KEVIN SELFE AND THE TORNADOES

Playing the Game

Blue Skunk Music

By Eric Steiner

Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes is one of the hottest new blues bands in the Pacific Northwest, but this Portland bluesman's roots reach clear across the country to his home on the Eastern Seaboard.  In the late ‘90s, Kevin Selfe played with Roanoke, Virginia’s Fat Daddy Band, and was a finalist in the 2001 International Blues Challenge representing the Charlotte Blues Society.   His work with Fat Daddy included three indie CDs, and consistent touring.  Since then, he’s plied the bluesman’s trade across the South, formed Little Rodger and the Cheap Thrills, and focused on honing his skills on the blues harp and blues guitar.  While touring consistently with Little Rodger, Kevin returned with Little Rodger and the Cheap Thrills as an IBC finalist in 2008.  In addition to being one of only six unsigned blues acts as a finalist that year, Kevin has continued to garner a substantial regional following.  Playing the Game ups the ante with ten diverse and original blues songs that range from traditional post-war blues, a slow blues ballad, some funk, and a jazz-inspired ending to a solid blues CD.

Kevin relocated to Oregon in 2007 and was quickly embraced by members of the Cascade Blues Association and notable regional festivals.  During his relatively short tenure in the Rose City blues community, Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes have been nominated for 15 Muddy Awards of the Cascade Blues Association, and received the Best Traditional Blues Act trophy in 2010, and the Best Contemporary Blues Act Muddy statue the year before.  This year, the band was nominated for a 2011 Portland Music Award for Outstanding Achievement in Blues.

Less than two years from arriving in Portland, Kevin and his band released Playing the Game and this set of 10 originals landed respectably on the Roots Music Report, and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio’s “Pick to Click” list.  Playing the Game also represented the Cascade Blues Association in the Best Self-Produced CD competition of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis.  Kevin and the band are also in-demand at many notable West Coast blues festivals, including the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Bluz at the Bend in Spokane, Washington, and the Ritzville Blues Festival in the center of the Evergreen State. 

Playing the Game showcases Selfe’s hard-earned blues apprenticeship built on solid songwriting, soulful harp playing, and expert fretwork.  “The Way She Moves” recalls traditional, post-war hard-driving blues built around the guitar and harp, and the engine room of Don Shultz on the drums and Allen Markel on bass provides a solid foundation in the pocket.  I hear echoes of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf behind “The Way She Moves,” and I hope that you do, too.

The trio turns up the funk on “Blues Don’t Take a Day Off,” which gives Allen a chance to creatively fill in behind Kevin’s all-over-the-map guitar leads.   On “Long Greasy Night,” the band slows the disc’s frenetic pace down just a bit with some slow blues that’s perfect for a romantic two-step on the dance floor. 

Playing the Game closes with a short, jazzy instrumental called “Pulled Pork” that clocks in at only 2:38.  If you like Wes Montgomery or Duke Robillard, “Pulled Pork” will resonate with you, and I have only one complaint about Playing the Game -- there’s too little “Pulled Pork,” and I wished he would have treated us to another inspired instrumental!

Each time I play Playing the Game, I am heartened that younger generations of bluesmen are working to keep the blues alive.  Kevin Selfe’s early blues experiences were built on consistent touring, practice, honing his skills, opportunities to play the right rooms at the right times, and participation in national events like the International Blues Challenge.  Taken together, these experiences add up to a promising blues career, and Playing the Game offers a solid set of original, guitar and harp-fueled blues from start to finish.

Reviewer Eric Steiner is President of the Washington Blues Society (www.wablues.org) and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Blues Foundation, representing blues societies (www.blues.org).