2024/5 Challenge Participants
Below you'll find info on our challenge event participants. This year's Band Challenge features three participants:
- Rees Shad and the Conversations
- Rich and the Shuffle Kings
- The Diego Mongue Band
Also featured at the Band Challenge event - our Youth Act, Forever.
The Diego Mongue Band is the latest group created by multi-instrumentalist composer Diego Mongue. The band is based out of Berkshire County, MA. They represented CRBN at the 2024 IBC competition in Memphis where they made it to the semifinals.
Their debut blues album, While You Were Gone, reached a height of #10 on the Roots Music Report on the Contemporary Blues Album Chart. Blues Blast magazine wrote that the album is “a fascinating listen, treading a fine line between blues, jazz-fusion and rock, beautifully produced and with some very impressive musicianship.”
Rick and The Shuffle Kings are a new blues-rock trio in the Capital Region that features their own take on blues standards, as well as original music. Although a new ensemble, the three members all have a lot of experience.
Guitarist/Vocalist Rick Werblow is the owner of Burnt Hills Music store and has played extensively in Florida, New York, Vermont, and more. Bassist Dave Andrews has also played throughout the North-East as well as Canada. Drummer Jack Kenney is a Brooklyn guy all the way who, after relocating to the Capital Region, has played drums for a variety of great Albany bands.
www.youtube.com/@rickandtheshufflekings261
Rees Shad, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, began his musical journey with Anderson, Ohio (1994), and critics called him a “wordsmith to watch.” It’s a reputation the remarkably prolific and eclectic singer-songwriter/storyteller has proudly cultivated. Shad now boasts a catalog of 16 solo albums, each of which reflect an unyielding combination of emotion and expression that has become his hallmark.
American Songwriter hailed 6 Strings and a Story (2023), as “a superb sampling of the skill and savvy that have been a hallmark of Shad’s career.” His latest, The Galahad Blues (2024) “etches a film-noir atmosphere as a soundtrack to an unseen movie” (Nippertown). Americana Highways declared “It’s hipster jive married to a swing melody tied to the human heartbeat. Three decades into his career Mr. Shad’s expressive music has bottomless resources.”
www.reesshadmusic.com/theconversations
Forever, described as "groove rock" are a heavy-hitting, hard-rocking band with heavy influences from blues as well as rock and roll that will surely give you a concert to remember. Forever features Adam Weeks on guitar and vocals, Riston Jones on bass and vocals, Thomas Cooke on guitar, and Rocco Gigante on drums All members of the band are under the age of 21.