THE CITY BOYS ALLSTARS
WITH NYC BLUES LEGEND MIKE MEROLA,
Agent Roland Smeets
Mike Merola isn’t just another technically skilled blues and jazz guitarist based in Florida, one voice among so many. What emerges most memorably from listening to his playing in his band The City Boys Allstars is its sense of intertwined emotional honesty and naturalness. No wonder some of the best singers and musicians in the big city choose to keep his company on gigs and in the recording studio.
Mike, born in the mid-1950s in New York City, introduced himself to the guitar at age 9. His first teacher was a Joe Pass fan named Frank Terris, who for five years honed Mike’s keen ear for music. Rather than playing sports like many kids, he tirelessly practiced guitar and spent hour after hour listening to records by blues-based rock bands of the 1960s like Cream and the Yardbirds. Teenager Mike was specially drawn to the smooth vibrato and wailing sound of Cream’s guitar god Eric Clapton. He also grew fond of jazz standards.
2 legends and dear friends of the band recently passed away, Lew Soloff trumpet(Blood Sweat and Tears) and Angel Rissoff as vocalist.
NY Blues Hall of Famer Mikey G Merola has a great line-up for his AllStars:
Bil Kurz, Horace Derayco Scott; vocals
Pete Levine, Rob Clores, Nick Saya, Al MacDowell, Daniel Sadownick; Rhythm section
‘Blue Lou” Marini, Andy Snitzer, Tom “Bones” Malone, John Wheeler and Tony Kadleck(MD) Horns
The City Boys Allstars have 4 albums, check their homepage for more info !
Read the article by Dave Fields, Guitarist and NYC contributor Big City Rhythm & Blues Magazine:
The fall has descended on the big city and soon the winter winds will chill the city streets. But that doesn’t matter to New Yorkers like me, we have the blues to keep us HOT! And it seems like I keep meeting more new amazing blues talent that never ceases to blow me away.
I’m excited to introduce you readers to a great band in NYC blues scene The City Boys Allstars and the leader of this amazing new group Mike Merola. Mike has been a veteran of of the NYC blues scene and his band is a prime example of “New York City” blues complete with some of the “heaviest cats” New York has to offer. In my recent interview with Mike he shared a lot with me:
Read the article by Dave Fields, Guitarist and NYC contributor Big City Rhythm & Blues Magazine: