By Kevin Noonan
Jeffrey Attakorah was a young man from a foreign country who knew nothing about blues music, and specifically blues guitar music. And his initiation to it came from … the Jonas Brothers?
The Allman Brothers would have made sense. But the Jonas Brothers?
“Yeah, I know — I hear that a lot,” says Attakorah. “But as strange as it sounds, that’s really where my love of the guitar and blues started — with the Jonas Brothers and the Disney Channel.”
A little background: Attakorah — the 30-year-old frontman and guitarist for the band The Blues Reincarnation Project — was born in the western African country of Ghana. His family immigrated to the United States when he was 14 and after spending a year in Maryland they moved to Delaware, where Attakorah attended Gauger Middle School and Glasgow High.
The family went through the normal adjustments to their new life in the New World, and even though they loved the culture and lifestyle they found in America, his mother wasn’t thrilled with one aspect of it — American television. So, she only allowed her son to watch select channels, and one of them was the Disney Channel.
And that’s where he saw the Jonas Brothers perform and was introduced to the electric guitar. Eventually, he experienced other kinds of music and one in particular hit him where he lives — the blues. He fell in love with various blues artists, including the three Kings: B.B., Albert, and Freddie.
At Glasgow, he took music as an elective and met fellow student Tony Santi, who would have a profound effect on his life. Santi gave him his first guitar (an Epiphone Les Paul) and also introduced him to classic rock, which led him to the blues.
“[The blues] was just so much more raw and powerful than even rock and roll,” says Attakorah. “It just hits you on an emotional level that most other music doesn’t.”
Attakorah started hanging around and jamming with some like-minded musicians, including original bassist Ryan Gorman and current bandmates Charlie Greaves (drums) and Dylan Walker (bass). They decided to focus on the blues and, hopefully, introduce the genre to younger audiences.
“We’re true to the blues, but we also put our own stamp on the music,” says Walker, a St. George’s High graduate who picked up the bass as a kid so he could jam with his father, a drummer. “We’ll play a song like Born Under a Bad Sign [recorded by Albert King in 1967], which is usually played slower, and we’ll speed it up and funk it up a little.”
That interpretation came about because even though the band is steeped in the blues, it also loves music by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, The Meters and Stevie Ray Vaughn. All those influences seep into their music and they also play a handful of original songs, which keeps things fresh for everyone.
They played their first gig as The Blues Reincarnation Project in 2016 at The Crown Room at The Queen in Wilmington. In 2017, they released their first album, A Hint of Blues, which featured covers and originals. Then, in 2018, Gorman left the band and was eventually replaced by Walker.
Since then, The Blues Reincarnation Project has been a constant in the local music circuit and slowly, but surely, the band has developed a loyal following of fans and, just as importantly, club owners and promoters in the tri-state area.
That includes Ron Ozer of Arden. Ozer is an area concert promoter who books acts that play in Arden’s Gild Hall and Shady Grove stage, as well as more than 200 acts a year at the Elkton Music Hall. Ozer likes what The Blues Reincarnation Project brings to their shows and he’s hired them to open for more well-known acts — including rising star Vanessa Collier — which gives the band much-needed experience and exposure.
“Ron’s our secret weapon that puts us in front of all of these acts,” Attakorah says with a laugh. “He’s been very good to us, and we don’t take that for granted.”
Ozer says the reason he has taken an interest in The Blues Reincarnation Project is a simple one — they deliver. Ozer adds that Attakorah’s stage presence and ability as a front man is a big reason the band has developed a devoted following.
“Jeffrey is a very engaging, charismatic guitarist-singer,” Ozer says. “He’s really inspired by the classic blues musicians. I saw him in Arden out in the crowd, doing solos, and people are taking videos of him, and he does the same thing in Elkton.
“Jeffrey’s enthusiasm comes out in his postings on social media as well. And that’s nice, because it helps spread the word about his shows,” Ozer adds. “His enthusiasm shows through and it drives people to his shows. He goes the extra mile in everything he does, and that’s what you have to do to be successful in the music business.”
The music business has its ups and downs, and The Blues Reincarnation Project hit a big speed bump in 2019, when they had some equipment stolen. But the local blues community rallied behind them. Led by Tim Ward and Jim Martin of the Central Delaware Blues Society, enough money was raised to replace what was stolen.
According to Walker, that sense of community, especially within his band, is the main reason The Blues Reincarnation Project has stayed together.
“We like playing music together, but also like each other personally,” he says. “We have similar interests and we just get along really well. And that’s important, because if we’re having fun up there then the people listening are going to have fun, too. And that’s why we do this.
“Like they say, if you love your job you’ll never work a day in your life.”
As for the future, Attakorah admits he doesn’t know what will happen, except that music will continue to be a big part of his life.
“The music scene keeps getting tougher and tougher because there’s a lot of good competition out there. It’s a tough business,” he says. “And we’re all getting up there in age. I’d love to keep this band going and we’d love to focus a little bit more on our original stuff.
“I just want to keep growing musically as much as I can,” he adds. “I look at a band like Lower Case Blues for inspiration — they’ve been together for a long time and they’re still growing as musicians, individually and as a group.
“The key for them, just like it is for us, is that we love the music and we love performing that music in front of the people. I can’t speak for everybody, but I know that as long as I feel that love of the music, I’ll be out there somewhere playing it.”\
— For more information on The Blues Reincarnation Project, including upcoming shows, go to OfficialTheBluesRP.wixsite.com/home.
Above: L-R: Dylan Walker (bass), Jeffrey Attakorah (guitar) and Charlie Greaves (drums). Standing: Michael Macartney (keyboards). Photo by Ryan Gorman.