North Star Blues 2011

A native of San Francisco, guitarist and singer Moses Oakland came of age with the "San Francisco Sound" bands of the '60s. After a seven year break from professional playing, he returned to the scene in 1984 with the late Oakland, California bluesman Haskell "Cool Papa" Sadler. In Cool Papa's band he got to work and sit-in with many of the Oakland blues notables like Beverly Stovall, "Little Ronnie" Hogan, Birdlegg and the steel guitar master, Freddie Roulette .

In 1987 he arrived, with his family, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Soon after that, he became a fixture at the Monday Night Blues Jam at St. Paul's Blues Saloon, where he became the leader of the house band, Monday Blues, from 1990 until its close in January 2000. During this time he performed in backing bands with Hubert Sumlin, Cash McCall, and Syl Johnson, as well as opening shows for Junior Walker and the All Stars, Kelly Hunt, Savoy Brown and Sue Foley.

He played the house gig at Blues Alley during the Summer of 1995 with Michael Pendergast, Donnell "Papa D" Woodson and Vincent Dommio. The Summer of 1996 found him working with Paul Holland, Randall Pye and Shane, as The Butterbeans. 1997 included a six week tour in France playing with Nicolas Toussaint, Brett Forberg and Greg Russell, and work on Nicolas' Cold Wind Records CD, "C'est si Bon." In 1998-9, he was guitarist for the Twin Cities R&B band, Power of Ten.

Currently, he can be found around the Twin Cities, playing his guitar and singing with his smokin' Blues/R & B/Jazz quintet, featuring Jason Craft: organ, Charles Fletcher: bass Donald "Hye Pockets" Robertson:drums & Scott Sansby: percussion. Moses Oakland and Friends host the jam every Sunday, as they have since May of 2000, at Famous Dave's BBQ & Blues, In Uptown Minneapolis. Moses and Paul Holland also appear together as an acoustic singin'/guitar-playin' duo.

"Hey, Jerry, I have a request. Could you play something crappy so I can rest? I haven't sat down since you started DJ'ing." I love it when I hear this while I am in the DJ booth. And don't get me wrong, I have lots of crappy music, I just know not to play it. Knowing what to play, when to play it and how to keep the dancers on the floor is what I love to do best.

I have been DJ'ing blues for dancers since 2004. I've seen lots of trends in blues dancing and in blues music and it continues to get better and better.

John Brooks has honed his craft in Boston, joining the ranks of the enthusiastic talent occupying the Northeast. He got his start in 2007 at house parties, patiently growing his playlist with music that will make you move. Drawing from acoustic blues, gospel, soul, trad jazz, and driving Chicago blues, John brings whatever the floor needs. He's been a favorite at weekly and monthly dances in Boston, and has also DJ'd at Austin Blues Party, Mystic Blues, Show Me Blues, and East Meets West. He brings his own brand of awesome sauce wherever he goes.

Nathalie took her first dance lessons in 1996, starting with Ballroom, Rock, Salsa and then discovered Swing and Balboa in 2004. In 2005, she discovered the joy of dancing to Blues music at the St Louis Lindy Blues Exchange (Missouri / USA) and meeting Tina Davis gave Nathalie the desire to DJ someday. She began collecting a wide variety of music and finally first DJed Swing in France in 2008. The same year, she got a chance to DJ Blues and Soul in the USA. She quickly became addicted and decided to travel to any Blues or Soul event she could DJ.

Nathalie has been DJing for many international Blues events such as MezzJelly Soul Dance Exchange (Dallas, TX), Bluesalicious (Memphis,TN), SoFleX (South Florida, FL), Blues n Soul 2 and 3 (Orlando, FL), DLX (Dublin, Ireland), ELX (Edinburgh, Scotland), Lindy Loves Soul (Charleston, SC), Bluez Cruize (Edinburgh, Scotland), Montreal Bagel 'n' Blues exchange (Canada), etc. Her passion for Blues made her build a Blues community in Paris where she DJs at her monthly parties (www.paris-blues-dance.com).

Nathalie spends a great deal of her time categorizing and classifying her music, and she always puts a lot of energy into making sure that, no matter what she plays, she keeps the people inspired to dance!

Despite starting out in the "Let's blues dance to Maroon5!" camp during college, Susan quickly learned to appreciate how much more the wonderful world of (actual) blues music has to offer. Her style continues to evolve, drawing inspiration from blues music of a wide variety of regions, time periods, and artists, blended with the occasional bit of soul and jazz. In the last few years, she has been spinning with increasing frequency at house parties, dances, events in the Twin Cities (her home scene) and Chicago, as well as bluesSHOUT! 2011 in Boston. North Star Blues is near and dear to her heart, and she extremely happy to be bringing the tunes once again.

Jamison became a DJ like most others - at some late-night house party, no one had prepared to play any music and he had randomly decided to bring his laptop and started playing random tunes. It wasn't anywhere near great, but it was a beginning. Since then, he has been DJing here and there, and is always looking forward to his next opportunity to provide others with his case of the blues by providing the lively and intimate music that that makes you go "ahhhhh...."

When in the DJ booth, Corey loves to push, challenge and motivate the dancers to get out onto the floor. While his sets do lean a little toward the delta Corey is always searching for that perfect next song to continue the vibe and take you on a journey. Whether it's from the Delta or Chicago, acoustic or electric, contemporary or vintage, you never know what Corey's going to pull out in the heat of the moment to keep the you on the dance floor and the party goin'. Corey has DJ'ed events all around the country from nationally known events to that house party in your friends basement that everyone was raving about; he has only one goal when he's in the DJ booth and that's to get you out on the dance floor and dancing until dawn.