$10 Admission. Advance tickets are recommended. Buy online tickets here
Join The Rusty Wright Band at Union Hall in Lakeland as they celebrate the release of Hangin' at the DeVille Lounge, their sixth studio album. Check out the band's music here.
About the Band
Rusty Wright is a masterful lyric storyteller, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer. This Billboard Top 10 artist’s contemporary blues rock sound is a hot-rod fusing of Texas-style blues; swinging boogie and Southern guitar rock. The band’s current lineup includes Rusty (Winter Haven, FL) on guitar and lead vocals; wife Laurie LaCross-Wright (Winter Haven, FL) on guitar and lead/harmony vocals; Billy Agner (Bartow, FL) on bass/harmony vocals; and Vail Hayes (Spring Hill, FL) on drums.
In his home state of Michigan, Rusty Wright was hailed as the most compelling blues rock act to emerge from the state in a decade, garnering accolades from the likes of Buddy Guy, Charlie Musselwhite; W.C. Clark; members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet as well as concert and festival promoters worldwide.
In 2004 the newly formed Rusty Wright Band played their second show, opening for Southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd. Following a standing ovation at the end of their set Rusty and the band members were mobbed when they tried to go out into the amphitheater to enjoy the headline act. Within months their local concerts drew crowds so large the fire marshal threatened to shut the shows down. Concerts with Etta James, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Leslie West & Mountain, and Mark Farner greatly expanded their fan base.
In 2009 an Armed Forces Entertainment tour took the band to South Korea and Japan and the band began performing at prestigious blues and music festivals across North America and Europe, including Colorado’s Telluride Blues & Brews, Florida’s Clearwater Sea Blues Fest, Minnesota’s Bayfront Blues Fest, Ontario’s Bluesfest International, Poland’s Jimiway Blues Fest, Italy’s Liri Blues Fest and the St. John Blues Fest in the US Virgin Islands. In 2012 the band was featured on Backstage Pass, an hour-long syndicated PBS program. The group is slated to tape a second concert for the show in 2023.
About Hangin' at the DeVille Lounge
Sometimes it’s the odd tidbits in life that stick in a person’s memory. A now defunct dive bar in Flint, Michigan once took delight in aggravating the church just up the road. When the church’s marquee sign boasted “Sinners Welcome!” the Deville Lounge changed their flashing sign as well. “Sinners Welcome! We have beer!” That moment of hilarity became the spark of inspiration this concept album is built around.
For almost 20 years Rusty Wright has been penning (mostly) tongue in cheek tunes that boogie their way around blues music culture’s ‘devil at the crossroads’ theme – but perhaps ‘DeVille at the crossroads’ is more accurate in this case. Anyway, we have re-imagined OUR DeVille Lounge as an unusual drinkery tucked out of sight at the edge of New Orleans, a true juke joint with decades of human dramas, energies and memories embedded in the walls.
Wright’s songs run the gamut. Songs like Trouble’s Always Knockin’, Devil Man Blues, and Goin’ to NOLA follow a more traditional Blues path, while the powerful No Man is an Island was inspired by a story about an autistic child. House of Spirits summons the vibe of juke joints and theaters the band has performed at that have a reputation for being haunted. No One Cares at All touches on human trafficking while Devil Music and Burnin’ Precious Time unleash the more rock-oriented side of Wright’s personality.
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