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Jumpin Salty Blues Band
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The Jumpin Salty Blues Band Bio:
The musicians in Jumpin Salty have been making music together since 1992 when Lex Samu, Morgan Kraft and the Rast Brothers (Madison and Wesley) all attended university at the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts. Over the years they continued to work together making recordings and playing gigs. As the Kraft Quartet, they began releasing albums on the indie label Microearth Records. In 2008 they released the critically acclaimed CD "Nervous Boogie" which included blues legends Sean Costello, Mookie Brill and Bob Margolin. They had finished tracking and were mixing a second album that once again featured Sean on lead guitar when he suddenly passed away on April 15th, 2008 in the middle of a tour supporting his new CD.
The group occasionally continues to release recordings and perform as the Kraft Quartet. In 2008 Morgan joined the rest of the musicians in New York City and they began performing as Jumpin Salty, named after an instrumental song on Sean's second album "Cuttin' In". In 2009 they started working with Liz Edwards after hearing her sing at an open mic night at American Trash on the Upper East Side. Her classical background as a pianist (trained at Mannes) made her sense of form and phrasing a perfect fit with the bands approach to structure. In August of 2009 they spent a week at the Magic Shop, NYC recording an EP of original material (Boom, Bust and the New Deal) including Liz's "Step Back Boy", "The Time Has Come" and four songs written by Morgan Kraft. They also took time to record several blues standards including "Rock My Baby", "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "Dust My Broom" featuring Dave Gross on lead guitar. The session was produced by Morgan, and engineered by Ted Young. These recording are scheduled for release in 2010.