DOUBLE award winning Rebecca Downes will be bringing her blend of blues, rock and roll, funk and jazz to The Wharf on Friday, July 28.

Rebecca will be supporting to Blues maestros King King – who themselves have been snapping up awards right left and centre and are currently one of the hottest blues bands around on the touring circuit.

The singer has a growing fan base that showed its support by voting Rebecca as female vocalist of the year and emerging artist of the year in the British Blues Awards 2016.

King King, of course, had to cancel their gig earlier this year due to singer Alan Nimmo having vocal problems and so the gig promises to be a double whammy in terms of quality performances.

Hailing from Birmingham Rebecca and her band have been described as a must see live act that often leave newcomers blown away by the power of the performance.

Rebecca been out on tour with the likes of John Lee Hooker, Snakecharmer, Dr Feelgood and Paul Carrack as well as making some stellar festival appearances.

In their live performances her band elevate the album tracks to a new level. The set is interspersed with benchmark cover tracks such as Another Piece of My Heart and Baby Get It On but it’s mainly about the original songs with leading tracks from the album Back to the Start such as Basement of My Heart, Messed Up and Laughter From Her Room at the heart of it.

She said there is circularity here – the original tracks define the performance, the performance then re-defines the original tracks.

And, audiences calling for an encore will usually see With A Little Help From My Friends, delivered with a raucous confidence that would make the late Joe Cocker beam.

In between gigs Rebecca is working on her third album, a follow up to last year’s well received Believe and initial plans for release are January 2018.

And she’s as busy off stage as she is on it

‘My work is a combination of being a musician and vocal coaching, so my time is a mixture of songwriting, rehearsing, performing and vocal coaching. I work with degree students, TV talent shows and artist management com-panies.’

She added ‘I also spend a lot of time promoting the music via social and other media and with the band in its current state of development I also have to do some personal promotional work.  For example, I am going to Germany later this month to do a cameo performance at a blues festival, participate in a jam session in Berlin and undertake radio appearances, all to support our mini-tour in November and to assist our major promoter over there in building interest in our main tour being planned for autumn 2018.

‘ I may also have to go to the USA in August on a similar mission.’

Rebecca started performing at 13 although does not come from a musical background.

‘I didn’t come from a musical family but I was surrounded by music as a child and my parents have always encouraged me in my music,’ she said. ‘Both my parents love Swing and Jazz and I was bought up listening to the greats like; Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan.

‘I remember from an early age my mum saying they were the best singers out there and it left a big impression on me. I’ve always worked hard on the tone of my voice and my vocal range’.

Rebecca said she was looking forward to performing at The Wharf: ‘We have had pleas from fans to come down this way, which is why we jumped at the chance to come when King King offered us the support.’

See the advert on this week’s Wharf page in the paper for more information.