July 30 - Aug 02, 2010

Biography

Born and raised an hour east of Chicago in South Bend, Indiana, Denny Snyder picked up the guitar at age eleven and still hasn’t put it down. Influenced by an incredibly diverse group of musicians and sounds, he says he is a melting pot of everything he’s ever heard. Denny has somehow managed a fusion of blues, fingerstyle and slide player guitar stylings that enthralls audiences and the critics alike.

After nibbling around the edges of the music scene, in 1984 Denny formed the group “Southside Denny and the Skintones”, and never looked back. The band produced two albums, the first of which received enough airplay to put them on the road. The second one featured legendary harmonicist Sugar Blue (of Willie Dixon and Rolling Stones fame).

It was the Chicago years of the Southside Denny Band, which produced a great disc titled Rollin' Home". It is his only effort to date with a Chicago rhythm section, featuring bassist Frank McClure and Jay Davenport on the drums. This disc strongly represents their live show that they played all over the U.S. midwest and parts of Canada over a period of three years.

The move to Montréal in February of 2007 has breathed even more new life into Southside Denny. An old friend named Jean Monarque (aka Gros Jeanbon) passed some of Denny's older material along to a DJ named Dan Berhman from Radio Canada, who began playing them on the air. A new version of the band is now in existence (Simon Meilleur on drums, and Lindsay Pugh playing the bass) and has already graced the stages of Le Festival Mont Tremblant, and various other venues.

In March of 2009, the disc "Full Circle" was released and included some surprising collaborations, including the recording debut of Denny's daughter Lorrie on singing background vocals on two songs. The disc received critical acclaim and was played on blues radio shows all over North America, Europe and Austrailia.

Discography

• Full Circle 2009
• Roots and Branches 2006
• Eclectic
• Moving on... 2000
• Rendez-vous Blues 1998

Performance Highlights

It will come as no surprise to his many fans when Denny won Blues disc of the year in Québec with Full Circle (March, 2009).

Denny also finds time to offer private guitar lessons - ranging from regular weekly study to working on a certain technique such as slide guitar, alternate tunings, improvisation, fingerstyle, or even songwriting ideas.

And if that were not enough to keep most mortals busy, Denny also provides a guitar repair service. His expertise ranges from basic set-ups to fret dressings, and making new nuts and saddles by hand from the finest available materials, regluing braces, etc.

Denny Snyder's web site
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