Billy Thompson

Billy Thompson has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Canada. His songwriting, singing, and guitar work blend blues, rock, funk, second line, and soul into a distinctive, roots-driven sound.

Since 2022, Billy has toured with Zydeco great C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band and has backed legends including Little Milton, Albert King, Earl King, and Art Neville. He has opened for Robert Cray, Sonny Landreth, The Neville Brothers, George Thorogood, Jimmie Vaughan, and more. He has also performed with the San Diego Symphony.

Billy has appeared as a guest artist with the Doobie Brothers, Bill Payne of Little Feat, John Mooney, and others. He played lead guitar for award-winning playwright Keith Glover’s Bluesical, Thunder Knocking on the Door, and served as musical supervisor/guitarist for Geva Theatre’s 2019 production, Revival: The Resurrection of Son House.

Billy’s 8th release, BT, charted in 2018 and features longtime Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. “A Team” luminaries Mike Finnigan (RIP), James “Hutch” Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt), Grammy winner Tony Braunagel, Daryl Johnson, James East, M. Leroy Peed, Eric Selby, Danny Campbell, Gene Monroe, and Michelle Lucas.

His 2012 release, A Better Man, produced by Braunagel, featured Mike Finnigan, Grammy winner Johnny Lee Schell, Kenny Gradney (Little Feat), “Hutch” Hutchinson, Lenny Castro, Joe Sublett, and Darrell Leonard (Texicali Horns). The album was nominated by Blues Blast Magazine for 2012 “Contemporary Blues Album of the Year” and was named “Bluesbreaker of the Week” on Dan Aykroyd’s Elwood’s House of Blues Hour.

This World, a 14-song release, dropped 2/20/26 on MoMojo Records reaching the Top Ten on the Big Blues and Living Blues Charts, featuring Dr. John alum David Barard, Derek Trucks Band alum Doug Belote, New Orleans greats Kirk Joseph, Tom Worrell, Michael Skinkus, and Lionel Batiste, Hutch Huchinson, Mike Finnigan, Grammy winners Andy Kravitz, Tony Braunagel, along with D.C. bandmates Eric Selby and Golder O’Neill. As well, Luciano Leaes, West Coast bandmates Michael Leroy Peed, Kevin Hennessy, Dave Curtis, Bob Campbell, and vocalists from Shenandoah University.

Select appearances from 2023–2025 include the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, The Edmonton Blues Festival, the Great American Music Festival, the Minnesota State Fair, Antone’s 48th Anniversary, Tim Horton’s Southside Shuffle, the Winthrop Blues Festival, the Mendocino Music Festival, Festival Internationale and Le Festival de Acadiens et Créoles. Billy also performed with the B.B. King’s New Orleans All-Stars (2017–2018), appeared on NPR’s Mountain Stage (2014), and played Humphreys Concerts and Gator by the Bay in San Diego.