Event

Popa Chubby - Blues on the Coast

Electric blues guitarist Popa Chubby, a native son of the Big Apple grew up in the neighborhood immortalized in Robert DeNiro's film "A Bronx Tale." His early memories of hearing the jukebox in his parents' candy store playing the hits of early Sixties soul and R&B made a lasting impression on him.
"When I first heard Freddie King my world was turned upside down. I was 19 and this older cat in the neighborhood played me the Just Pickin' record and I was knocked out cold. I thought, 'Man, that's what I wanna be when I grow up.'"
Although he grew up in the 1970s, Chubby took his cue from artists of the '60s, including Sly & the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, among others. By the time he was in his early twenties, he enjoyed and played blues music, but also worked for a while backing punk poet Richard Hell.

Chubby's first big break was winning a national blues talent search sponsored by KLON, a public radio station in Long Beach, California. He won the New Artist of the Year award and opened at the Long Beach Blues Festival in 1992. Chubby played more than 200 club dates a year through the '90s. and to date he has released 23 albums and DVDs on a variety of labels, among them his own Laughing Bear label (It's Chubby Time and Gas Money), and Sony Music/Okeh Records (Booty and the Beast).

While the blue remains his main style, over the years Chubby has also incorporated elements of contemporary pop and hip-hop, and country-punk. His latest release, Universal Breakdown Blues in 2013 signifies a return to blues rock and features Chubby's cover version of Over the Rainbow as its centerpiece.
http://www.popachubby.com/