MICHAEL MESSER & ED GENIS - "With Ed playing the rhythm guitar & Michael singing & playing slide, this is one of the finest guitar based blues & roots acts in the world."

"This is one of the finest guitar-based blues & roots acts in the world."
Time Out Magazine

Michael Messer & Ed Genis by Alan Messer ©2000

CLICK HERE >MICHAEL MESSER & ED GENIS >STEEL GUITAR BLUES mp3
THIS RECORDING IS FROM THE ALBUM >KING GUITAR

Michael Messer and Ed Genis first started playing music together in 1983. Since then they have worked
on many albums together and toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom, Europe & Canada.
Both as a duo and in a band format they have played at numerous festivals, theatres, clubs & TV shows.
Heavily rooted in Mississippi Delta & Chicago blues this duo explores many different areas of roots and
world musical styles. These days Michael Messer & Ed Genis concerts feature a range of material developed
over twenty five years of playing music together. This is a very relaxed "unplugged" kind of performance that
includes songs from all Michael Messer's albums.
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RECEIVE A FIVE MINUTE STANDING OVATION!

Michael Messer & Ed Genis - Sat 5th May 2007 by Simon Prichard©

'Michael Messer and Ed Genis received a five minute standing ovation at Mumbles Jazz'n'Blues Festival.
It was a privilege to be part of the day and witness a faultless set of mesmerizing world class blues'. GW
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Michael Messer & Ed Genis - Sat 5th May 2007 by Simon Prichard©

Michael Messer & Ed Genis by Alan Messer ©2004

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'Went to see Michael Messer and Ed Genis on Friday night.
They were out of this world!'
Jane, Haslemere, Surrey - BBC Radio 2 Paul Jones Show forum - (December 2007)

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Michael Messer & Ed Genis

Review - Oval Tavern, Croydon, 21st January 2007

This was a true acoustic gig with all the guitars being amplified by microphones with one exception.
Michael Messer is a musician with a reputation as one of the foremost exponents of bottleneck blues
in the UK, and on this performance, that reputation was totally merited. In Ed Genis he has a more
than able second guitar player, whose versatility as a support was superior to some lead players.
During the gig Michael played on four different guitars, three wooden resonator guitars and an electro
acoustic guitar of Telecaster configuration.

The first set started on traditional ground with ‘Rolling & Tumbling’, a bottleneck blues with a strong
country feel, with fine work from Ed. In the same territory came ‘Walking Blues’, a rhythmic interpretation
with a fine bottleneck solo. ‘Diving Duck’ was Michael’s own take on the genre; tuneful and mesmeric
with Ed making a mandolin sound on guitar. Next Michael played ‘Shouldn’t Do That’ on a square-neck
guitar, lap-style. This had a jazzy almost Hawaiian style and prompted a big round of applause. On the same
guitar Michael played a bluegrass tune ‘Rolling In My Sweet Baby’s Arms’, again to much applause.
Now Michael reached for the Tele’ style guitar (which did have an amp) and played ‘Blue Letters’, a
slow bottleneck blues. Back on the resonator Michael finished the set with the Mississippi Fred McDowell
classic ‘Write Me a Few Short Lines’, a thunderous tune played frenetically and with great feel.

By now Michael had established with the sizeable audience his complete mastery of the instrument and in
the second set he built on this with the atmospheric ‘Robert Johnson’s Wake’, the lyrical ‘Shine On’
(played on a twelve string), the scintillating ‘I Be’s Troubled’, the trenchant ‘Lone Wolf Blues’, the insistent
‘Turning Blue’ and the plaintive ‘Hummingbirds In My Soul’. This was followed by the up-tempo
‘Take Me Back’ and the set finished with the atmospheric ‘Locomotive Skin’, an anthem of train & travel blues.

The third set opened with a lap-steel country instrumental which got a resounding ovation. This was followed by
the jazz classic ‘Lady Be Good’, played with mastery and a finesse which also merited and got a huge round of
applause. Michael then played a strong rendition of the Son House classic ‘Death Letter Blues’, where once again
he showed complete mastery of the instrument. The performance finished with the raucous ‘Tail Feather Blues’,
which went down well with a more than appreciative audience.

This was an excellent performance by two musicians at the top of their game. This was a fine example of the acoustic
tradition which is being carried on to great effect in the UK by the likes of Michael Messer & Ed Genis.
Bill Smith – Blues In Britain (February 2007)

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MICHAEL MESSER & ED GENIS
‘Going Up The Country’ at Worthenbury Village Hall: 18 Jan 2008

For the first gig of the year, British slide maestro Michael Messer, and his long-time rhythm guitarist and
occasional vocalist Ed Genis, delighted a near-capacity crowd with two fine sets of mainly vintage delta blues,
with variations along the way. The two musicians have developed an almost telepathic understanding
on stage after twenty five years together.

Michael Messer switched guitar several times - playing acoustically in a conventional slide manner and also
lap-style, with his electric playing on Terry Clarke’s “Blue Letters” being one of the evening’s highlights,
with its piercing Chicago flavoured slide playing. The Sleepy John Estes tune, “Diving Duck” was given an African feel,
with Ed Genis’s fluent acoustic guitar underpinning Messer’s slide.

The duo doffed their cap to one of the most legendary bluesmen on the moody “Robert Johnson’s Wake”,
and performed what is considered to be the first recorded slide guitar piece, “Steel Guitar Blues”,
surprisingly recorded in New York, not in the delta, Chicago or the south! Both songs are to be found on
Michael Messer’s “King Guitar” release, along with the fine “Crow Blues”,
which featured more trademark gorgeous playing.

From the more recent “Second Mind” we were treated to the brooding “Locomotive Skin” - very different to the full
band arrangement on the album - and the lovely “Shine On”, appropriately a song about a steel guitar. Mississippi
Fred McDowell’s “Write Me A Few Short Lines” saw another Delta legend’s music featured with yet another most
impressive arrangement. Michael Messer may not be the greatest vocalist in the world,
but his guitar playing is certainly of the highest calibre!
GRAHAME RHODES - Blues In The North West - (January 2008)

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Review - West End Centre, Aldershot, 6th February 2004

Michael Messer is hailed as the greatest acoustic slide guitar player this side of
the pond, has a set of strings named after him and has been voted ‘Acoustic
Blues Artist of the Year’ at the British Blues Awards. You get the picture.
No doubt he could have used his two-hour set to show off his technical know-how
to the veteran guitar players in the audience and no doubt he would have received
the same rapturous applause. But though his albums are bought by people heavily
into instrumentation, he doesn’t like to perform just to the connoisseur.
He likes to make music for ordinary folk too.

Accompanied by the brilliant Ed Genis, he paid awesome homage to the great American
blues masters from pre-war Mississippi delta to post-war Chicago. With “a steel rod,
a piece of glass and some flat copper” he caressed and bent the strings of his vast array
of guitars to generate some of the most memorable blues I’ve ever heard, never once
letting his expertise eclipse the spirit of the songs. His vocals were superb.
He sang the old standards of the genre about sorrow, hardship and lonely nights
with spine-tingling conviction and the haunting lyrics of Crow Blues,
written by long-time collaborator Terry Clarke, will stay with me forever.

But we were never in danger of getting bogged down in the Delta swamps.
Whenever we felt ourselves slipping under we were rescued by foot-stomping
versions of songs like Write Me A Few Short Lines or the very familiar
Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms, and his inclination to mix his blues with
more contemporary sounds of Hawaiian, jazz and rock meant that the
evening was a revelation to all.
Jackie Larmour - Aldershot News - February 2004

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"British slide guitar genius and US blues chart topper Michael Messer performed
the devil's music at its most sublime. Deftly accompanied by acoustic rhythm guitarist Ed Genis,
Messer's acoustic steel guitars and slides rolled and tumbled, wailed and howled through an
evening of Messer's own tuneful compositions and some delicious homages to past blues masters.
Messer's playing marries delicate precision with stormy passion (and humour) as he sings
those tales so appropriate to the blues genre: trouble and loss, lonely nights, black birds and troubled spirits.
All were mighty forces conjured up as he stroked and bent those steel strings."
Sue Cavendish Net Rhythms - March 2002

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Michael Messer & Ed Genis by Paul Martin ©2003

"After lunch and a beer I was well set up for this extraordinary
musician's hour and a half outdoor set of just how good slide guitar can be in expert hands.
I haven't heard anything as lyrical and as 'perfect' in a long time. I can well understand
Michael Messer's mighty reputation as the current king of slide playing in this country."
Blues Alive - August 2002

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Michael Messer & Ed Genis

This was a first time appearance for Michael & Ed in Crawley in the packed theatre with many of the
audience new to their music. Michael has been on the scene for around 20 years and his association
with Ed goes back to 1983. Established now in the British blues conscience as a result of the widely
acclaimed “King Guitar” and recently released “Second Mind”. His slide work was both deft and
stunning and the instruments ranged from a hand built modern maple resonator, to a 1931 cast
aluminium National lap-steel. The set started with ‘Drivin Wheel Blues’ with its roots firmly attached to
Blind Willie Johnson. The audience sat in rapt silence hanging on to every chord whilst classics such as
Robert Johnson’s ‘Rollin & Tumblin’ and 'Walkin' Blues’ followed by one of the best versions I have
heard of ‘Diving Duck’ since Taj Mahal in the 60’s.
The set closed with a driving rendition of ‘Write Me a Few Short Lines’.

The second set could not have started better with the Messer/Clarke title ‘Robert Johnson’s Wake,’
with its haunting, swampy feel, which transported you back to the delta. ‘Locomotive Skin’ from the new
album was both poignant and hypnotic, together with the haunting ‘Crow Blues’ are a clear indication
of Michael and co-writer Terry Clarke's writing skills and you are left to consider when the song may have
been composed. The evening closed with a rendition of the Furry Lewis classic ‘Right hand road' AKA 'Going to
Brownsville’ played with passion and panache. We were treated to an encore with ‘Tail Feather Blues’, which
combined a smooth smooch with shades of Green Onions. The audience were on their feet roaring their approval.
Tony Pugh - "Blues In Britain" - Feb '03

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Michael Messer - one of the finest blues slide guitar players on the planet
with stunning acoustic rhythm guitarist Ed Genis

Michael Messer & Ed Genis by William White©2004

Michael has been immersed from a very early age in many musical styles, but it was
the sound of the blues, particularly the 50's Chicago and old Mississippi Delta
styles that really captured his imagination. He soaked up the sounds of blues legends
such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Elmore James and Bo Diddley, which he fused
together and developed a slide style which is his own, fusing many bottleneck techniques, old and new.

Michael and Ed first teamed up in 1983, since when they have worked on many albums
together including the widely acclaimed 'King Guitar', 'Second Mind' and 'Lucky Charms'
They have toured extensively throughout the UK, Europe and Canada.

"The pair have an intuitive rapport with each other on stage and it sounds as if they've played
together all their lives". "Michael is one of this country's best slide guitar players
and his slick sound is really enhanced by Ed's dexterous mastery of the rhythm guitar".

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Michael Messer & Ed Genis by Paul Martin ©2003

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