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4-3-2026Although award-winning Florida musician Selwyn Birchwood is firmly rooted in the tradition, the young guitarist, lap steel player, songwriter and vocalist sets a course for the future of the blues with his visionary, original music. Birchwood, whose band features the pulsating interplay of his blistering guitar with Regi Oliver's driving baritone sax, deploys a singular sound and style all his own. He calls it "Electric Swamp Funkin' Blues," an intoxicating mix of deep blues, blistering, psychedelic-tinged rock, booty-shaking funk and sweet Southern soul, played and sung with the fire-and-brimstone fervor of a revival tent preacher with a hellhound on his trail. Tastemaker Americana music magazine No Depression says, "Selwyn Birchwood reaches back in the blues tradition to launch something out of this world."
On his new release, "Exorcist" (his fourth for Alligator and sixth overall), Birchwood delivers the most far-reaching, musically adventurous album of his career. Exorcist was recorded in Florida and produced by Grammy Award-winner Tom Hambridge, with each of the 13 vividly detailed songs written and arranged by Birchwood. The soul-baring tracks all hit with lasting rhymes and unexpected rhythms. Each twists its own tale, ranging from the love-gone-wrong Horns Below Her Halo to the love-gone-terrifying Exorcist to the ripped-from-the-headlines escapades of FLorida Man and Swim At Your Own Risk to the autobiographical Underdog. According to Blues Music Magazine, "Selwyn Birchwood heralds a fresh, exciting new direction in the blues. Toe-tapping, hip-shaking, joyful and inviting... expansive and focused, exploratory and time-honored, but always original."
Live, Birchwood is a force of nature. His ability to win over an audience - any audience - is proven night after night on the bandstand. With his warm, magnetic personality, Birchwood is as down-to-earth as his music is thought-provoking and electrifying. With his band feeding off his energy, the 6'3" musician roams the stage barefoot, ripping out memorable guitar licks with ease, his soulful, rocks-and-gravel vocals firing up his fans. When he sits down to play his lap steel, he takes the crowd to a whole other level, with the music exorcising any bad times and troubles.
"My goal is to be sure you cannot listen passively. We're going to make you dance, and we're going to make you think." One listen to Exorcist will no doubt convert many new true believers: this is visionary contemporary blues written and performed by an endlessly creative, modern-day blues master.
"No one in blues compares to young Florida-based guitarist Selwyn Birchwood. With the quality of his material, combined with a vibrant stage persona, there's no need to borrow tunes from the greats who went before him." - American Songwriter
"A powerhouse player and emotive performer… his band, his material and both his skilled guitaring and soulful vocals are the essence of fully-formed. Birchwood is a major player. Highly recommended." �- Rolling Stone��
"Watch out for Selwyn Birchwood… a genius revelation and a pleasure. Roaring Fender Strat and down-south lap steel guitar." - Blues Matters
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