August 11, 2008
Just 6 months after becoming a legal Canadian permanent resident, John has been nominated for a Western Canada music award for the outstanding blues Recording for his work on 'Doc Goes Hollywood"

Maria Muldaur's roots are in the folk revival of the early '60s, a time when figures like Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan were making bold statements about the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other burning issues of the day. More than four decades later, in the face of political and social issues in which the stakes are equally high, Muldaur assembles a group of legendary female performers to lend their voices in a critical examination of where we are as a nation and where we're going. Songs include "Yes, We Can," "John Brown" and "Pray for the U.S.A." The guest list includes Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Holly Near, Phoebe Snow, Odetta and Jane Fonda.

For more info and tour dates please visit Maria's Website

"Yes We Can! is a very powerful selection of protest songs that not only work as commentary on the state of the world, but musically, hit every high note. Muldaur, never sounding better, along with Bonnie Raitt, Odetta, Joan Baez and Phoebe Snow to name but a few, sing from the soul. Fresh takes on Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues," Bob Dylan's "License To Kill," Earl King's "Make A Better World, " and Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can" sit nicely alongside such traditional tunes as "John Brown," and "Down By The Riverside" ...it doesn't get much better musically."

~ The Huffington Post, August 2008 ~

We're also pleased to tell you that Barack Obama himself has thanked Maria personally for her version of the album's title song, "Yes We Can!", which she performs on the album as a duet with Bonnie Raitt and The Women's Voices For Peace Choir, stating that it "perfectly fit the spirit of the campaign" and that it would be played at his campaign rallies.
 
With the help of some of his campaign staff here in the Bay Area, Maria put together a very inspiring video to the song - check it out here!

The success and response to our short World Blue Band tour of Europe was wonderful,
the reviews on the new CD, Bucket Full of blues have been raves, and we are planning another on in June of 2009.
We hope to be playing a few more festivals in Northern Italy, and many new venues and festivals in Germany and Austria,

Our New CD, Bucket Full of Blues is out all over Europe, beginning September, and soon to be online, (itunes, etc.) as well as distribution in the USA and Canada.

Just nominated for a Western Canada music award, is Doc Goes Hollywood, featuring the vocals of John Lee Sanders, in the songs of Doc Kupka, founding member of Tower of Power, and the incredible Orchestrations of William Ross, (Academy Awards, Josh Groban, Barbara Streisand)

Best known as a founding member of the legendary Oakland, California horn band Tower of Power and a prodigious songwriter, Stephen “Doc” Kupka has once again pulled together the best of the best for this, his latest Strokeland Records release. This release, however, is a major departure from Doc’s trademark East Bay Soul or “snap funk” style. A personal dream of Doc’s for over twenty years, Doc Goes Hollywood is a collection of lush ballads in a modern “Great American Songbook” style.

In the style of the great classic American songwriters, these are finely-crafted songs where melody is king and every lyrical turn of phrase has been lovingly crafted to be the best it can be. Written, performed, and engineered to stand the test of time, these songs exude true musical and emotional depth.


Doc Kupka called on his friend and “A-list” Hollywood composer, arranger, and music director, William Ross, to provide full orchestral arrangements. Mr. Ross (whose credits also include Barbra Streisand, Michael Bublé, and top Hollywood films such as “Ladder 49”, “Forrest Gump”, and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”) delivered arrangements that are simply stunning

Bucket Full of Blues

In his first new Studio album in many years, John Lee used his high energy funk /blues touring band in Europe and recorded the CD in Austria, with overdubs all over the world.
Laying down the funk, is veteran New Orleans Drummer Jeff Boudreaux (Jon Cleary, James Booker, and more) along with some of the best players in Austria.

Now available on PAO Records, soon to be released worldwide on digital download and in stores in the USA and Canada



LINER NOTES BY DAVID RITZ


David Ritz

www.ritzwrites.com

Thirty years ago, still in the full bloom innocence, I walked into a little club in Dallas, Texas, and had the top of my head blown off by a bluesman with firepower to burn.

The kid's name was John Lee Sanders, and now the kid's a man, and the man, steeped in the towering tradition of deep-fried funk, is offering up his Bucket Full of Blues.

The bucket is overflowing with creative gifts

The bluesman has reached full maturity, and that promise of youth,
heard so long ago, has been realized.

I'm grateful for this chance to celebrate John's most recent
achievement and offer my testimony.

Here's what I feel about John Lee Sanders:

He's a truth-teller, an artist who can't help but give it to you straight.

Here's what I love about John Lee Sanders: The World Blue Band

His voice. Raw. Real. Sweet. Tart. An instrument of tremendous
emotional and spiritual range.

His writing. His hooks. His stories. His sense, as he puts it, of
"The World As I Know It."

His deep Louisiana roots. His powerful connection to the fertile soil.

His grit, his grooves.

His honesty.

His haunting cry, his courageous assault on anything false.

"I've never claimed to be something I'm not," he writes in "Handful.
"I've got my flaws, but my heart is good."

His music, his singing, his aesthetic vision are more than good;
they're flat-out great.

At this troubling moment in the history of the Music Nation, John Lee Sanders stands tall. He's major. In his own words, he's hitched a ride from Memphis, dealing with the ghosts of Highway 61, arriving in New Orleans in order to comfort us with the good news: that true music is truer than ever. His songs, full-bodied and blood-washed, are rooted in reality. He reminds us that blues are concerned with neither nostalgia nor self-pity. John Lee Sanders' blues are about nothing less a renewal of strength, a resurrection of the human spirit, a projection of hard-earned hope and a declaration of extravagant love.

David Ritz (www.ritzwrites.com)

David Ritz has written biographies of, among others, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and Etta James. He co-composed "Sexual Healing."