Matt Schofield signs up for Burnley’s Blues Festival

The latest big name to be added to the ever-growing line-up is Matt Schofield – one of the freshest and most exciting blues guitarist to emerge on the scene for many a year.

Rated in the top 10 British blues guitarists of all time, by Guitar & Bass Magazine, the 34-year-old Manchester-born funkster’s powerful mix of blues, rock and New Orleans funk is unlike anything else on the block.

His latest album “Anything But Time” has been produced by John Porter, legendary for his productions of Buddy Guy, BB King, Taj Mahal, Keb Mo, Santana, and is MOJO magazine’s number one album of 2011.

In what’s been a relatively short career, his prowess as a guitarist and singer has taken his band to 23 countries and even saw him crowned Blues Guitarist of the Year in 2010 and 2011 at the British Blues Awards.

For the past two years Matt has toured extensively in the USA and Canada as part of the Matt Schofield Trio (the band comprises long-term compatriot Jonny Henderson and American Kevin Hayes on drums) and played blues festivals as far afield as Indonesia, India and Texas, where he headlined the memorial T-Bone Walker Festival in T-Bone’s home town of Linden, Texas.

His signing on the dotted line is yet another coup for the Burnley International Rock and Blues Festival, which will now be held from Friday, May 4th to Sunday, May 6th.

The event is being sponsored by the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy award-winning company AMS Neve and will see Burnley tansformed into “Little America” for the weekend.

Albany Down and Virgil and the Accelerators are already down to perform and a dedicated website www.burnleyrockandblues.com is set to be launched over the next few weeks.

Any companies, clubs or bars wishing to get involved can contact Steve Reid at [email protected].