Scissormen Get in Touch Book a Show MP3s and Video Upcoming Shows Buy CDs Buy T-Shirts Quotes Biography Links Photos 300dpi photo (2.7M jpg) BONNAROO, DEEP BLUES and more FESTIVAL DATES Bonnaroo - Friday, June 13, 1:20 p.m. at the Troo Music Lounge www.bonnaroo.com Schlafly Mussel Mania - Friday, June 18 www.schlafly.com Deep Blues Festival -Sunday, July 20 www.deepbluesfestival.com

Photo by Richard Mallory Allnutt

GET IN TOUCH

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BECOME OUR FRIEND

Go to www.myspace.com/scissormen to sign up and join Scissormen's friends at Myspace.

MP3s

Whiskey and Maryjane (4.3MB mp3)

Move over Devil, there's a shot and a beer waiting for us at the bar. Here's a Marshall powered ode to the finer things in life, featuring Ted on slide and Rob Hulsman and Larry Dersch on twin drum kits.

Tupelo (1.9MB mp3)

Heard many blues tunes with xylophone lately? Download this, baby!

Death Letter (3.1MB mp3)

When we cover a song, we've gotta mess with it! This tune was written by Ted's favorite Delta bluesman Son House in the 1930s, but Scissormen play it nice 'n' nasty - and update it all the way to, oh, maybe 1963.

Tupelo Video (20MB QuickTime)

Shot by Alberto Robelest at Atlantic Works Gallery, East Boston, MA. Edited by Max Gotesman

UPCOMING SHOWS:

• FRIDAY, MAY 16: Here's the hippest new club on the planet: Krooners in Lebanon, a combo club, cajun restaurant and custom motorcycle shop. Dig on that! You got-ta, got-ta come and get some vibe. We play from 10:30 p.m. on. Krooners is at 220 East High Street in Lebanon, TN. Go online to myspace.com/kroonersrocks. Rev it up, baby!
• TUESDAY, MAY 20: We make our debut at one of the country's greatest blues clubs, Blind Willie's in Atlanta. Showtime's 9:30 p.m. and we're psyched to slide into town. The club's at 828 North Highland Ave. Call 404-873-BLUE (2583) or check out www.blindwilliesblues.com.
• FRIDAY, May 23: Imagine your gramma's house as a boogie club and you've got Kimbro's Cafe. This is a damn cool place for a chooglin’ party We start at 9 p.m., so come by for eats, too. The pickin’ parlor’s at 214 S Margin St., Franklin, TN 37064 (615) 599-2946. www.myspace.com/kimbroscafe
• FRIDAY, JUNE 6: Private daytime performance.
• WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11: FREE BENEFIT PERFORMANCE! We're excited to be part of the Happy Tales Human Society's Wednesday night wags series, playing in the commons of the Factory shopping and entertainment complex in Franklin at 6:15 p.m. This event is also a crafts' fair, with artisans displaying their wares, and you can go home with a beautiful pup - like Scissormen mascot Dolly, whose photo is in our myspace album - or kitty, too. Plus, when the free show's over at 7:30, there's a ticketed performance by Gretchen Peters, Suzy Boggus and Matraca Berg. For more info, visit: www.wednesdaynightwags.com. The Factory's at 230 Franklin Road, six blocks from downtown and 20 minutes from Nashville.
• FRIDAY, JUNE 13: Scissormen make our Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival debut at 1:20 p.m. on the Troo Music Lounge stage. It party starts in Manchester, TN, on Thursday, though, and runs through Sunday. For all the details, check www.bonnaroo.com.
• FRIDAY, JUNE 20: This gig's nearly a trip: Scissormen play at the Nashville International Airport from noon to 2 p.m. So if you're flying through or just want to have a different kind of musical experience, we'll be right outside the terminal A and B entrance area, next to Tootsie's (so beverages are available). Yep, that's free public entertainment from Scissormen - the band always close to going places!
• FRIDAY, JUNE 20: We rock the Market Street Tavern in Chattanooga, TN. Come on out and shake right downtown at 850 Market Street. We commence at 9:30 p.m. Call 423-266-1996 or visit marketstreettavern.com.
• FRIDAY, JUNE 27: The Nashville debut of the Scissormen Lil' Big Band! New Englanders know about this expanded version of Scissormen, but now - for the first time - we're assembling an expanded line-up for one night only - starting at 10 p.m. with a acoustic opener (maybe even Ted, doing solo material including some new tunes). And it's a guitar army featuring Scissormen slideman Ted D. with six-string compatriots Reeves Gabrels, Rob Stennett and Brett Rosenburg with Jeff Brown on drums. You gotta smell it to believe it!
• MONDAY, JUNE 30: Private daytime performance.
• FRIDAY, JULY 4: It's a big-ass Fourth of Joo-lie party at Kimbro's Cafe. More bands t.b.a. Stay tuned for details. The pickin’ parlor’s at 214 S Margin St., Franklin, TN 37064 (615) 599-2946. www.myspace.com/kimbroscafe
• SATURDAY, JULY 12: Scissormen open for Mike Farris' rockin' gospel review at Off Broadway in St. Louis. More details t.b.a. The club's at 3509 Lemp Ave. Go to www.offbroadwaystl.com and www.myspace.com/mikefarrismusic for moah.
• FRIDAY, JULY 18: It’s the Mussel Mania festival at the Schlafly brewing company’s awesome Club Room overlooking downtown St. Louis. Doors open at 5 for mountains of mussels washed down with great made-on-site Belgian style beer. Then Wormwood Scrubs (myspace.com/wormwoodscrubselectricalband) goes on at 9 p.m. followed by a full concert length set from us truly. 314.241.BEER. The tap room's at 2100 Locust St., at 21st.
• SATURDAY, JULY 19: We're at The Rox, 506 Mall Germain in St. Cloud, Minnesota, getting our psych on for the Deep Blues Festival with BC’s amazingly rockin’ juke joint blues wimmens the Pack A.D. (www.myspace.com/thepackad). Learn more about other cool shows by this indie promoter at inthewind.biz.
• SUNDAY, JULY 20: We play the second annual Deep Blues Festival in Lake Elmo, MN. More details to come. Festival starts Friday and also includes T-Model Ford, Kenny Brown, Cedric Burnside & Lightning Malcolm, Black Diamond Heavies, Dexter Romwebber, Bob Log III, etc. Check it out at myspace.com/deepbluesfestival.
• MONDAY, JULY 21: Let's chill after the Deep Blues Fest with a FRIGGIN' LOUD, FAST PUNK ROCK SHOW! Starts at 9 p.m. at Big V's,1567 University Avenue W (University & Snelling) Midway, St. Paul, MN. More bands t.b.a. BigVs.com or 651-645-8472 is the bar phone.
• THURSDAY, JULY 31: Scissormen bring the juke joint thunder to Knoxville's Preservation Pub for the first time, so c'mon out to get an earful of sugar 'n' gravel and support us. Showtime's 10 p.m. sharp at this awesome music joint, booze joint and all around ace hang out. It's at 28 Market Sq. Call (865) 524-2224 www.preservationpub.com

BUY CDs

SCISSORMEN‘S NEW CD
WHEN THE DEVIL CALLS…
IS AVAILABLE NOW!

      

Scissormen’s exciting new acoustic album, When the Devil Calls…, has just been released. Here are 10 blazing, soulful performances of brand new songs and classics reinterpreted Scissormen style. Right now this album is available at cdbaby.com/cd/scissormen2 as well as at shows or by sending a check for $11 including postage made out to Ted Drozdowski at Scissormen, P.O. Box 17208, Nashville, TN 37217. It’ll be months before it’s available elsewhere. CDs are shipped as soon as checks are received unless we’re on tour.

When the Devil Calls… credits: Ted Drozdowski, vocals and Guild D-25 guitar, production; Tom Dube, engineering and mixing.

When the Devil Calls… songs:

• When the Devil Calls
• Junior’s Blues
• Brother
• Mattie Sweet Mattie
• Rollin’ and Tumblin’
• Death Letter
• I Put a Spell on You
• Emergency Loverman
• Unwanted Man
• V-8 Ford
• That’s Not Funny

ORDER JINX BREAKERS,
SCISSORMEN’S FIERY DEBUT!

Now there’s three ways to get our first recording — a fresh blast of high-powered, rockin’ Mississippi hill country influenced blues that’s played on more than 80 radio stations in the US and abroad. You can order CDs on-line witha credit card at www.CDBaby.com or direct from Ted with a check for $11 including postage made out to Ted Drozdowski at Scissormen, P.O. Box 17208, Nashville, TN 37217 and he'll sendone back pronto. Or visit iTunes and download all the tracks you want.

Jinx Breakers credits: Ted Drozdowski, guitars and vocals; Rob Hulsman, drums, xylophone and vocals; Billy Conway, production and engineering; Tom Dube; mixing and engineering.

Jinx Breakers songs:

• Death Letter
• Tupelo
• Jessie Mae
• John the Revelator
• Jumper on the Line

Scissormen T Shirts

BUY T-SHIRTS

Jinx Breakers T-shirts, guaranteed to break any hexes or bad luck streaks. They're 100-percent pre-shrunk cotton and come in regular style T's, girlie style T's and tank tops in S, M, L, XL and XXL. They're $20 each postage-paid. You can send checks made out to Ted Drozdowski at Scissormen, P.O. Box 17208, Nashville, TN 37217. T-shirts go out as soon as checks are received unless we're on tour.

What they say about Scissormen

“Both on record and in live performance, Ted Drozdowski is a guitarist of spellbinding invention and intelligence. His slide playing shears the skin off your bones, and he can unleash roaring gales of sound. But lyricism and musicality lie at the heart of even his wildest moments. I have never listened to him and not been transported to a strange, beautiful place I'd never been before.”

- Anthony DeCurtis, Executive Editor, Tracks,
Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone

“Not content to play with just a slide on his pinkie finger, Drozdowski climbed up on the bar and played with knives and forks; he got down on his knees on the floor and played with an empty ashtray; he interrupted someone's meal in the café next door to play with their dinner plate.”

- Buzz McClain,
The Washington Post

“One guitar, a drum kit, two guys blasting through 100 years of music history to get to the future. If you see Scissormen and don't discover the roots of a classic song or a new favorite by them then check your pulse. They're phenomenal.”

- Wayne Andrews, executive director
Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival

“Drozdowski is one of the blues' most distinctive and exciting stylists - a stalwart slide guitarist bringing some contemporary perspective and technical flamboyance to vintage sounds.”

- Ron Wyn,
Nashville City Paper

“Like the Black Keys, Scissormen leader Ted Drozdowski is a white guy raised in a depressed Northern city who's drawn to the haunting and primal sounds of the Delta. But while the sound of his hipster counterparts from Akron bears a certain retro fetishism, Drozdowski's music is a little more forthright and a little less, well, du jour. It's also raw, hypnotic and occasionally jarring.”

- Jack Silverman, editor
Nashville Scene

“Powerful! Fierce! Emotional!”

- Blues & Co. magazine
France

“An off the wall Ted Drozdowski pushed the limits [of] blues music. The vocalist and guitarist of the group Scissormen is audacious, a provocateur. Awesome. Who could ask for more?”

- Séverine Jourbert
Sud Ouest, France

“I listened and was taken back to the Delta. A very alive surprise. Some smart label should come along and sign them.”

- Holly Harris, "Blues On Sunday,
WBOS 92.9 - FM, Boston

“It's rare that an artist can conjure both heaven and hell simultaneously, but the stripped-down Scissormen manage to summon the fire-and-brimstone fury of the blues while taking musical flight toward a custom-made heaven - a place where folks like Robert Johnson, Elmore James, and Junior Kimbrough still throw it down and pack the juke joint every Saturday night. Guitarist Ted Drozdowski's masterful slide playing carries the band's material as surely as if on steel rails: bending deeply here, swooping widely there, and yet constantly threatening, like a thrill, to come completely unhinged at any moment.”

- Jonathan Perry
The Boston Globe, Boston, MA

“One of the unwritten rules of the music industry is that Yankees can't write or sing the blues. But Scissormen have been able to successfully modernize the genre, and should rank somewhere up there with the All Stars and Black Keys as part of the new blood in juke joint inspired blues-rock.”

- Ben Bounds
Oxford Town, Oxford, MS

“A sonic kaleidoscope of ringing, stinging and slashing slide guitar.”

- Jerry Portnoy, harmonica master,
Muddy Waters Blues Band, Eric Clapton

“Ted Drozdowski is a trippy guitar player.”

- Otis Taylor, Handy Award-winning
guitarist/songwriter

“The Scissormen are a breath of fresh air on the blues landscape. Their music wades into the healing waters of ancient, elemental blues without flinching or apologizing, drawing inspiration from the same well that produced the earliest blues, even as their musical excursions compellingly stand on their own. This is intelligent, unadorned music for the contemporary common man.”

- Teo Leyasmeyer, Blues Foundation Trustee, Keeping the Blues Alive Award
Winner for Promoter of the Year

“I did not know Ted Drozdowski as a musician until he invited me to a NYC club where Scissormen were playing. I went and wound up astonished! It's quite common that many music journalists are wannabe musicians, at best. Ted, however, is the real thing; a true musician with a very original and engaging guitar style. I would urge anyone to see Ted and Scissormen if they play in your area or, at the very least, buy their CD.”

- Jerry Ragovoy
songwriter/producer

“The Spin barely made it across the river in time for the Scissormen set at Family Wash. We found transplanted Beantowner Ted Drozdowski running the blues through a sonic meat grinder, locking drummer Jason Frazier into two-man stomp grooves and bashing out "John the Revelator" like hell hounds were on his trail. With guest ringers (and Scene employee) Jack Silverman on guitar and Shannon Williford on daredevil blues harp, Drozdowski hopped onto the Wash’s narrow bar and started playing slide with anything in reach — beer taps, bottles, even the lighting fixture dangling from the ceiling — before continuing his wireless ramble out into the parking lot. He reappeared in the window, axe in hand, then strode back in without missing a lick like the badass he is. Here’s one Scissors you’d like to run with."”

- — "The Spin" column,
The Nashville Scene, 10/25/07

    photo by Leigh Hall

Scissormen Biography

Scissormen are devils or demi-gods, depending who you ask.

To some crusty blues fans, they're rock 'n' rollers muddyin' up the music's waters. But to people who understand that the blues is still a vital style that can be every bit as hip and creative as what's on the stages of Warped or Coachella, they're saviors. And those are the folks the band's been playing in front of for the past two years.

Touring behind their debut CD Jinx Breakers (Hi-N-Dry Recordings) - which was produced by Morphine's Billy Conway — and the acoustic When the Devil Calls… (Barking Koala) they've seared a path with their incendiary live performances from festivals to premiere nightclubs to blues rooms to juke joints to coffeehouses to punk rock shows from Maine to Mississippi and out to the West Coast and Europe.

Ted Drozdowski, the Nashville-based band's slide guitarist and leader, understands that Robert Johnson, Jimmy Page and Johnny Ramone share the same spiritual connection. So he turns his guitar into an Ouija board and channels all three in blazing, over-the-top performances which typically find him leaping up on tables and running out in the street, playing slide with everything from martini glasses to old worn-out boots.

"I came up in punk and psychedelic rock bands, but playing the blues the way we play it means everything to me," says Ted. "This is music with teeth and guts and heart, and it rocks like hell when it's done right. And we do it right! I caught the fever from musicians like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Jessie Mae Hemphill, who taught me to put every bit of my heart and soul into this music. So that's what I do."

"We work hard to give people who hear us live a show they'll never forget. And we work hard to keep this music kicking and moving forward, just like Jessie, Junior and R.L. did, and a handful of the best musicians from the Mississippi hills still do. We honor the past, but we're all living in the present. And so is our blues."

Recently Scissormen have been finishing up their full-length debut. Meanwhile, Jinx Breakers is available from their web site www.scissormen.com, where you'll also find free MP3s and learn more about the band, or via www.hi-n-dry.com.

LINKS

www.myspace.com/rlhulsmandrummer Say hi to Ted's more dapper half, Scissormen's fantastic drummer Rob Hulsman, and find out more about this mystery man's musical background. Heck, join myspace yourself and be his friend. Rob's a good friend!

www.hi-n-dry.com A musical artists collective with more information on Scissormen and other great bands including Twinemen, Bourbon Princess, Session Americana, Rick Berlin, the Coots, Asa Brebner and plenty more.

www.guitartemple.com Check out some of Ted's earlier musical projects.

www.peterparcekband.com Here's the on-line home of one of the finest roots-inspired electric guitarists in America — whose latest album is being produced by Ted. Repeat after me: PETER PARCEK ROCKS!

www.brendanhogan.net Brendan Hogan is a Zen warrior for the blues — a talented country style picker, singer, songwriter and performer who also happens to anchor one of New England's premiere blues radio shows, “Blues on WGBH” on Saturdays at 9 p.m. (89.7 FM). Check out his music now!

www.tomkeoughartist.com See the beautiful oil and watercolor paintings, prints and posters of Brooklyn-based artist Tom Keough, a friend of Ted’s since high school who truly knows how to find the beauty in city and woodland settings. His urban nightscapes are especially captivating.

www.bluestrust.com A charitable Boston-based organization that sponsors the free Boston Blues Festival and initiatives for musicians.

www.goombah.com Cool new site where you can discover independent music for free. Goombah aims to build a community by providing an easy way for music lovers to discover new music and rediscover old favorites, and for artists to find their audience. Works great with iTunes.

www.barrelhouseblues.com Get the lowdown on blues around New England and the nation from this Boston-based blues and fan site. You'll find Scissormen in the Route 66 section.

BOOKING

US, ASIA, etc.

Greg Preston
Ignatius Artists
822 Madison St.
Jackson, MS  39202
601-326-2174
ignatiusartists@comcast.net
www.ignatiusartists.com

EUROPE

Dominique Cranshoff
Swapping Music
11 Rue de Bossut
1390 Nethen, Belgium
Swappingblues@yahoo.com
Ph/fax : + 32 (0) 10 24 15 13
Mobile : + 32 (0) 498 289 159