Costa Rica Blues Festival

Blues Fest Performers
Sonny Boy Terry featuring John del Toro
Sonny Boy Terry

Sonny Boy Terry is a Vocalist/band leader/harmonica player/songwriter/producer and has recorded and toured with legendary blues artists Calvin Owens, Johnny Clyde Copeland, Joe Guitar Hughes, Jimmy Lousiana Dotson, Kinney Abair, Grady Gaines and many others.

Christened Terry Jerome in the small farm and factory town in northwest Ohio called Van Wert just across the state line from Fort Wayne Indiana, Terry migrated to Houston, TX to find work in a booming city and to pursue his dreams of playing the the legenday black blues artists. In 2003, Terry signed with Austin blues label, Doc Blues Records re-releasing his self produced and critically acclaimed "Breakfast Dance" and the newly recorded "Live At Miss Ann's Playpen" for international distribution.

Terry works and performs his original brand of blues full time all along the Texas Gulf Coast, Houston, the USA, and in Europe. His music can be described as traditional uptempo jump blues. But Terry isn't afraid to be expansive, delving into jazz, roots rock, Americana, and even Woody Guthrie inspired protest music.

As the years go on and his resume deepens, Houston, Texas bluesman Sonny Boy Terry is now being recognized as one of Texas' - if not one of America's top harmonica players and devoted blues recording artists. But Terry wasn't always Sonny Boy and it didn't happen the way many would imagine. Born Terry Jerome in the unlikely place of Van Wert in northwest Ohio on the state line near Fort Wayne, Indiana, he picked up a harmonica as a teenager in the 1970s , mostly, he says, "because I wanted to jam with my friends, who played guitars". "I didn't know anything technically about music. I was just a huge music lover," he claims, "I didn't even know you needed more than one key of harmonica".

2010 holds alot of promise for Sonny Boy Terry. He has a newly formed band and a new album is planned. He is releasing all his video footage on YouTube, and with a show in the midwest coming up with Brownsville Station drummer Henry H-Bomb Weck, if all goes well Sonny Boy Terry hopes to break out more in the US in the upcoming year.

John del Toro Richardson,is a blues guitarist from Houston TX representing the strong defining sound of the Texas Blues. Inspired by his uncles he picked up the guitar in his early twenties and immediately started playing in the music scene around Houston. From starting his own bands to having the honor to play with many of the blues greats in Houston early in his career.

Richardson’s partnership with Diunna Greenleaf and his role in the Blue Mercy Blues Band and the support of the Blue Shoe Project in Dallas TX lead them to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis TN in 2005. In Memphis Diuna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy took the first place over 120 competing bands on Beale Street giving them recognition nationally and internationally playing amongst the greatest in the blues scene. At the same competition Richardson was honored with the Albert King Award, the most promising blue guitarist of the competition. This set a new standard for his level of playing and from there he has gone on to continue playing with blues greats such as, Hubert Sulim, Pinetop Perkins and Otis Taylor.

John's accomplishments include:

Blues Awards 2005, Memphis: Winner Blues Challenge with Blue Mercy, Blues Awards 2005, Memphis: Winner Albert King Award for most promising Blues Guitar Player

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