BluesWorks
August, 2002

The acoustic blues trio, BluesWorks, is from the Washington, DC area. Rooted in the past, but firmly grounded in the present, BluesWorks infuses the acoustic blues with a modern sensibility. Fronted by the husband and wife team of Paul Watson and Judy Luis-Watson, the trio often features guitarist Mark Puryear or another guest artist. With piano, harmonica, mandolin, guitar and heart-felt vocals, BluesWorks covers the spectrum of the blues-from string band and country blues to New Orleans swamp boogie and Chicago stylings. Add a touch of blues lore and you've got BluesWorks!

Native Washingtonian Paul Watson is a blues harp player, singer and songwriter, whose playing favors country and Chicago blues with a little jazz thrown in for extra measure. He also plays mandolin in the string band tradition. Paul's mastery of the bues harp has made him a sought-out session recording artist.

Judy Luis-Watson grew up in a family of musicians in Tanzania, East Africa. Playing by ear and studying piano as a child, she began performing in the late '60s with her sister. Over the years she has performed a variety of musical genres. At Carnegie Hall's 1992 Folk Festival she performed South African folk songs with Nomonde Ngubo. She has toured western Canada with Saffire: the Uppity Blues Women, and since 1991 she has teamed up with Gaye Adegbalola at the Augusta Heritage Workshps. Judy plays piano on Gaye's educational video "Learning to Sing The Blues." She teaches blues piano and has taught at the Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina.

Paul and Judy formed BluesWorks in 1991.