Jeff Dale

Jeff Dale is an award winning songwriter and performer, born and raised on the south side of Chicago. Before he could shave, Jeff was exposed to the music and live performances of Hound Dog Taylor, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Koko Taylor and many more practitioners of Chicago blues. “In the neighborhood I grew up,” says Dale, “if you had your antennas up, you could feel the blues right there.”

After learning to play the blues from two Chicago west side musicians when he was 13, and writing his first blues based song at 14, Jeff went on to become an accompanist for legendary blues performers like Lowell Fulson, Pee Wee Crayton and Etta James among others. His travels through the world of the blues allowed him to meet and get advice from the likes of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Willie Dixon, Albert King and Clifton Chenier and more. Jeff also befriended the late David “Honeyboy” Edwards, the last of the original Delta bluesmen, accompanying him at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

After releasing two albums of original material in the ‘80s, (winning a Best New Blues Band award), Jeff reinvented himself in 2009 with a new band, The South Woodlawners. That album, “Blues From The Southside Of My Soul,” has been reviewed as “rowdy, loud, naughty-naughty-down-and-bawdy South Side Chicago style blues. He’s resurfaced more ferociously than ever with the South Woodlawners”

Jeff and the South Woodlawners CD “Blues Room” (2011) garnered international rave reviews and radio airplay. A notable track, “Stumblin’,” was featured on the hit FX show “Justified.” American Blues News awarded Jeff its “Concert of The Year” accolade, saying “Jeff is one of the coolest cats in the blues today and his live gigs really reflect his style and personality.”

Jeff’s CD “Good Music” (2014) was released to critical acclaim. Reflections in Blue said: “People like to talk about ‘the real deal.’ Jeff Dale & the South Woodlawners are without question the real deal. This is as good as it gets.” And Rootstime, from Belgium said: “With the album "Good Music" Jeff Dale proves that he really has blues blood running in his veins.” “Good Music” was also recipient of 2014 Pick of the Year from Blues In The Northwest and received the 2015 Shoutie Award from WXCI Connecticut.

In 2016 Jeff produced a DVD/CD combo package of the last recorded show by David “Honeyboy” Edwards, titled “I’m Gonna Tell You Somethin’ That I Know.” The project won the 2017 Living Blues Best Blues DVD Of The Year Award and was hailed all over the world as a priceless, historical treasure. This performance by Honeyboy backed by Jeff and his band contains an invaluable 20 minute reminiscence by the then 95 year old Edwards, talking about his blues journey from the Mississippi Delta and his many friends and contemporaries like Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. The film was selected to premier at the Clarksdale Mississippi Film Festival as well as at the Chicago International Music and Movie Festival. Living Blues Magazine said, "A blues treasure who sang and played the blues until the very end - his singing and guitar playing, the sympathetic accompaniment of the band and the blues musician's historical narrative at the end of the disc makes ‘I'm Gonna Tell You Somethin' That I Know’ a real treasure." Further, the French Blues magazine Le Cri Du Coyote said, “Honeyboy is surrounded by Jeff Dale & The South Woodlawners who play with deference and precision. An extremely valuable record of the last survivor of the legendary era of the history of Blues.”

Jeff’s collaboration with Handy award-winning harmonica player (and friend since the third grade!) Jeff Stone, titled “The Southside Lives,” is a back porch blues album of new Jeff Dale originals just out now and being played on over 150 radio programs and garnering significant praise in the press. Bmans Blues Report says “Glistening cigar box slide work, solid blues harp and featuring some of Dale's best vocals. A cool release.” And Soundguardian Magazine chimes in “This is blues that has its symbolism and magic – “The Southside Lives” radiates blues power!”

Jeff Dale has been playing his brand of blues for over 40 years. The Midwest Record review captured Jeff’s essence when they described him as “A Chicago cat that uses that connection to add authenticity to his blues, Dale is really doing his own thing under the penumbra of old school west side Chicago blues but it’s not about homage, tribute, inspired by...etc. He’s playing from the gut.”