"Dave Steele puts out the flash guitar work and the groovin’ vocal tones." - Mark A. Cole, Big City Blues

"Shari Kane is an excellent guitarist. Next to Johnny Shines, she is the best interpreter of Robert Johnson's material that I have ever heard." - Robert Jones, Blues From The Lowlands,WDET-FM, Detroit, MI

"Dave plays the meanest rhythm guitar line I’ve heard in a long time. More Charley Christian and T-Bone Walker..." - William Shea, Agenda

"You either can do the blues or you can't. Kane can. She has the background, the ability to whip her voice into a growl and play some, yes, kicking slide guitar." - Jill Hamilton,  Ann Arbor News

"Dave’s smoke blue vocal is like pure poetry. From a songwriting standpoint, this man does more with a blues shuffle than I thought possible." - Bruce J. Miller, Real Blues

"Shari Kane is the most dangerous fingerstyle blues guitarist north of the Yazoo." - Scott Allman, Capitol City Blues Cruise, WJXQ-FM, Jackson / Lansing, MI

"...slamming rhythms, biting slide...string-snapping and note-slurring tricks that set fire to guitar..."
- Blues Revue

Shari and Dave...

...first met in the summer of 1991, crossing paths as performing blues musicians: Shari was the partner of harmonica legend, Madcat Ruth, (Madcat & Kane), while Dave was leading the electric blues band, Big Dave and the Ultrasonics. A happy marriage, thousands of miles of touring, and twenty years later, they've recorded their first CD as a duo.

Friends, neighbors, fellow musicians and fans have asked over the years, "When are you two going to start playing together?" The truth is, they've been playing together since their first date. In many ways their playing has developed side by side, listening to and learning from great acoustic blues guitarists from the past - Reverend Gary Davis, Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Robert Lockwood Jr. to name just a few. Whether stomping out a blues on the front porch, deciphering a rag in the basement, or swinging on a lazy day in the back yard, they’ve been finding ways to put guitar parts together for years.

As an acoustic blues duo, Shari and Dave throw a four handed guitar party of original and time-honored blues, gospel, swing and ragtime. Steeped in Dave’s smoky vocals, percussive rhythm and innovative lead lines, Shari’s crisp picking style, rootsy leads, and stinging slidework, their music has been described as “street swing and stomp blues,” - like a testament to sounds once heard on the streets of Harlem, the juke joints of Mississippi, or from the jug bands of Memphis.

 

Shari Kane ...

... started playing guitar at the age of five. By the early 1970's she had become a devoted blues fan, and learned how to play fingerstyle blues on the acoustic guitar. When she was sixteen, she began teaching guitar. She continues to teach, offering workshops in many of the cities where she performs.

Shari's many years spent studying the work of the Delta Blues masters can be heard nightly as she picks up her acoustic guitar. Throwing herself into a stinging Robert Johnson interpretation, a jumping Robert Junior Lockwood shuffle, or the intricate fingerstylings of Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt, Shari's mastery of the acoustic tradition is apparent.

In 1990, she began touring with harmonica legend Peter Madcat Ruth. The two recorded four CDs and played in venues nationwide as well as Spain, Brazil, Poland, Canada and the Cayman Islands.

 An accomplished slide player, she appears on Rory Block's 1992 release, Ain't I A Woman. As a guitarist with considerable versatility, Shari is emerging as one of the country's finest Blueswomen.

Dave Steele ...

... first began performing as a barroom acoustic solo guitarist and singer while attending Allegheny College in Northwest Pennsylvania in the 1970’s. During the 80’s, Steele expanded his interest to electric blues, as a founding member of the Zipper City Blues Band. After seven years as a popular regional act, Steele moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he formed and led the popular blues band Big Dave and the Ultrasonics. The band featured his big-voiced singing and sly lead guitar work as they swung throughout the U.S. and Canada 150 nights a year, regularly lighting up blues clubs like Buddy Guy’s Legends and the Zoo Bar, while making main stage appearances at festivals like the Montreal Jazz Fest and repeat performances at Portland Waterfront Blues Festival. After four recordings, (the final one on the Burnside label,) the Ultrasonics disbanded.

Steele took a break from performing at the turn on the century, but continued to playat home with Shari. Steele brings a basket of guitar influences to the partnership- single note lines inspired by B. B. King and Charlie Christian, acoustic ragtime and blues fingerpicking, and rhythm guitar, ala Count Basie accompanist Freddie Green - that mesh seamlessly with his wife’s dynamic fingerstyle and slide playing.

Places Shari and Dave have performed

  • Club Passim, Boston, MA
  • Godfrey Daniels, Bethlehem, PA
  • Coopers Glen, Kalamazoo, MI
  • Michigan Blues Festival, Lansing, MI
  • Harvest Gathering, Lake City, MI
  • Beaver Island Music Festival, Beaver Island, MI
  • Thumbfest, Port Huron, MI
  • Hollerfest, Brooklyn, MI
  • The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI
  • Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs, NY
  • Focal Point, St. Louis, MO
  • Trinity House Theater, Livonia, MI
  • Archie's Barbershop, Washington DC
  • Johnny's Speakeasy, Ann Arbor, MI
  • Wilberts, Cleveland, OH
  • Salt of the Earth, Fennville, OH
  • Shorts Brewery, Bellaire, MI
  • Stone House Concert Series, Detroit, MI
  • White Steeple Concert Series, Pinckney, MI

Places Where Shari Kane has performed

  • Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival - Ann Arbor, MI
  • Blissfest – Bliss, MI
  • Chicago Blues Festival – Chicago, IL
  • Eureka Springs Blues Festival - Eureka Springs, AR
  • Kerrville Folk Festival - Kerrville, TX
  • King Biscuit Blues Festival – Helena, AR
  • Pocono Blues Festival - Lake Harmony, PA
  • Nescafe Blues Festival - Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Rawa Blues Festival - Katowice, Poland
  • Summerfolk Festival - Owen Sound, Ontario
  • Wheatland Music Festival - Remus, MI
  • Antone's - Austin, TX
  • Buddy Guy's Legends - Chicago, IL
  • BB King’s - Memphis, TN
  • Blind Willie's - Atlanta, GA
  • Canal Street Tavern - Dayton, OH
  • Godfrey Daniels - Bethlehem, PA
  • Manny's Carwash - New York, NY
  • Old Town School of Folk Music - Chicago, IL
  • Rockefeller's - Houston, TX
  • The Pumphouse - LaCrosse, WI
  • The Town Crier - Pawling, NY
  • Fitzgeralds - Chicago, IL

Places Where Dave Steele has performed:

  • Montreal Jazz Festival – Montreal, Quebec
  • Portland Blues Festival - Portland, OR
  • Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival - Ann Arbor, MI
  • Detroit Blues Festival - Detroit, MI
  • Waterfront Blues Festival - Toronto, ONT
  • Winthrop Blues Festival - Winthrop, WA
  • Labatts Blues Festival - Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, BC
  • Vancouver Blues Festival - Vancouver, BC
  • Pittsburgh Blues Festival - Pittsburgh, PA
  • New York State Blues Festival - Syracuse, NY
  • B. B. Kings - Memphis, TN
  • The Stanhope House - Stanhope, NJ
  • Buddy Guy’s Legends - Chicago, IL
  • Grand Emporium, Kansas City, KS
  • Lafayette Taproom - Buffalo, NY
  • The Docksider - Erie, PA
  • Fleetwoods - Washington D.C.
  • The Zoo Bar - Lincoln, NE