Reed Turchi at the Bitter End

Raised in the Swannanoa Valley just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, Reed Turchi grew up playing boogie woogie and New Orleans style piano before turning to slide guitar. He then learned to play Hill Country blues firsthand in North Mississippi and founded a blues-rock trio called Turchi in 2011. Seeking new inspirations and sounds in 2014, Turchi the musician disbanded Turchi the band and moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He formed Reed Turchi & the Caterwauls and released an album in 2016. Later that year, playing guitar by his grandmother's death bed inspired him to record a solo album that returned him to his acoustic blues roots. Forming a band again, he recorded his most recent album, Live at Soulshine by Reed Turchi & His Kudzu Orkestra Featuring Art Edmaiston, which was released on October 25, 2017. He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

Over the span of his musical career, Reed Turchi has explored several facets of blues, and many of these ventures delved deep in the lesser known veins. Turchi may be a connoisseur of finer but more obscure blues traditions. His ongoing exploration of southern blues permit him to incorporate these sounds innovatively into his own music. At his performance tonight at the Bitter End, much of his performance honored familiar terrain, but there were several this-is-different moments. These moments happened when his blues probed deeper, grittier and darker than the commercial variety. His accompanying musicians kept the music buoyant while Turchi kept it rootsy. His slide guitar work kept it authentic, and his cloudy, slightly raspy vocals kept it swampy. Turchi's set proved to be rich and tasty.

Visit Reed Turchi at www.reedturchi.com.