In 2002, the M SHANGHAI STRING BAND got together in the basement of a Chinese bistro in Brooklyn to share good food and play some music. This acoustic-culinary combination was too special not to repeat, and the band (named after the restaurant) was born. Their debut album "Up From the Ground Below" was recorded in the restaurant's dining room. Its twenty songs were captured completely live in one day. At their CD release party, the MSSB played four live sets to a standing room only crowd. Brooklyn's best kept secret was out.

www.myspace.com/mshanghaistringband

Delta Dreambox plays classic 1920's blues and Delta blues with Bliss Blood on vocals and tenor guitar, Mark Deffenbaugh on steel guitar, Marty Bartolomeo on piano, Al Duvall on banjo, and Ernesto Gomez on harmonicas. They strive to recreate the feeling of the original music, and to put the listener's "dreambox" (or brain) back in the age of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and to visualize the time and place that the lyrics illustrate.

www.myspace.com/deltadreambox