Oli Brown new album release in busy year

Young guitarist Oli Brown is cranking up his career 'amp' to 11, as he gears up to a new album release, UK tour, a spot at Glastonbury, along with trips to the United States and New Zealand.

The hectic year ahead is signalled by his second album, to be released in April, which was produced by legendary Mike Vernon, who cut discs for Eric Clapton and Fleetwood Mac, and came out retirement in Spain to do Oli's CD after hearing and seeing his work on the internet.

Oli's father and manager Graham said the album, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, had brought a maturity to the sound, as the 20-year-old from Sco Ruston widened his appeal across young fans and older blues traditionalists.

The singer-songwriter continued to put his 21st century stamp on the blues with a mixture of his own songs including Evil Soul and Speechless as well as classic covers such as Fever and No Diggity.

Also in April Oli will do a 10-date tour of Germany, followed by a 15-date New Generation Blues tour of the UK with two other acts.

His Glastonbury debut comes on a new jazz and blues stage late in June. In July he will appear alongside Paul Jones's Blues Band at the Holt Festival finale nearer home, and has also recorded a BBC Radio 2 session for Jones.

Oli will fly to the other side of the world in August for a five day guitar festival called G-Taranaki, and heads to the States in September for his regular annual tour.

He was hoping to do a 'home' gig in Norwich in December to round off a busy year, said Mr Brown.

Having also just returned from a successful short tour of Belgium and Germany the family were thrilled with the amount of worldwide interest in booking Oli, who first album Open Road recorded two years ago was still in the ITunes charts.

Heads I Win Tails You Lose is due to be released by Ruf Records on April 29. Copies can be pre-ordered through the website www.olibrownband.com