Performance Times
4pm, Saturday
Torraca
7pm, Saturday
Tramshed
Overview
Hailing from Sydney's Northern Beaches, Ivor S.K. is a critically acclaimed blues & roots singer/songwriter now based in New Orleans. A ten year career in Australia culminated in two releases that reached the Top 5 in the Oz Blues charts, EP Delta Pines and the LP Montserrat, leading Ivor to support luminaries including Diesel, Rick Price, and Ray Beadle. 2017 saw Ivor relocate to New Orleans, where a weekly residency at the venerable Chickie Wah Wah saw Ivor share stages with blues legends like Jon Cleary, Jason Ricci, and Alvin Youngblood Heart, while he is also a regular performer at The New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival and regularly tours the jukes of Mississippi. 2022 saw the release of new album Mississippi Bound to international plaudits, hitting #2 on the Oz Blues charts.
Visit his web site.
Reviews
“Ivor Simpson-Kennedy re-interprets Delta Blues so faithfully you’d swear he was a muddy footed native….In a drawl that sounds like his throat is clotted with Mississippi mud….S.K. floats through originals that sound like they were excavated from underneath the porch of some stilt house in the alluvial bottomlands….please, keep ‘em coming.” - Grant Britt, No Depression
“Ivor S.K. is quickly climbing to the top of my list of favorite songwriters…his critically acclaimed EP, Delta Pines, crossed my desk. I loved that disc. I adore his latest release, Montserrat as well…Montserrat showcases the genius of Ivor Simpson-Kennedy, with each song written, arranged and performed by the artist himself…Listening to Ivor S.K. reminds me of listening to Tom Waits for the first time, being caught up in the wonderfully raspy voice, the musicianship, and the songs.. those killer songs. This album indeed stands up and stands out.” - Phillip Smith, PhillyCheeze’s Rock & Blues Reviews
“With a deep, gritty, smoky voice, he serves up his interpretations with good stories, and even better guitar lines and comping. While his work frequently gives a nod to the great delta music of past generations, it sounds fresh, bright, and uplifting. Listeners fall into his work, losing themselves in the sparsely recorded and produced compositions, traveling a timeless road that opens before them. Ivor Simpson-Kennedy has laid down a marker that establishes him as someone with incredible ability and potential.” - Barry Kerzner, American Blues Scene
