Lancaster blues band with 150 years’ experience between them launches debut album
A Lancaster band with more than 150 years of playing experience between them launch their debut album this month.
Formed in 2023 by James Mackie, who recorded two albums with The Selecter during the Eighties, other members of the Out and Out Blues Band are original founder of Lancaster Music Festival Ben Ruth, Rob Livesey, James Barrott and Niels Rasmussen.
They recorded Are You Happy Yet? at Stonegate Studios in High Bentham and it launches on August 22 followed by a gig at the Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival in Colne on August 23.
The album will be available in Lancaster at 45 Records in King’s Arcade and the band will also play two gigs at Love Lancaster Live in October.
“The Out and Outs exist to play live,” said James, who plays the Hammond organ, keyboards and tenor saxophone.
“In an increasingly complicated world, the straightforward communicative exchange between musician and audience is a truly precious thing.
“The band hope this album, with its mix of classics and our own contemporary blues compositions, manages to capture some of that spirit and we offer it to the listeners with gratitude for their support and encouragement.”
The band’s first meeting took place in the Golden Lion in Lancaster and the musicians gelled through their love of the blues.
James had always been a blues and boogie fan but was pulled along other pathways which saw him tour Europe and the UK with The Selecter and playing piano for Madness in the mid-Eighties, performing at festivals and on television including Saturday Night Live in New York.
He went on to play and compose for theatre, radio and film while continuing to be an avid fan of the blues.
Ben Ruth, harmonica virtuoso and vocalist, has lived in Chicago where he played in many bands and festivals including the Chicago Blues Festival as well as performing on the Jenny Jones Show and at Chicago Bulls games.
He also had music released in two films and radio play on American college radio stations. Back in the UK he performed in many blues festivals and venues.
On bass and vocals, Rob Livesey has played some of the biggest UK Blues Festival stages. With blues titans and festival headliners The Stumble, he toured in Europe and the UK supporting Steve Cropper with The Animals and supporting Booker T at The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival. He has also fronted nine-piece soul bands to tight three-piece blues outfits.
Drummer James Barrott has played extensively throughout the UK from the Royal Albert Hall to the Shetland Islands and with Nigel Kennedy and members of The Real Thing.
Although he has played in all genres, he was brought up playing blues rock and worked his way backwards from that into more traditional blues.
Guitarist Niels Rasmussen, who has toured extensively across the north west, has always been a devotee of early ragtime and blues and provides much of the glue and unique styling of the band.
To see and hear more about the Out and Out Band, visit www.theoutandouts.com and facebook.com/outandoutbluesband