2023 Historic Wallace Blues Festival
July 07-08

Polly O'Keary

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http://www.pollyokeary.com/

https://www.facebook.com/PollyOKearyAndTheRhythmMethod

https://www.instagram.com/pollyokeary/

Polly O’Keary is today’s blues woman, rooted in tradition, but informed by the 21st Century. Pulling in influences from zydeco, country, funk, jazz, rockabilly, surf and rock and roll, she and her trio, Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method, bring a searing and joyful performance of today’s blues to audiences across the U.S. and Canada.

The band includes Polly on vocals and bass, Tommy Cook on drums, and David Miller on guitar. Tommy cut his teeth in blues as a drummer for the house band at Blues Central in Anchorage Alaska, where he eventually became a first call drummer who played all over the state before moving to Seattle in 2005. Today he is endorsed by several elite drum and drum equipment companies and is an instructor at the prestigious Seattle Drum School. Guitarist David Miller grew up listening to blues in Texas.  At 17, then living in California, Miller met a piano player who was then working for Tommy Castro. The older musician recruited Miller to come play at several bars, and assured the young man that he could get him in, underage though he was. Miller became a regular in clubs in the Bay Area, sitting in with local and touring acts night after night. At 25, then living in San Luis Obispo, he assembled The Dave Miller Band, and for the next 18 years, he and the group went on to become one of Southern California’s most popular blues bands, leading one reviewer to describe his “jaw-dropping guitar licks” and praise his “extraordinary mixture of inspiring virtuosity both vocally and instrumentally.

Since forming as a trio in 2014, the band has been steadily building success. Every year brings another national tour (with the exception of 2020). The 2017 album Black Crow Callin’ was an International Blues Challenge finalist in the best self-produced CD category, earned high praise from critics, and spent all summer on blues radio charts. In 2018, the band won the LA Music Critic Best Blues Band award and represented Washington at the International Blues Challenge, where they were semi-finalists. The band released ``As Live As It Gets” in 2019, which won the Washington Blues Society Best Blues Album award. In 2021, the year each band member turned 50, the band released the album “50,” and the single “You Better Think” debuted at #1 on the contemporary blues radio chart. That album also made the Living Blues chart and the Cashbox chart and stayed at the #1 radio position in Washington state for more than two months. And the band has racked up an impressive haul of Washington Blues Society awards, including Drummer of the Year (3x), Guitarist of the Year (2020), Best Female Vocalist (6x), Best Songwriter (6x), Best Blues Bass (3x), Best New Band, Best Album (3x) and more.