Blind Willies is Annie Staninec, multi-genre fiddler, and Alexei Wajchman, guitarist/singer/songwriter. They met and began playing together in the halls of San Francisco School of the Arts. They're both recent graduates of University of California at Santa Cruz.

Annie has been playing bluegrass/old time fiddle for more than a decade. She's also a consummate gypsy jazz violinist. In 2006 she toured with David Grisman and the Gypsy Caravan. The highlight of those performances was a full orchestra playing David Grisman’s “Gypsy Medley” from his soundtrack recording for the film, King of the Gypsies. As the featured fiddler, Annie electrified audiences in solos that honored the late Stéphane Grappelli who originally recorded the piece with David. She has also played with Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Stephane Wrembel, and Crooked Still. Annie was Djangofest Northwest's 2006 recipient of the Dudley Hill Award for exceptional young artist. In 2008 she was named Fiddler of the Year at the inaugural Northern California Bluegrass Awards.

Alexei grew up in San Francisco's Mission District. After learning to play clarinet and sax, he taught himself to play guitar and began writing songs at 15. He was awarded the Blue Bear Celebrity Scholarship to study guitar and voice in 2002 and 2003, and he was a 2003 California Arts Scholar in sax. His early influences included Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Velvet Underground, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors. His music is a soulful mix of folk, country, rock, and blues, and his lyrics are an intimate exploration of America's psycho/social landscapes. Writing in the popular online zine Delusions of Adequacy, editor Jennifer Patton wrote "Blind Willies play incredibly wonderful music. Alexei is a remarkable songwriter."

Blind Willies made their professional debut at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in 2004. They've also played Berkeley's Freight and Salvage, SF's Great American Music Hall, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Zeum, and the SF Folk Festival. In 2007 they performed with Peter Stampfel (Holy Modal Rounders, The Bottle Caps) in New York, and opened for Penelope Houston (Avengers) in San Francisco.

Their albums were recorded and mixed by Lemon DeGeorge (Jolie Holland, Sundance Audience Award documentary Genghis Blues) at Crib Nebula in San Francisco, and mixed and mastered by Paul Carlsen (Nirvana's Nevermind, Neil Young, John Prine) at Paul Carlsen Productions in Guerneville on the Russian River.

Radio play includes Better Days Radio, Vancouver, BC; Pirate Cat Radio, SF; KPIG, KRSH, WXPN, KPFA, WFDU, KALW, KZSC, KUSP, KYOU, KQED, KDVS, KKUP, WOBC, WTJU, Taproot Radio, Americana Roots, WWUH, KZSU, KRCB, WAER, KSCL, WBGU, KAOS, WTUL, WFUV, Radio Marabu/Europe/No Pigeonholes.
 

Blind Willies’ subjects range from urban street life to the vagaries of personal relationships. Their characters include pimps, prostitutes, homeless wanderers, teen runaways, and unrepentant sinners. Annie is an inventive improvisational fiddler, and Alexei plays a passionate guitar that gives his lyrics a raw immediacy, providing the foundation for Annie’s interpretive riffs. Their style can be deceptively innocent as in Mom Says No, the song Alexei wrote for a family audience; or cynically and hilariously pointed as in Shark Out of Water, a sing-along homage to unrequited love; or plaintively critical as in If You Was a Good Pimp, a funky blues rant against bad management.

Recorded, mixed, mastered by Lemon DeGeorge (Jolie Holland, film Genghis Blues) and Paul Carlsen (Nirvana’s Nevermind, Neil Young, John Prine).

Suggested tracks:

#3 Everybody's Looking for a Meal (4:58)

#4 If You Was a Good Pimp (3:27)

#5 Don't Trade In Paradise (4:07)

#11 Shark Out of Water (4:04)

Tracks:
1. Mom Says No (3:55)
2. Trampin’ (3:10)
3. Everybody’s Looking for a Meal (4:58)
4. If You Was a Good Pimp (3:27)
5. Don’t Trade In Paradise (4:07)
6. Sinners Medley (7:19)
7. Ticket Into Heaven (4:33)
8. Carnival (4:55)
9. Heart of the Night (5:57)
10. Red Dream (3:14)
11. Shark Out of Water (4:04)
12. Mom Says No Reprise (3:15)

Blind Willies
Diggory Records
Release date: May 2008
www.blindwillies.net 
www.myspace.com/blindwillies
www.youtube.com/blindwillies
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Alexei Wajchman 415-652-8483