blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
record label in
Van Nuys
Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
History
In 1909, t ...
, California, United States. The label was founded by Randy Chortkoff ( Rand Jay Chortkoff; 1949–2015), a producer, concert promoter, and harmonica player.
Chortkoff's biography
Chortkoff died on May 5, 2015, while awaiting a liver transplant and sentencing on multiple criminal felony fraud charges, including cheating investors of over $1,400,000 in a phony movie investment scam. In 2016, Chortkoff's co-defendant Sam Braslau was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in Lompoc, California. Co-defendant Stuart Rawitt previously pled guilty and was sentenced to five years in federal prison. Both co-defendants were ordered by the US Court to pay restitution of $1,600,000. In February 2017, the Chortkoff Estate was ordered by the US Court to pay $153,400 in disgorgement and $12,615 in prejudgment interest in the civil matter with the SEC.
Overview and history
The label started with blues by musicians from Los Angeles. Its first release was ''That Represent Man'' (2004), the debut album by The Mannish Boys. The label then expanded to other genres.
Jackie Payne
Jackie Payne (born September 26, 1945) is an American blues singer. He was nominated in both 2007 and 2008 for the Blues Music Award for Best Male Soul Blues Artist; an album he recorded with Johnny Otis was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1993. He ...
Steve Edmonson Band's ''Master of the Game'' released in 2006 was the label's first release in
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
/ R&B. The label's releases are newly recorded materials for the most part, but it has also released some albums that were produced by Chortkoff as independent productions and released by the German record label CrossCut (
Kirk Fletcher
Kirk Fletcher (born December 23, 1975) is an American electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. To date, Fletcher has released four studio albums and one live album. In addition, he has variously been a member of the Fabulous Thunderbi ...
's ''Shades of Blue'' and Frank "Paris Slim" Goldwasser's ''bluju'').
Apart from its own releases, Delta Groove Productions produced
Roy Gaines
Roy James Gaines (August 12, 1937 – August 11, 2021) was an American Texas blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He wrote and recorded the song "A Hell of a Night", which was first issued on his 1982 album ''Gainelining''. ...
' ''The First TB Album'', released by Black Gold in 2003.
In 2007, Delta Groove started a new record label, Eclecto Groove Records, as a home and showcase for other musical styles. In June, 2007, Chortkoff hired industry veteran Robert Fitzpatrick (who died in 2010) to become president of Delta Groove Music and Eclecto Groove Records.
Elvin Bishop
Elvin Richard Bishop (born October 21, 1942) is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter. An original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a membe ...
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Bob Corritore
Bob Corritore (born Robert Joseph Corritore; September 27, 1956) is an American blues harmonica player, record producer, blues radio show host and owner of The Rhythm Room, a music venue in Phoenix, Arizona. Corritore is a recipient of a Blues Mu ...
Kirk Fletcher
Kirk Fletcher (born December 23, 1975) is an American electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. To date, Fletcher has released four studio albums and one live album. In addition, he has variously been a member of the Fabulous Thunderbi ...
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Kara Grainger
Kara Grainger is an Australian soul blues and roots rock singer-songwriter, based out of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. She played with the Papa Lips band starting in 1994. In 1998, they were awarded the "Best New Band" award at the Austra ...
Terry Hanck
Terry Hanck (born 1944) is an American electric blues saxophonist, singer, songwriter and record producer, who won a Blues Music Award in 2016 in the 'Instrumentalist - Horn' category. Previously Hanck earned both a Blues Music Award and a ''Livin ...
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Candye Kane
Candice Caleb (November 13, 1961 – May 6, 2016), known professionally as Candye Kane, was an American blues singer, entertainer and adult film star. She loved to sing as a young girl and even appeared on "The Gong Show," as a kid. She dreame ...
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Smokin' Joe Kubek
Smokin' Joe Kubek (November 30, 1956 – October 11, 2015) was an American Texas blues electric guitarist, songwriter and performer.
Biography
Born in Grove City, Pennsylvania, Kubek grew up in the Dallas, Texas area. In the 1970s during his tee ...
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Bnois King
Bnois King (born January 21, 1943) (pronounced "buh-noise")John Long
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Lynwood Slim
Lynwood Slim (born Richard Dennis Duran, August 19, 1953, Los Angeles, California; died August 4, 2014) was an American blues harmonica player and singer. Slim was best known as a singer in the style of smooth easy jazz/blues, as well as his harm ...
R.J. Mischo
R.J. Mischo (born March 18, 1960) is an American electric blues harmonicist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. To date he has released twelve albums on a number of labels, and his music has been aired on independent film scores, television ...
Jackie Payne
Jackie Payne (born September 26, 1945) is an American blues singer. He was nominated in both 2007 and 2008 for the Blues Music Award for Best Male Soul Blues Artist; an album he recorded with Johnny Otis was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1993. He ...
Shawn Pittman
Shawn Pittman (born January 22, 1988 in Bellingham, Washington, United States) is an American rugby union coach and former player. Pittman played Prop (rugby union), prop for Old Puget Sound Beach and the United States national rugby union team ...
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Ana Popović
Ana Popović ( sr-Cyrl, Ана Поповић, born May 13, 1976) is a blues singer and guitarist from Serbia who currently resides in the United States.
Biography
Early life
Popović was born in 1976 in Belgrade. Her father (Milton Popović) ...
Sugaray Rayford
Caron Nimoy "Sugaray" Rayford (born February 13, 1969) is an American soul blues singer and songwriter. He has released five albums to date and been granted three Blues Music Awards. Rayford's 2019 album, ''Somebody Save Me'', was nominated for ...
Tail Dragger
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...
Monster Mike Welch
Monster Mike Welch (born June 11, 1979) is an American electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was nominated for a Blues Music Award in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Welch has released seven albums to date, and is a member of Sugar Ray & th ...