The story of Latvian Blues Band

The roots of the Latvian Blues Band (LBB) go back to year 1997, when three young Latvian guys decided to form a band. They started out by listening to different blues masters, such as Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter. While working hard on their blues skills, LBB received first local and international recognition by participating in several music festivals in Latvia and Lithuania.

In the beginning of 2000, Johnny V, a well known Canadian blues player, came to Riga to record his CD "Blues Party" together with LBB. Johnny V also helped LBB to find their way to Canada, where they participated in several blues festivals ("Blues Fest International", Windsor and London, "South Country Fair", Fort Macleod) and played in different blues clubs, e.g. "Silver Dollar Room" in Toronto.

Just before their trip to Canada, LBB went to Lithuania to participate in the international blues festival "Bliuzo Naktys" ("Blues Nights"), where they’ve played as head-liners every year, starting from 1998.

LBB has also had the pleasure to play the opening shows for Joe Cocker (Riga, 2002), Coco Montoya (Vilnius, 2003), and Victor Bailey Group (Riga, 2003); they have been on tours in Croatia ("Century of Blues" Festival, Zagreb, 2004), Greece (Athens — "Euro Jazz 2004", Thessaloniki, Preveza), Poland (Suwalki, 2003, 2005), Lithuania (with Keith Dunn, 2005), and Spain (Madrid, 2006).

In 2005, LBB went to Chicago, where they played at the "Chicago Blues Festival" and several Chicago blues clubs — "Buddy Guy’s Legends", "Kingstone Mines", "B.L.U.E.S.", "Artist’s Lounge", "Puffers" and others.

LBB has also received recognition from the Thropees France Blues which nominated them in the Best European Blues Bands category in 2005.

In 2009 Latvian Blues Band released their first studio album "Unreal" featuring 10 original songs written by the band during last 5 years. The entire album was produced by Duke Robillard. The year ended up with a powerful performance at the annual Baltic Blues Challenge competition in Eutin, Germany on October 30 and 31 where the Latvian Blues Band convincingly won in the category of blues groups and were promoted to take part in the International Blues Challenge 2010 finals in Memphis, U.S.A. January 2010.

In May, 2010 the band recorded and produced 14 original songs for their second studio CD, featuring guest artist Raphael Wressnig on Hammond B3.

August of 2011 – LBB played as head-liners in Sierre Blues Festival and shared the stage with the legendary band ‘’Status Quo’’ .

In Latvia, LBB plays at the Bite’s Blues Club (the only blues club in the Baltics) almost every weekend — here you can enjoy their own shows, as well as see them perform with highest rank blues artists from the U.S. So far, LBB has performed with more than 200 blues stars, including Bob Margolin, Carey Bell, John Primer, Phil Guy, ,Louisiana Red, , Duke Robillard, and many more.