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Ori Naftaly Band: They Get The Blues In Israel Too

Courtesy of the artist
Ori Naftaly Band hanging out in Winter Park, Colo., June 30, 2013.

Although Ori Naftaly Band comes from a country with hardly any Blues scene, they have figured things out well enough to become the first Israeli band ever to have reached the Semi-Finals of the International Blues Competition.

After winning the Israeli Blues Challenge Competition, Ori Naftaly Band came to America for the first time in 2012. While they may not have won the International Blues Competition in Memphis, Tennessee, their performance in the semi-finales won fans and made them the top CD selling act at the completion. They were amazed and thrilled to walk down Beale Street and hear people singing their songs.

http://youtu.be/AydDxyJMvMA

Ori Naftaly and lead singer Eleanor Tsaig got turned on to the Blues listening to Ori’s father’s collection of records and decided they wanted to play for the fun of it. The Blues can suck you in. You start out for fun and fun turns to obsession. Soon they were recording and embarking on a schedule of touring that won them legions of fans in Holland, India, Germany and other countries around world.

Now they are doing a bang up job of conquering the USA.

It may not be too surprising to hear that Israel has very few Blues venues, but Ori Naftaly Band has a knack for creating their own place in the World. Lead singer Eleanor Tsaig feels it’s the music that makes the venue, not the other way around.

eleanor-venues.mp3
Eleanor Tsaig on preferred places to play the Blues.

Eleanor and Ori discovered Led Zeppelin at a young age and ONB’s music is informed by the Rock and Roll of Zeppelin with a wide variety of other influences including the fact that the band’s drummer is into the music of Jamaica and has done a Reggae album in Hebrew! I’d like very much to hear that one.

http://youtu.be/ICaZH8JjYco

The band infuses a fair amount of their own with the Rock and Reggae, but still very much deserve to be thought of as a Blues band and the sound never fails to win audiences.

The Blues of Israel comes to Greeley for the 2014 Blues Jam when Ori Naftaly Band will play both 6 p.m. Friday night on the Downtown Plaza Stage on the 9th Street Plaza. They’ll open Saturday’s bill at Island Grove Regional Park.

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