PAPA MALI | CALENDAR | SHOP | PRESS | GUESTBOOK | LINKSBandleader MALCOLM WELBOURNE's personification "PAPA MALI" is a salute to his home territory of north Louisiana. Malcolm was born in Mississippi and raised in Shreveport, where absorbing the blues along Bayou Pierre was just as much a matter of course as chasing the mosquito fogging truck with friends -- and equally intoxicating. He spent his summers with grandparents in New Orleans digging that city's rhythm (and blues) and after hearing the Wild Tchoupitoulas and the Meters on the streets of New Orleans at age eleven, he developed an early and ongoing attachment to Crescent City funk. It was Burning Spear's band that gave Malcolm the nickname "Papa Mali" years ago while touring with Spear and the Killer Bees.
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Allmusic.com has this to say about his debut album Thunder Chicken : ‘‘ According to legend, Thunder Chicken is the moniker for a kind of fortified wine that helped Malcolm 'Papa Mali' Welbourne evolve, from his early years as a crazy music-freak kid with a six-string slung over his shoulder to the swamp-funk-hoodoo-slide-guitar-choogler he's become. Along with his smoking band, he concocts a back-alley brand of Louisiana parade sass that meets bluesy Austin, Texas grit in a gumbo of the deeply greasy variety; it becomes something joyfully lusty and intoxicating in its own right.
Although Papa Mali is a solo artist (performing on stages as diverse as Tipitina's and Bonnaroo), slide guitarist, singer/songwriter and acclaimed producer (Lavelle White, Ruthie Foster, and Omar & The Howlers), he can also be seen collaborating with some of the most respected musicians on the scene today, including his longtime drummer extraordinaire Robb Kidd, Cyril Neville, Galactic, MOFRO, Robert Walter, Otis Taylor, George Porter Jr, Johnny Vidacovich, Anders Osborne, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Kevin Russell, and Double Trouble. Papa Mali's long awaited second album, slated for release this year, will feature Big Chief Monk Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles, Henry Butler, Kirk Joseph, Victoria Williams and Chuck Prophet.
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Booking: Crescendo Artists,
2805 Wilderness Place Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80301 / (303) 444-5816
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