Greater Ozarks Blues Festival 2010
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Marquise Knox

The second act Saturday on the main stage will be 2010 BMA Best New Debut Artist nominee Marquise Knox.

Marquise Knox is 18 years old, a native of Granada, Mississippi and a legend in the making. Marquise hails from a musical family deeply entrenched in the Blues tradition. He learned how to play guitar from his grandmother whose family were sharecroppers and whose great, great grandparents were slaves. For him, Blues is his heritage.

Marquise spent his early teenage years in St. Louis mentoring under the late great Blues legend, N.E.A. Heritage Fellowship recipient and Grammy Award winner Henry James Townsend. His talents have already earned him performing rights with some of America’s most notable blues performers such as blues legend and Grammy Award winners B.B. King, Pinetop Perkins and David “Honeyboy” Edwards (the latter two also NEA Heritage Fellows).

While his musical peers hope for careers in hip-hop, Marquise decided to remain true to his heritage and share his musical journey not only with traditional blues audiences but with our youth. At 18 he finds it easy to relate to the challenges faced by today’s youth and it shows.

Knox’s recently released debut album MANCHILD was awarded the 2010 Living Blues Critics Award for Best Debut. Living Blues magazine was the first Blues magazine published in the United States, and their Critics Awards are considered to be as prestigious as the Grammy awards when it comes to the Blues.

Marquise Knox was also nominated by The Blues Foundation for a 2010 Blues Music Award for Best New Artist Debut, and two Blues Blast nominations- Best New Artist Debut Release And Sean Costello Rising Star Award.

The album was recorded when he was 16, in two nights, during an ice storm in the famed Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, Kansas backed by “IronMan” Michael Burks and his band. There is even a song called ‘Ice Storm’ on the album. The release is making it’s way up the charts and is receiving worldwide acclaim. Jim O’Neal, founder of Living Blues, said Marquise was “...already poised, confident, and brandishing an arsenal of powerful, no-nonsense vocal and guitar skills that projected not only way beyond his years, but way back to the spirits of the blues masters of yore.”

Marquise is truly a Manchild. At 18 he plays like he is 40. He can cook a chicken dinner for eight complete with greens as good as any you’ve ever had. He maintains a sizable garden at his home in urban St. Louis. And the number one question people ask Marquise is “let me see your driver’s license”.

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Bernard Allison    Super Chikan    Grady Champion    Homemade Jamz    Barbara Blue    Marquise Knox   The Bel Airs   Tripwire 

Second Stage Acts
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