JASON RICCI & NEW BLOOD Source: Arkansas Democrat gazette Online Date: 06/2008 Writer: Jack Hill

LITTLE ROCK — River Market club impresario Chris King, who knows a thing or two about music, has proclaimed Jason Ricci the new sound of harmonica wizardry, even going so far as to say, “With all due respect to John Popper of Blues Traveler, Jason Ricci’s harmonica stylings are probably the best our ears have ever heard.”

The Nashville, Tenn.-based Ricci and his band, New Blood, are coming to King’s club, Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack, 107 Commerce St., Little Rock, for a show at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Cover charge is $8. Call (501) 372-7707.

A native of Portland, Maine, Ricci became a blues fan early on. At 21, he won the Sonny Boy Blues Society’s competition in Helena, which gave him a main stage slot at what was then called the King Biscuit Blues Festival. He went on to work with Susan Tedeschi, Billy Gibson, David Kimbrough and Kimbrough’s father, Junior Kimbrough, along with R.L. Burnside in clubs across the South.

After Junior Kimbrough died, Ricci returned to Maine, formed a band and won the 1999 Mars National Harmonica Contest, beating out more than 1,000other entrants. He then went off and joined Big Al and the Heavyweights for 15 months before forming another band, New Blood, and moving to Nashville in 2001, where he released his first solo CD, Feel Good Funk. In 2006, he released a follow-up, Blood on the Road, inspired by his 300-gig-a-year schedule.

Ricci has listed among his influences Little Walter, Sun Ra, The Pixies, Lou Reed, Gov’t Mule and The Rolling Stones. His shows now combine blues with hard rock, jazz, funk and psychedelic sounds. He has been known to perform cover versions of songs by The Meters, Herbie Mann, Slim Harpo and Bob Marley.

Ricci handles vocals and harmonica. Members of New Blood are Shawn Starski on guitar and vocals, Todd Eubanks on bass and Ed Michaels on drums.

The band released its latest CD, Rocket Number 9, on Oct. 23. The album’s producer, John Porter, is known for his work with B.B. King, Ryan Adams, Buddy Guy and Los Lonely Boys.

The new album contains 11 original Ricci songs, plus one cover, the title song, written by Sun Ra.