joe Shelton was born in the Black Prairie region of northeast Mississippi. As a child growing up in a small Mississippi town he was exposed to African-American culture, which still strongly reflected that of the early part of the twentieth century. He attended tent minstrel shows, bar-b-que picnics and heard street musicians performing authentic traditional blues. As a young man he was fortunate in befriending Big Joe Williams and this association greatly influenced his musical sensibilities. As a child Shelton sang in church and grammar school choirs. In his teens he began playing the harmonica and guitar. Songwriting soon followed, and he found he had a wealth of experiences from which to draw. In the mid seventies he moved to Chicago and experienced the urban blues scene first hand. From Maxwell Street to the south side, he sopped up the blues gravy served by the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy and many others. He is a member of the Mississippi Arts Commission “Artist Roster” and “Folk Arts / Folk Life Directory” and was honored by being included on the “Columbus / Catfish Alley” Mississippi Blues Trail Marker. Big Joe has performed at numerous festivals and clubs throughout the southeastern United States including: King Biscuit Blues Festival, Howlin’ Wolf Memorial Blues Festival, Freedom Creek Blues Festival and the Beal Street Mess Around. He has also toured England, France, Belgium, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. He has played with blues legends Big Joe Williams, Furry Lewis, Son Thomas, Junior Kimbrough, Fenton Robinson, Living Blues 2003 “Artist Of The Year” Willie King, BMA Award nominees Blind Mississippi Morris, R. L. Burnside and Johnny Rawls as well as Daniel “Slick” Ballinger, the 2007 BMA” Best New Artist” honoree. Among his many contributions toward perpetuation of the blues is his involvement with the Jazz Foundation of America and the Howlin’ Wolf Blues Societies “blues in the school” educational programs.

Dr. Burt

Dr. G.B. Burt was born in Birmingham, Ala. on January 30, 1937. During WWII, his family moved to the west coast where his father went to work in the shipyards. In 1947, his family moved back to Alabama and then on to Florida often migrating to wherever his dad could find work. He comes from a musical family. His mother played the piano and sang gospel music. His father and two uncles, Arthur and Herbert Burt, were all blues guitarists. G.B. took up the guitar and started playing the blues when he was in his teens and has kept it up ever since. When he was 14, he began to box. In 1954, he fought in the Golden Gloves tournament and later he trained with Alvin Blues Lewis who went on to fight Muhammad Ali. When he was 30, he married and settled down and found work with Ford Motors in Michigan. After nearly 10 years he went out on his own, bought a wrecker truck and became an independent mechanic, a job he continues to this day.

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