Biography

-2014-

Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers’ unique brand of dance music is rooted in vintage 1930’s Mississippi delta blues, then shaken and stirred with their take on other genres like soul, funk, and reggae. 2012’s Boston Music Award-winners for “Blues Artist of the Year,” this band evokes a southern juke joint where the whiskey and gin are flowing and everybody’s dancing.

Growing up in the Washington DC area, Erin learned to play Delta Blues guitar at an early age from her dad, Maryland area bluesman Neil Harpe. She soon began performing at folk festivals, coffee houses, bars, and parties in the DC area, developing a strong guitar and vocal style of her own. Landing in Boston, she released two acoustic blues albums – Blues Roots (2002), and Delta Blues Duets (2008), featuring duets with her dad. Erin’s travels brought her an appreciation of other music styles like Afro-Beat and reggae, and she simultaneously started a world-funk electro-dance band called Lovewhip, which has released five albums on Erin’s own Juicy Juju Records.

In 2010 Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers was born, a deep blues-based dance band with a wealth of influences. The sound was aptly christened “Charles River Delta Blues”. The Delta Swingers immediately won the Boston Blues Challenge, and went to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge. LOVE WHIP BLUES – their debut album on VizzTone/Juicy Juju Records – features four originals and their unique interpretations of songs by Willie Brown, Lucille Bogan, Geeshie Wiley, William Moore and John Prine. It was recorded in Boston by Harpe, bassist Jim Countryman, drummer Bob Nisi, and harmonica player (and VizzTone President) Richard Rosenblatt, then post-produced, mixed and mastered by the amazing Dave Gross at his Fat Rabbit Studios, with guest appearances by Dave Gross and Bob Margolin.