Black Market III

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Scottie "Mad Dog" Blinn: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Vocals | Roxy Coverdale: Bass guitar, Vocals | Haley Allen: Drums

Genre: Acoustic, Alternative, Blues & Soul, Rock

Sound description: Hard-hitting, soulful blues and Americana roots music, with reverence to all the original blues men and women.

RIYL: The Mississippi Mudsharks, Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top, the Blasters, the Beat Farmers, the Pleasure Barons, Social Distortion, the Clash

Upcoming Local Shows

  • Crush — Wednesday, May 29, 8pm – 10:30pm

Synoposis

Inception: Lakeside, 2011

Influences: Tom Waits, Wayne Walker, Hank Williams Sr., Leadbelly, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, T-Bone Walker, Anson Funderburgh, Jimmy Vaughan, Robert Johnson, Son House, Hubert Sumlin, Magic Sam, Magic Slim, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Hound Dog Taylor, Freddy King, Albert King, BB King, Stevie Vaughan, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Tomcat Courtney, D.A. and the Hitmen, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Junior Brown, Ry Cooder, ZZ Top, Dick Dale

Background:

Formed as a working side project by Scottie “Mad Dog” Blinn while in-between recording and touring with the Mississippi Mudsharks, Black Market III (originally known as Black Market Baby) plays hard-hitting, soulful blues and Americana roots music, with reverence to all the original blues men and women.

As of 2012, Blinn says “Black Market III has become my full time band. In addition to original music, we play covers by Tom Waits, Wayne Walker, Hank Williams Sr., Leadbelly, Dead Weather, Social Distortion, and many more.”

Blinn’s tenure as frontman for the Mississippi Mudsharks includes multiple San Diego Music Awards and nominations (three wins, twelve nominations), and several European blues chart topping CDs (two #1s, a #3, and a #4 on the CrossCut Blues Chart). His twenty years of experience gigging, recording, and touring the U.S. and Europe have seen him playing with and sharing stages with Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Willie Nelson, Buddy Guy, George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, Brian Setzer (Stray Cats), Dr. John, Dick Dale, and many more.

Black Market III also includes bassist Roxy Coverdale and drummer Haley Allen. A CD of originals and covers of artists like Tom Waits, Wayne Walker, and Leadbelly was released in spring 2012.

A weekly YouTube show was launched in May 2012, Black Market III: The Garage Sessions, featuring videos of Black Market III, “jamming, bullshitting, doing stuff out of left field” in Blinn’s Lakeside garage. “We might play a song out of our area [blues, roots, grease punk] but put our own take on it, like, a Black Sabbath tune. Or maybe do a Tom Waits cover, or play one of our originals.” Blinn sees the show as an inside view into a working band. “Maybe it will just be the three of us sitting in a circle and writing a song, which we’ll then actually play.”

But the Garage Sessions ultimately have a larger purpose. “We’re going to tie it in with a tour as a tool to accompany and promote our club dates.” Blinn says they have plans to organize gigs in fan garages across the country. “Like house concerts,” he says, “only greasier.”

The show, filmed in Blinn’s garage with a pair of handheld cameras and miked for sound quality, “is designed to get people watching and adding new fans, so when we come to their town we will already have a name.” He explains that, in the old days, a band road-dogged the same circuit several times over and gained fans slowly. Blinn thinks that with YouTube and cross-marketing, BMIII will have an audience in place when they show up to play.

“And we’re gonna pick bands we really dig and bring them to the garage. Tomcat [Courtney], Nena Anderson, Stephen Rey.” A European tour ran from September 2012 into October, hitting twenty cities in thirty days.

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