FEBRUARY 6, 2012: "Don't Fight It" hits #1 on the XM/Sirius Satellite Radio Bluesville Chart!!!
After a thrilling ride up the "B.B. King's Top Picks to Click" chart over the past few weeks, the new Flambeau CD, Don't Fight It, hit Number One this week! And there was great rejoicing throughout the land! Drop a note to the folks at Bluesville and let them know you'd like to hear more spins of this great CD.

JANUARY 22, 2012
Don't Fight It is climbing the blues and roots radio charts!! The new Flambeau CD, "Don't Fight It", hit #7 today on the XM/Sirius Satellite Radio's Bluesville Chart! It has also climbed to #32 on the Roots Music Report's National Blues Chart, and is at #19 on the California Roots (Blues and Americana) Music Radio Chart! Tune into your favorite blues or roots music station and request more spins for this great new CD.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011
2011 is blasting along for Tom Rigney and Flambeau--more shows, more festivals, more rockin' good times than ever!!

The new Flambeau blues CD, "Don't Fight It", was just released on the Parhelion Records label on September 1, 2011, and will be hitting the airwaves all over the world very soon. This new disc is an exciting new chapter in the Flambeau saga--a great collection of blues, R and B, Swamp Blues, Boogie Woogie, and Soul, with several new Tom Rigney instrumental pieces thrown into the mix. The new disc is a fine showcase for the whole band and features high-intensity contributions by all the members of Flambeau. You can cllck on the cover photo to hear some music samples from this fabulous new album.

FESTIVALS FESTIVALS FESTIVALS!! 2011 has seen Flambeau tearing it up at more festivals than ever. Among the highlights in recent months were appearances at the Blues By The Bay Festival, in Eureka--two days of blues, R and B, Gospel, and Flambeau, with performances by Tower of Power, Tommy Castro, Joe Louis Walker, and many others.

Flambeau also played two smokin' sets at the Chico World Music Festival, in Chico. The first show was a concert in the beautiful Laxson Auditorium to a rapt and enthusiastic audience; the second show was the festival's closing set on the outdoor Sycamore Stage, with a couple thousand fans dancing their asses off to the rockin'est set of the weekend.

The band also appeared at many Jazz Festivals this Spring and Summer, among them the Three Rivers Jazz Festival, the Olympia Jazz Festival, the Mammoth Lakes Jazz Jubilee, the Pentastic Jazz Festival in British Columbia and perhaps most notably, the great Sacramento Jazz Festival. This year our fearless leader, Tom Rigney, was crowned EMPEROR of the 2011 SACRAMENTO JAZZ FESTIVAL, and his reign was a time of great joy throughout the Empire! He rode at the head of the Mardi Gras Parade in a beautiful Peacock blue 1956 T-Bird converitble and heaped blessings on his assembled subjects.

Throughout the Memorial Day Weekend in Sacramento, Flambeau drew record-breaking crowds at nearly all their venues as legions of His Majesty's loyal subjects danced and partied and made mostly futile attempts to touch the hem of his various garments. One of his loyal subjects did get just a little carried away in his desire to show his love for the Emperor (see photo below) and had to be forcibly restrained by Security Forces. He is now resting comfortably in jail.

Among the highlights of the weekend were capacity crowds at both Freeway Gardens and Firehouse Lot , and thunderous standing ovations for Flambeau's performances everywhere.

2010's Emperor Bob Draga played a memorably intense and musically exciting set with Flambeau, appearing onstage in a jacket rejected by Porter Wagoner as "just too damn much!" and a hat borrowed from a 1930's movie featuring Betty Grable. His outfit, happily, did not impede his brilliant clarinet playing, and the musical interaction between the two Emperors was truly music-making on the highest level. A splendid time was had by all!
Read the article about Tom in the Sacramento Bee, May 27, 2011 HERE.

Another highlight of the summer was a backyard BBQ at Rancho Nicasio--a co-bill with Michael Doucet and Beausoleil. A big crowd gathered on a beautiful afternoon to eat, drink, dance, and listen to two of the hottest fiddle players in their price range! It was a fine day and the music was glorious!

 

 

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In all, 2011 is shaping up as a great year for the band, with countless concerts, festivals, and dances in venues and communities all over the U.S. and Canada, from Orange County, CA, to Penticton, BC, from Decatur to Sheep Ranch to Rancho Nicasio to Palmer, Alaska. I think it is safe to say that Tom Rigney and Flambeau's plan for world domination is proceeding apace! You don't want to be left out of this party!!

Photo by Jennifer Zaucha

 

 

DECEMBER 10, 2007
2007 has been a hugely busy year for Tom and the band. The Spring saw the release of the first live DVD video "Live at the Throckmorton Theatre" and the new live CD as well. These have been getting rave reviews from critics and fans alike and should be added to your collection without delay.

Flambeau had a great summer, with memorable performances at the Mammoth Lakes Jazz Festival, the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival in San Francisco, and the Alaska State Fair, where the band played two beautiful nights on the Main Stage with a magnificent backdrop of the surrounding mountains and the Columbia Glacier.

The performance at the Yerba Buena Gardens was a co-bill and collaboration with Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeno Band--a show appropriately named "Tabasco Meets Jalapeno 2007". In addition to showcasing both bands in a kaleidoscopic mix of styles ranging from Salsa to Tex-Mex to Cajun to New Orleans to Blues and R and B, the show concluded with several songs by the combined Bayou Jalapeno Orchestra--all the members of Flambeau with the addition of two percussionists and three horns and accordion from Dr. Loco's band--a rousing and truly memorable finale with Tom and his old friend Dr. Loco (Jose Cuellar) driving the band to a dizzying level of energy and intensity. It is hoped that the New Year will bring more opportunities for these great bands to work and play together...

 

 

Tom also had the great pleasure of performing with Senegalese kora master, Solo Cissokho, in his first West Coast appearance. The venue was Berkeley's venerable World Music club, Ashkenaz, and Tom was the evening's surprise guest. Introduced to Solo only when he was brought up onstage during the show, Tom and Solo created an improvisational blend of kora (double-necked West African harp) and violin, a mix of West African tradition and American roots, a meeting of two musical minds and spirits that brought the audience to its feet, stomping and cheering for more.

And one final memorable collaboration from the end of summer: Tom and the band have, in the past three years, become one of the most popular bands at the Pentastic Jazz Festival in Penticton, British Columbia. This year, as part of the festival's closing ceremony, Tom invited world-renowned clarinetist Bob Draga, one of the masters of traditional jazz, to join him onstage with Flambeau for a performance of the Gershwin classic, "Summertime". It was a hauntingly beautiful and passionate version of this great tune, with the violin and clarinet singing and weaving around each other--a performance that Tom considers one of the finest musical moments of his career. Flambeau was then joined onstage by no less than a dozen horn players (from all the great bands featured at the festival), piano, banjo, and percussion, for a roof-raising Bayou Orchestra version of Tom's classic "Goin' Down to New Orleans". A great finish to a fabulous weekend and a fabulous summer!

This fall, in addition to an extensive performing schedule, Tom will be puttin the finishing touches on a new acoustic blues album--"Back Porch Blues"--that should be released in early 2008. This new disc will feature a great selection of songs from the old time blues and country blues repertoire, and a handful of new Rigney compositions as well. Guest artists on the sessions include Roy Rogers, Norton Buffalo, Bob Brozman, Michael Peloquin, Caroline Dahl, Steve Parks, and many others. Watch for news and previews here in the coming months.

2008 will bring a number of new projects--new compositions of Tom's and new collaborations with a number of great musicians. Stay tuned!