Blues Matinee w/ Mark Hummel
at The Camel
Sunday, April 26th at 3pm
FREE show with table reservations available

This is a FREE matinee concert from 3 - 5pm at The Camel. Tickets ARE NOT required for admission. Limited table reservations are available in advance, but not required for attendance. Reserved tables will be held until 3:30pm and are non-refundable. Additional seating available at the bar.

Harmonica player, songwriter, and singer Mark Hummel is a practitioner of the West Coast blues style, which typically includes elements of jazz and swing. A seasoned bandleader, Hummel achieved wider recognition through nearly constant touring. Hummel was born in New Haven, Connecticut but raised in Los Angeles, California. He became fascinated with the blues-rock of , , , and . After seeing songwriter credits on the albums, he began to dig further back into those bands' blues roots. He began playing harmonica in his teens in order to be different from the huge pack of guitar players in his high school. Hummel studied the styles of the Chicago-based players, including , , , and Little Walter Jacobs. Hummel moved to Berkeley, California in 1972 and played with local bluesmen there, including Boogie Jake, Cool Papa, Johnny Waters, and Sonny Lane. After graduating high school, he hitchhiked around the country for three years, making stops in New Orleans, Boston, and Chicago to learn from those cities' top players.

In 1980, he formed the Blues Survivors, subsequently performed at numerous blues festivals around the U.S., including the Chicago Blues Festival and the San Francisco Blues Festival. Hummel has released a number of self-produced albums around his Oakland, California home, including Playing in Your Town (1985, Rockinitis Records), Up & Jumpin' (with Canadian guitarist , 1989-1990), and Hard Lovin' (1992, ). His widely available albums include Feel Like Rockin' (1994, ), Married to the Blues (1995, ), and Heart of Chicago (1997, /), an album recorded in Chicago on which Hummel was accompanied by some veteran Chicago sidemen, including drummer , guitarist Dave Myers, and producer/guitarist . Considered one of the top harmonica players in the U.S., Hummel has also judged and played in the Hohner Harmonica World Championships, held in Germany; he issued Low Down to Uptown in 1998. Golden State Blues was next, released on new label with support from Hummel's usual backing band, the Blues Survivors. Retro-Active followed early in 2010. ~ Richard Skelly, Rovi