Lydia Pense & Cold Blood

Lydia Pense and Cold Blood are Bay Area music pioneers with an amazing history and an exciting future.
Lydia and the band debuted when the Fillmore was at its peak as one of the nation’s musical Mecca’s. Owner Bill Graham was so impressed with Lydia’s voice and the sound of the band that he immediately signed Cold Blood to his new record label. During the span of six original late-60’s, early-70’s albums, Lydia Pense and Cold Blood helped, along with Tower Of Power, forge their own specific brand of funk/soul and R&B which came to be know as East Bay Grease. That music still holds up today, proving that great music is timeless and will continue to inspire generations to come. Lydia Pense and

The word legend certainly applies to Lydia Pense and Cold Blood…and not in some past tense-make-a-living-as-an-oldies-act sort of way either. Pense can still shout like a 60’s soul diva and purr a slow blues tune with spine-tingling subtlety. Cold Blood, as a whole, features a stellar group of musicians who have been playing together for nearly 20 years including Steve Dunne on guitar, Steve Salinas ..boards, a gritty-growling horn section comprised of Rich Armstrong and Rob Zuckerman along with a stellar rhythm section featuring Evan Palmerston on bass and Donny Baldwin on drums.

The band members are all veteran Bay Area musicians who have played with many great artists including Boz Skaggs, Elvin Bishop, Starship, Thomas Dolby, Eddie Money, Michelle Shocked, Albert Collins and more. Of course there is Lydia who still has the chops with the patina of a seasoned veteran who’s done and seen it all. Together she and the band continue to twist together R&B, (both Old School and New School); into something that doesn’t have a label... On any given night, Lydia Pense and Cold Blood power through their historic essentials, like “You Got Me Hummin’,” “I Just Want To Make Love To You,” “I’m A Good Woman,” and “Down to the Bone.”

Now Cold Blood is featured on a new live record- Live Blood! Just released, this new live recording shows the world that Lydia Pense is a force to be reckoned with. This album displays Cold Blood in midtour perfection and in front of a big appreciative audience, the Sunbanks Music Festival in Washington State. This raucous recording features Cold Blood powering through some of their most recognized tunes such as “I’m A Good Woman,” “You Got Me Hummin’,” and “I Just Wanna Make Love To You.” To balance this sweat-soaked session they also deliver a few from their recent studio recording Transfusion and top things off with a new R&B masterpiece, “Can’t Take It (Don’t Give A Damn)” written by the great Lavelle White. Live Blood is what Cold Blood fans have been waiting for – lightning in a bottle, fronted by the incomparable Ms. Pense. Cold Blood continues to draw from their heritage without being stifled by their past, and all the while boasting a reinvigorated groove that will make you sweat, dance, and smile...all at the same time.