Lil’ Ed Williams, although small in stature, is a true giant of the blues, and among the very last authentic West Side Chicago bluesmen. From smoking slide guitar boogies to raw-boned Chicago shuffles to the deepest slow blues, Lil’ Ed Williams is a master bluesman. A gifted guitarist and a remarkably gritty and soulful vocalist, Williams, along with his blistering, road-tested band, The Blues Imperials, has been tearing up clubs and festival stages all over the world for almost 25 years. Not since the heyday of Hound Dog Taylor and The HouseRockers has a Chicago blues band made such a consistently joyous, rollicking noise. Between the band’s wonderfully untamed music and Ed’s flying leaps, his back-bending, his toe-walking through the audience and his sliding across the stage on his knees, it’s no wonder The Boston Globe called Lil’ Ed and The Blues Imperials “the world’s #1 houserocking band.”

"Big James" Montgomery got his first taste of the blues when as a young teenager he would stand outside of a club on the southside of Chicago and listen to B.B. "Big Voice" Odum sing with Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues. Eventually, he was allowed to sit in with the band and as the old saying goes, "The rest was history." At nineteen years old he joined the legendary "Little Milton Band". After playing with Milton for two years, he joined Albert King's Blues Band. After playing with Albert, he returned to the local scene in Chicago and began to play with many blues bands in the area too numerous to mention.

But, it was his association with the late Johnny Christian that really changed things for him. "Big James" says, "Little Milton gave me my start, but Johnny really turned me loose. He was such a great singer and a major influence on me that I will always be grateful to him. In 1996, along with fellow sidekick, Charlie Kimble on saxophone "Big James" joined the Buddy Guy's Blues Band. They performed all over the world with the master bluesman, with the highlight being the "House of Blues Barnburner Tour" and a performance on the "Tonight Show" featuring Jay Leno. Also in 1996, The Chicago Playboys rocked the main stage of the Chicago Blues Festival featuring the dazzling Nellie Travis and Phil Guy. Big James has also shared a stage with such performers as; Eric Clapton, George Clinton, & Parliament Funkadelic, Public Announcement, Dan Ackroyd, Larry Coryell & Lou Rawls.

Now lead by "Big James" on trombone and lead vocals, The Chicago Playboys are performing at many of the well known blues clubs in the Chicago area such as: The House of Blues, Buddy Guy's Legends, Famous Dave's in Chicago-Minneapolis & Champagne, Koko Taylors, B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted, Chord on Blues in St. Charles, The Slice of Chicago in Palatine, Porter's Oyster Bar in Crystal Lake and The Up & Under Club in Milwaukee,WI. The horn section has alson been active in the recording studio having recorded several albums with Johnny Christian, Lee "Shot" Williams, John Primer, L.V. Banks, Vance Kelly and on Chico Banks first solo project entitled "Candy Lickin' Man", on Evidence records. "Big James" is featured on lead vocals and trombone on a sizzling arrangement of Magic Sam's "All of Your Love." "Big James" has recorded 2 solo projects on the independent Jamot Music Label. The first entitled "Funkin' Blues" received rave reviews from musicians, critics and the general public from all around the globe. The newest release entitled "If It Wasn't 4 Da Blues" is proving to follow suit! Be on the lookout for this young and exciting bluesman.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially in the case of fiery Philadelphia chanteuse Jaguar Wright. As notorious for her impassioned, spine-tingling vibrato as she is for her show-stealing performance at Jay-Z´s 1999 MTV Unplugged concert with The Roots, Jaguar is the quintessential soul maven. Her sophomore debut, "Divorcing Neo to Marry Soul," is appropriately titled because it not only rids her of the dreaded cloak of the manufactured category "neo-soul," but represents her musical and personal emancipation. "I am truly divorcing everything from before to start fresh and new," says Jaguar, a married mother of two. "The title lets everyone know I´m divorcing the hype to marry the real. I don´t sell anything else but me, or what I believe in or feel. I am finally free to do me, free to do my work."

Through song Jaguar has mastered the art of expressing the ying-yang of raw emotion that is sometimes emotional and resolute in its convictions. The premiere single, the mid-tempo "Free," is an impassioned cry to a jaded former lover who begs to be let out of their relationship. The Philly soul maven´s vocal prowess goes undeterred as she bellows the heartfelt confessional "Woman to Woman," a remake to the 1974 classic by Shirley Brown. "I wanted to revamp it and make it more current. The world has degenerated and changed a great deal since then. I wanted to tell the story of the woman-to-woman song for my generation." Jaguar continues to air out her feelings with the heartfelt "Let Me Be the One." Serving as a personals ad of sorts, this deliciously coy song is a thinly-veiled promise to deliver the goods to the object of Jag´s desire. When she bellows: "Let me be the one/We could have so much fun/Let me be your girl/I´ll give you the world," you´d almost defy the lucky fellow NOT to choose her. Amid the same backbeat to the 2002 song "Grindin´" by rap group, The Clipse, the head-banging women´s anthem "Timing" condemns the behavior of a past lover by exposing his shortcomings. Jaguar bitterly recounts the shoddy treatment by her former love, singing: "When you came, you had nothing on your plate...Now it´s too late to say sorry, baby."

She even takes a sista-girl relationship stance on the confrontational torcher "Told Ya," on which she reprimands a girlfriend for not heeding her advice about a cheating lover. "If she was smart she woulda listened!" Jag laughs. As such a profound talent, it's hard to fathom that the world may never have received Jaguar's gift of song. Reared in the church, Jaguar's staunchly religious parents did not initially support their daughter's dream of becoming a "secular" singer. But the R&B dynamo knew she'd had tapped into something powerful when she managed to convert the most unlikely of converts-her teacher mom and drug counselor father. "My parents wanted me to take the more traditional route...by becoming a litigator, doctor or a practitioner; a professor or a psychologist," says Jaguar. "My father hated that I was singing. It drove him insane, and now he is biggest fan because I earned his respect. I proved that this is not a dream, this was not a fantasy-- this is my life. Singing was my destiny, even before I was born." Although her first album, the 2002 effort Denial, Delusions & Decisions yielded a commercial hit ("The What Ifs"), which was featured in the Coca-Cola's "Nu-soul" advertising campaign with The Roots, Jag has learned that industry partnerships aren't everything. Her second coming has not been backed by the The Roots or any other artists for that matter. "I can do this on my own," she says proudly. "I love working with people, but at the end of the day, I want people to know I can shine by myself." Instead, she enlisted the help of production henchman Raphael Saddiq, Chucky Thompson, James Poyser, TL, Larry Gold and Mike City to breathe life into her powerful, poignant words (Jag wrote the entire album with the exception of "Flower"). Jaguar believes her songwriting skills are innate.

"From the second you start hearing and articulating sounds and phonics, everything is influencing you," she says. To that end, many of her sonic influences have come from her diverse musical tastes which span decades of song. Those inspirations include Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Etta James, Sarah Vaughn, Van Halen, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Rob Tomas (Matchbox 20), The Doors, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, among others. One listen to "Divorcing Neo to Marry Soul" and it's evident that Jaguar is an advocate for gut-wrenching soul music, and that's not about to change. "What I am is what I am. Most people come up with a gimmic, and the only gimmick I have is that I am me. Love it or hate it, hate it or love it. Everything I do is based off of real life experiences. I'm eager to share them with my fans."