Two powerful exponents of American vernacular guitar music have joined forces to play music testament to the hillbilly/smarty-pants/country blues aesthetic. In 2003 they played Merlefest, The Waterfront Blues Festival and A Prairie Home Companion.
"Their inventive chops are jaw-dropping and amazing, and they both pay healthy respects to the masters of old without losing their collective musical identities, which embrace a host of old-time genres," writes Bruce Willey of the Santa Cruz Good Times.
Songsmith and bottleneck guitarist Steve James, from Austin Texas, is "a true Americana hero...his intensity and focus always reminds me of James Coburn's character in the Magnificent Seven," writes Third Coast Magazine.
Del Rey, from Seattle Washington, is a complex, pianistic guitarist, described as "a combination of Bo Carter and the Andrews Sisters" (observant fan).
Longtime colleagues and collaborators at festivals and workshops worldwide, with nine solo albums between them, they have recorded a cd together called "twins". Sharing a sense of humor and a similar manic intensity, their duets are smart, funny and full of instrumental virtuosity. Del Rey doubles on resonator ukulele and Steve James is known for his "noble savage" mandolin style.
"It don't get much better than Steve James." -- Dirty Linen
"[Steve James] is a songwriter of the first order." -- Austin Chronicle
"[Steve James] is one of the very best acoustic artists…" -- Folk Roots, UK
"Del Rey is, above all, a highly creative artist and first-rate guitarist aware of, and respectful toward, the various traditions present in her music." -- Peter Oman, Blues Onstage
"Del Rey truly illustrated what a first rate performer she is. Here is an artiste, who is indeed a first rate blues musician and vocalist, but she can also entertain and excite audiences with very much more than that." -- Blueprint Magazine, UK
"Bored with the boys and their bottlenecks and bell brass blues guitars? Then check out Del Rey: she plays acoustic blues, ragtime, sings, tells good stories, plays a metal-bodied resonator guitar, dresses imaginatively, and is not a boy." -- Folk Roots, UK
"Most acoustic blues guitarists wear thin after just a few songs, but the Guitar Queen continues to delight, even after a dozen or more ...another factor distinguishing the Guitar Queen from contemporaries is that Rey uses her natural diction and clear tone, eschewing the mannered vocals of some other blueswomen. Instead of a forced rasp and mumble, the guitarist sings witty, literate lyrics with a wry deliver that is sometimes dry, sometimes impassioned." -- Willamette Week
"Album dopo album, la brava blueswoman riesce a convincerci ulteriormente, denotando una spiccata fantasia oltre l'ormai acquisita personalita." -- il Blues, Italy
"If you like your blues warm, wise, witty and well-played, give Del Rey a listen." -- Dirty Linen
"Del Rey... channels the spirit of Memphis Minnie while maintaining a thoroughly hip, Left Coast sense of cool." -- Santa Cruz Sentinel
"Del Rey packs a whole orchestra into her resonator guitar." -- Southland Blues
Steve James & Del Rey Links