Brian Lee & the Orbiters
News


"Identity Theft" album is #8 on the Roots Music Charts in Washington!  


Our new "Identity Theft" album is receiving air play around the country - in New York, Texas, Wisconsin, California, Missouri. We're also receiving radio play in Denmark, Mexico, and Canada! In our home state of Washington, it's now at number 8 in the Roots Music Report chart! Thanks to Clancy Dunnigan, Jonathan "Oogie" Richards @ KSER, John Kessler @ KPLU, Jerry Drummond@ KAOS, and others for sharing our tunes with your radio audiences!  Thanks to our buddy Son Jack Jr. for alerting us to our chart placement! Check it out at: 
http://www.rootsmusicreport.com/index.php?page=statechart&state=WA



Slide Monsters with Brian Lee, Mark Riley, and Rod Cook!
Friday, Feb. 3, 8PM
The Highway 99 Blues Club 



“Slide Monsters!” celebrates blues slide guitar, bringing together three monsters of the slide guitar style:  Brian Lee, Mark Riley, and Rod Cook!  These Northwest greats each have a unique and distinctive slide guitar voice, and together they'll be rockin' the house! 
 
Mark Riley has been honored with fourteen Best of the Blues Awards from the Washington Blues Society , including Best Slide Guitar in 2011. He played for 7+ years with Lil’ Bill & the Blue Notes. Following the Blue Notes,  he has been front man for his Mark Riley Trio, as well as the recent Snake Oil project with Rod Cook. Most recently, Mark has joined Blues Redemption.  
 
Mark has opened for slide great Sonny Landreth, as well as BB King, Taj Mahal.  Mark and his band also backed 2011 British Blues Awards Male Artist of The Year Ian Siegal.  As owner and builder of RnB guitars, he’s also built guitars for both Sonny Landreth and Ian Seigal. 
 
Rod Cook is known for his stylistic versatility and soulful, melodic playing. As part of his versatile  repertoire, he is an amazing slide man.  From the early 1980's to the early '90's he played with The Royals, a mainstay in the Seattle blues and rock scene. He then teamed up with singer/songwriter/bassist Laura Love , recording seven albums, two of which were released on Mercury Records, and touring the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1993 he also teamed up with former Steve Miller Band guitarist James "Curley" Cooke and formed the acoustic guitar duo "Double Cookin'." In 1996 he launched his own band, Rod Cook and Toast, a band performing original and cover material based in blues, rock, country, Americana, surf and American roots music, releasing two albums. Since 2004, he has performed with Vicci Martinez recording three albums.  Rod can be seen performing periodically with Northwest icon Little Bill Englehart, and Snake Oil with Mark Riley. 
 
Rod has backed  Taj Mahal, and opened for Todd Rundgren, Sonny Landreth, and Charlie Musslewhite. He has been nominated numerous times for the Washington Blues Society's "Best Of The Blues" Awards, winning three times. 
 
Brian Lee leads Brian Lee & the Orbiters, and the Brian Lee Trio. He’s opened for Little Charlie and the Nightcats and Tommy Castro. Brian and the Orbiters have been honored with seven "Best of the Blues" nominations by the Washington Blues Society, including nomination for "Best Slide Guitar" in 2011. 
 
Backing the Slide Monsters for the night are the stellar, soulful Orbiters, featuring Hank Yanda, Russ Kammerer, and Steve Yonck.
 
Don't miss this great night of slide guitar virtuosity!!! 
 



New "Identity Theft" Album Released!
All original tunes of modern times and timeless blues.
 

Our new album "Identity Theft" released Oct 22, 2011 for digital download and as a CD! The album features Brian, Steve Yonck, Hank Yanda, Russ Kammerer, Tim Sherman, Conrad Ormsby, and Guy Quintino on 11 original tunes. The tunes capture the full range of the Orbiters sound, and the songs feature both traditional blues themes and topics from modern times. 

It's available for album and singles download from our store page, complete with pdf liner notes-lyrics booklet. The download songs are in high quality 256kbps MP3 format. 

The album is also available in CD format. This is a high quality "glass master" CD, not a "computer burned" disc, and it also features a deluxe package with lyrics booklet. It is available at all our performances, as well as through CD Baby at: http://cdbaby.com/cd/brianleetheorbiters 


The album is also being distributed through several digital distribution outlets and streaming services. For more information on these, see our store

With it's Oct 2011 release date, it is eligible for nomination in the upcoming Washington Blues Society "Best of the Blues" awards- so if you like the album, keep us in mind! 

It's here! Check it out! 
 
"Identity Theft" Album Reviews

The reviews are coming in... 
By Malcolm Kennedy, Washington Blues Society Blog:
http://wabluessociety.blogspot.com/2012/01/2nd-review-identity-theft-brian-lee.html

Rick Bowen, Washington Blues Society Blog and No Depression:

http://wabluessociety.blogspot.com/2011/11/review-identity-theft-brian-lee-and.html
www.nodepression.com/xn/detail/2342817:BlogPost:694350

Leicester Bangs, UK:




Washington Blues Society Blogspot Article! 
 Tim Maher's in-depth interview with Brian Lee
 

Accomplished writer Tim Maher began following the Orbiters' music after seeing one of our performances at the Salmon Bay Eagles one night. As he describes in this article, this lead to several lunch interview/discussions with Brian about music and related topics. Tim is an excellent and insightful author, and he has distilled these discussions into a unique and entertaining article covering a wide array of topics! Tim's article continues to be the most downloaded article on the Washington Blues Blogspot, six months following it's initial publication!  Check it out at :