Blake “Snake” Burris comes straight out of Nashville (Tennessee), where he tours the States in his old van, with occasional stints in Europe for the Binic Folk Blues Festival, Bars en Trans and Rennes label Beast Records. He performs alone, armed with his guitar, harmonica and a few drums to share his passion for authentic, raw and rootsy blues. Shake It Like A Caveman is a powerful one-man band which blends boogie, delta blues, voodoo chanting, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and work songs in down-to-earth, grimy and scintillating concerts, which are the perfect opportunity to dance and let off steam.

The big family of blues one-man bands in Europe (including Portuguese artist The Legendary Tigerman and Swedish artist Bror Gunnar Jansson) has always been somewhat envious of North-American musicians, who carry the torch of this century-old art form born in the Mississippi Delta. Blake “Snake” Burris was born forty years ago in Chattanooga (Tennessee), and it must have been a full moon that night as the kindly spirits of African American blues artists Robert Johnson, Son House and Charlie Patton crooned over his cradle. Passionate about this music and convinced that his skin colour did not reflect the rhythm and blues in his soul, he came up with his Shake It Like A Caveman alter ego in the 2000s as he travelled the world with his slide guitar, harmonica, bass drum and hi-hat.

His groove, boogie riffs worthy of John Lee Hooker, voodoo rhythms, and raw, animal energy create a pure, grimy and coarse blues. This vampire-like preacher with a great sense of humour has developed a new genre somewhere between the work songs of the muddy banks of the Mississippi and Hollywood B movies, wild rock ‘n’ roll Memphis boogie and New Orleans groove blues. His wild and energetic music to dance to transforms each of his concerts into a hypnotic and exalting “rock ‘n’ roll one-man band dance party”.