Endlessly creative, modern-day blues master Selwyn Birchwood returns to the Live At Hub City Vinyl stage.
Selwyn Birchwood, his father from Tobago, his mother from the UK, was born in 1985 in Orlando, Florida. He first grabbed a guitar at age 13 and soon became proficient at mimicking what he heard on the radio. But the popular grunge rock, hip-hop and metal of the 1990s didn’t move him. And then he discovered Jimi Hendrix. “He was larger than life. What he did was mind-blowing.” As luck would have it, just as Birchwood was learning Hendrix’s guitar playing was steeped in blues, legendary bluesman Buddy Guy—a major influence on Hendrix—was scheduled to perform in Orlando. Birchwood was there, front and center. “I was floored,” he recalls. “I completely connected with the blues. I knew this was my path, and I had to make this music.” He dove deep, listening to icons including Albert King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins and of course, Buddy Guy. “The flood gates opened,” says Birchwood, “and at that point I started trying to absorb as much as I could.” At 19, Birchwood met and connected with veteran bluesman, recording artist and lap steel and guitar ace Sonny Rhodes, who was instantly impressed by the enthusiastic young guitar slinger. Within one month’s time, Rhodes asked Birchwood to pack his bags and join him on the road. Rhodes took Selwyn under his wing, teaching him not only the finer points of guitar and lap steel, but also how to conduct business, how to run a band, and how to reach an audience. “Sonny always said, ‘Play what’s in your heart.’ I’ve never lost sight of that,” says Birchwood. Combining the musical lessons learned from Rhodes and his own business acumen, Birchwood created The Selwyn Birchwood Band in 2010, featuring seasoned, veteran musicians who had chosen to play with the new kid— a testament to Birchwood’s talent and leadership skills. In 2011 the self-released FL Boy helped the band land gigs outside of their Florida base, where they were already becoming local heroes. After winning the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis (beating 150 other bands), Birchwood found doors swinging open. He took a giant step forward in 2014 with his Alligator Records debut album, Don’t Call No Ambulance. Rave reviews ran in publications from Rolling Stone to The Wall Street Journal, from The Chicago Tribune to The San Francisco Chronicle. The album won both the Living Blues Award and the Blues Music Award (BMA) for Best New Artist Debut. He followed in 2016 with Pick Your Poison and, in 2021, with Living In A Burning House (he won the coveted BMA Song Of The Year Award for that album’s I’d Climb Mountains), 2023’s Exorcist and 2026’s Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues. The Selwyn Birchwood Band tours virtually non-stop. They have performed at The Chicago Blues Festival, Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival, The Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival, The North Atlantic Blues Festival, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, as well as on The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise and Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive At Sea Cruise. Internationally, they have appeared at The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival, Jazz a Vienne in France, the Rawa Blues Festival in Poland, the Moulin Blues Festival in the Netherlands, the Ottawa Blues Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, as well as playing concerts in Spain, Norway, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Belgium and Mexico. According to Guitar World, “Blues star Selwyn Birchwood is the real deal. He puts his own fresh spin on the blues, taking the tradition and making it into something new.”