An In Depth Interview with 61 Ghosts
Joe Mazzari, guitar, lead vocals, songwriter
Joe Mazzari began writing roots-rock music in his 20s, influenced by John Hiatt, Bob Dylan, Link Wray, Rory Gallagher and the Delta blues musicians. Caught up in the Boston rock scene in the 1980s, Joe recorded a handful of albums/CDs and toured the U.S. and U.K.
Joe fronted The Daughters, Two Saints, Jacknife Beat, and the Joe Mazzari Band. He also recorded and toured with Johnny Thunders of the NY Dolls and the Heartbreakers fame for three years, and appeared on three of Johnny’s albums. Read more here. Joe had the good fortune to record with legendary producer Jimmy Miller (Rolling Stones, Traffic and Motorhead) and John Peel of BBC fame. Combining a touch of raunchy rock with his roots-rock music in the early 2000s, Joe gravitated back to his raw original style. He recorded “Chasing 61 Ghosts”, released in 2011, with the Joe Mazzari Band, taking it on the road with touring musicians.
Dixie, drummer, back-up vocals
After stumbling upon a film documentary called “Deep Blues” and hearing, for the first time, Mississippi hill country blues legends Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside, it changed her life so much, Dixie vowed to teach herself to play drums in the style of her newly found heroes. In 2008 Dixie joined the hill country blues band All Night Long that produced three albums. Dixie became Leo Bud Welch’s drummer in 2013 has performed in over 20 festivals in the US, Europe and Africa. She is featured in a documentary on Leo Bud Welch, “Late Blossom Blues-The Leo “Bud” Welch Documentary” was released January 2017. Dixie was included on Leo’s Mississippi Blues Trail Marker as his drummer. Sam Carr, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Calvin Jackson (Cedric Burnside’s father) continue to impact her style of drumming. Dixie endorses Peridore Custom Sticks, SoulTone Cymbals and plays TAMA Silverstar drums. “I was happily surprised the first time I heard Dixie play behind Mr. Leo. Dixie has the ear for raw blues. She is very humble about her talent, which makes it that much better.” ~ Cedric Burnside, grandson of the famed hill country blues artist R.L. Burnside and seven-time winner of Blues Music Award for best “Drummer of the Year.” “The late, great T-Model Ford really locked into his own sound when he had the late, great Spam backing him up on drums. The two shared an almost telekinetic sense of communication between them and rare were the times when words had to be spoken when they were up on the bandstand. It seems that Welch has found his ‘Spam’ in the form of the dynamic Ms. Dixie Street, his drummer for the past couple of years. Just like T-Model and Spam, Leo Bud Welch and Dixie Street go together better than peanut butter and jelly.” ~ Blues Blast Magazine Senior Writer Terry MullinsJ.D. Sipe, bassist
J.D. Sipe has played his signature swampy roots music in bars, saloons and dancehalls throughout the Midwest and southwestern states for more than 40 years. He has performed with numerous bands and recorded with Sam Bluzman Taylor and Billy D and the Hoodoos. Some of the high points of J.D.’s musical journey included playing with Homesick James and Joe Houston when they performed in Arizona. Trips to the Juke Joint Blues Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi put J.D. in touch with the deep roots of hill country blues and introduced him to his bandmates in 61 Ghosts.
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