Billy Branch Announces New Album The Blues Is My Biography Out November 7 on Rosa’s Lounge Records

Billy Branch Announces New Album The Blues Is My Biography Out November 7 on Rosa’s Lounge Records
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Blues icon Billy Branch proudly announces the release of his powerful new album, The Blues Is My Biography, available November 7 via Rosa’s Lounge Records, a new Chicago-based label. Deeply personal and largely autobiographical, the album stands as Branch’s most ambitious and meaningful work to date.

Branch also unveils the album’s lead single, “Hole in My Soul,” featuring fellow blues legend Bobby Rush on vocals and harmonica. The track captures the soul-healing connection between the artist and his lifelong muse the blues.
“‘Hole in your soul’ is a phrase I’ve heard countless times over the years,” Branch explains. “There was a Chicago DJ at WVON who used to say it all the time, and other artists have said it as well. It felt like time to put that truth into a song.”

​A Deeply Personal Album with a Star-Studded Lineup
The Blues Is My Biography was produced by Larry Batiste and recorded at Infinite Studios (Alameda, CA) and JoyRide Studio (Chicago, IL). Along with Bobby Rush, the album features Shemekia Copeland, who lends her unmistakable voice to “Begging for Change.” Billy’s longtime band, The Sons of Blues, provides the musical foundation, with horn arrangements by Batiste.

The album traverses a wide sonic and emotional range  from the raw soul of “Toxic Strain” and the gritty R&B of “All Your Bluff”, to the driving pulse of “Roaches” and the reflective storytelling of the title track. Other highlights include the exuberant “Real Good Friends,” the hip-hop-infused “How You Living?”, and “The Ballad of the Million Men,” layered with reggae rhythms. The deeply autobiographical “The Harmonica Man” serves as the album’s emotional centerpiece.

“Every song on this album has special meaning to me in terms of my journey,” says Branch. “This is the most important work I’ve ever done  and the best work I’ve ever done as well.”


A Lifetime in the Blues
Born and raised in Chicago, Branch bought his first harmonica at age ten from Woolworth’s and taught himself to play. Immersing himself in the city’s legendary blues scene as a teen, he learned from masters including James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell, Willie Dixon, and Big Walter Horton.

His career took off in 1975 when he joined the Willie Dixon Chicago Blues All-Stars, performing with the group for seven years. He later recorded with Alligator Records on 1978’s Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 3 and the landmark 1990 release Harp Attack!, alongside Junior Wells, James Cotton, and Carey Bell — an experience Branch calls “my diploma and my PhD.”

In 1977, Branch formed his own group, The Sons of Blues, currently featuring Dionte “Musik” Skinner (drums), Sumito “Ariyo” Ariyoshi (keyboards), Ari Seder (bass), and Giles Corey (guitar). The Chicago Blues Festival honored the band’s 30th and 40th anniversaries, recognizing their vital role in preserving and evolving the city’s blues heritage.

Over the course of his career, Branch has appeared on more than 300 recordings, collaborating with artists including Vince Gill, Billy Gibbons, Stephen Stills, Koko Taylor, Taj Mahal, Lonnie Brooks, Lou Rawls, Johnny Winter, and Mike Mills of R.E.M., among many others.
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An International Ambassador for the Blues
As a global ambassador of the blues, Branch has performed throughout Europe, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, China, and the Americas, gracing stages from the Montreux Jazz Festival to the North Sea Jazz Festival, Long Beach Blues Festival, San Francisco Blues Festival, and his hometown Chicago Blues Festival.

His decades-long dedication has earned him numerous accolades, including an Emmy Award, three Grammy nominations, three Blues Music Awards, two Living Blues Awards, two Keeping the Blues Alive Awards, the Willie Dixon Lifetime Songwriters Award, and the Charles Walton Award for Outstanding Contribution to Black Music.

Branch has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and has served on the Grammy Board of Governors, the Little Walter Foundation Board, and the Blues Foundation Board of Directors. His work was featured in the Grammy Museum’s exhibition “Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom,” and he has received two proclamations from the City of Chicago recognizing his contributions to the city’s musical legacy.

“My wife, Rosa, always says my life is like a movie,” Billy reflects. “This album feels like its soundtrack my story told through the music that made me.”