Delta Blue

Delta Blue have had a long journey, like most bluesmen inevitably should. Driven by a need to play and live this most mystical and magical of music genres, the blues has taught us much about music, life and what it means to befriend the long open road.
A musical journey that started mainly with twelve bar blues has picked up a lot of influences along the way, but has always stayed close to the hallelujah.

Kicking off as a two-piece boogie act consisting of Riaan Nieuwenhuis and Gerald Clark, the band was soon joined by Almuir Botha on lead guitar, Alwyn Jordaan on drums and Schalk van der Merwe was employed as a bass guitarist. Alida Stadler soon replaced Alwyn and thus became one of the few accomplished female drummers in South Africa.
This outfit played memorable performances at venues such as:

— Kirstenbosch Gardens
— Oude Libertas Theatre
— Oppikoppi Rock Festival
— Kaktus Oppi Vlaktus
— Up the Creek
— Splashy Fen
— Windhoek Warehouse Theatre
and many smaller venues around the country.

Delta Blue soon became responsible for introducing this genre of music to many a virgin ear and soon made fans all over the country- not only of the band, but also the blues!
In 2002, a young guitarist, Henry Steel, took the reins from Almuir Botha. With Alida Stadler leaving the band in 2004, the road seemed to be heading towards a dead end. The band regrouped and asked Jaques Schutte (drummer for the Albert Frost Trio) to step up on the drums. This new outfit managed to pull Delta Blue out of the depths of disregard, and the road opened itself up to us once more as invitations to many festivals and prime venues such as: Mannenbergs, Green dolphin and Kennedy?s Cigar Bar came our way. Such good times were had with our new music vehicle, that no one noticed the winds of change heading our way.

Jaques decided to move on and was soon replaced by the highly acclaimed drummer, Tim Rankin. Riaan Nieuwenhuis left soon after, making the band a four piece.
A couple of gigs were played including an outstanding performance at the Oppikoppi 10th year anniversary, Delta Blue being the first band to play on the new permanent main stage, ?The Most Amazing Main Stage.? After feeling the musical void that Riaan?s keyboard left, the band decided to reinstate the missing notes and Jan Krynauw got the position.
The current band members are very grateful to all of these fine musicians for their contributions and input into the band, Delta Blue, for making it what it is today.

With a line up consisting of highly talented, experienced and serious(ly handsome) musicians aka Bluesmen, Delta Blue is on its way. So, whenever you are in need of some good soul music, ?unlike the reclusive celebrity outfit, Delta Blue like to play live, in and around rather nice accessible areas with old wine smells, broken midnight schwingles and dirty, dirty corner antics? please arrive in a bigoldblackcar.?