Ep. 46: Kevin Selfe
Kevin Selfe has been electrifying audiences nationwide since breaking into the blues scene in 2006. His growing stature as a captivating story teller and passionate performer are surpassed only by his deft mastery of blues guitar. Having relocated to Portland, OR, the Virginia native is now a leading light in the Pacific Northwest’s robust blues revival. Effortlessly combining the guitar traditions of the legends and the modern masters into his own unique approach, Selfe’s stylistic depth and electric performances resonate with audiences. His live shows have grown in legend largely due to his unique gift for communicating, through guitar, the complex range of moods revealed only by blues. Selfe’s songwriting style bridges the gap between joy and angst, using piercing irony, humorous metaphors, and daring autobiographical subject matter from his own occasional walks with the blues.
In February 2013, Kevin Selfe signed with world renown blues label Delta Groove, and released “Long Walk Home” to rave reviews. The recording peaked at #15 on the Billboard Blues Chart, #6 on the Living Blues Radio Chart spending three months in the top 25, and was #2 on SiriusXM Radio Bluesville “Pick To Click” list. “Long Walk Home” features 11 original compositions demonstrating Selfe’s musical depth and diversity with forays into West Coast, Texas, Chicago and Delta blues, along with top-notch support by veteran blues and roots musicians including Delta Groove labelmate Mitch Kashmar on vocals and harmonica, Gene Taylor (The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Blasters) on piano, Doug James (Roomful of Blues, Jimmie Vaughan) on baritone sax, and Tornadoes Allen Markel (The Insomniacs) on bass and Jimi Bott (Fabulous Thunderbirds, Rod Piazza, The Mannish Boys) on drums.
In October 2015, Selfe released “Buy My Soul Back” on the VizzTone Label. Just as with “Long Walk Home”, Selfe calls upon his “Who’s Who” list of blues friends to create a gem of a recording that features Jimi Bott, Sugaray Rayford, Mitch Kashmar, Willie J Campbell, Gene Taylor, James Pace, Lisa Mann and many more. This latest collection of songs reveals an unwavering dedication to the traditional blues school, and yields yet another deft homage to empty wallets, ne-er-do-wells, and the enduring theme of love’s rapid melt. With “Buy My Soul Back”, Kevin Selfe has cemented his reputation as a masterful, dyed-through, true bluesman.
In nine years Kevin Selfe and The Tornadoes have become a fan favorite in the Northwest and beyond. In August 2013, Kevin was nominated for a Blues Blast Award, and the band was inducted into the Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame in 2012 for Traditional Blues Act. In addition, Kevin was inducted into the CBA Hall of Fame for Electric Guitar in 2014 . They’ve won 20 prestigious Muddy Awards from the CBA for Traditional Blues Act of The Year (2010-2014), Contemporary Blues Act of The Year (2009, 2013, 2015), Performance of the Year (2016, 2013, 2012), Electric Guitar (2012-2014), Drums (2011-2014), NW Recording of The Year (2013), and National Recording of The Year (2013).
Kevin Selfe is a man who has dedicated his life to the blues. For more than a decade, he has been sharing that love and dedication with audiences from coast to coast, building a loyal following wherever his energetic mix of traditional and contemporary blues is heard. Although many have played the genre before him, Kevin’s path to, and through, the blues is an interesting one and is what draws people to his music.
In a world of teenage guitar prodigies, Kevin learned to play the guitar at a relatively late age while studying Meteorology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. “I had plenty of time to practice in my dorm room”, Kevin explains “because my major was not real popular with the ladies.” He jokingly but honestly adds “They used to call us the weather dorks”.
“My roommate was a bass player and he introduced me to this whole new world of music that I wasn’t aware of. While everybody else was into the grunge thing, we were listening to Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James. It was like this big light went on in my head.”
After graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Meteorology in 1995, Selfe felt like there was something missing, something else calling him. He decided to abandon a potential career as a weatherman, and pursue the music that consumed his soul, the blues. Kevin states “I don’t think I ever really chose to play the blues…I think somehow the blues chose me.”
In 1997 at the age of 23, he joined the regionally popular Fat Daddy Band based out of his hometown of Roanoke, VA. During his tenure with them, the Fat Daddy Band won the Charlotte Blues Society’s 2001 Talent Competition and was a finalist at the Blues Foundation’s 2002 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, thus being named one of the top 6 unsigned blues bands in the world.
