Them Bones

Congratulations to the winners of the 11th annual Cincy Blues Challenge! Cheryl Renee with Them Bones came out on top in the Band division and Ricky Nye was number one in the solo/duo category. Both have won our competition before and we wish them the best of luck in Memphis. It was a great day of blues. The judges noted that this was by far, the best group of talent they had seen at a Challenge and I don't see how anyone would argue with that. The winners will be presented with their plaques at the 17th annual Cincy Blues Fest, August 7th & 8th at Sawyer Point...Ricky Nye and Cheryl Renee with Them Bones will be representing the Cincy Blues Society at the 26th International Blues Challenge on Beale Street in Memphis January 20-23, 2010.... - Cincy Blues Society

Cheryl Renee with Them Bones is proud to be able to participate in such a monumental event and to have finished Third in the World is quite an accomplishment. They represented the Cincy Blues Society at the World's largest gathering of Blues Bands. Here are the numbers:224 acts, 110 bands, 82 solo/duo acts and 32 youth acts. That is a total of 730 musicians. They Hail from 39 states, 12 countries and 5 continents. There were 453 peformances in 21 venues. - Cincy Blues Update-Cincy Blues Society

Charles Sawyer, author of "The Arrival of B. B. King" writes "Cheryl is a meteorite, no doubt about it. She burns with a fiery intensity, she glows redhot, and she devastates all in her path." - Charles Sawyer

Cheryl Renee with Them Bones The blueswoman with an acrobatic voice, a mastery of the keyboards, and a wildly infectious stage presence lived and performed all over Knoxville a few years ago before returning to her native home of Cincinnati and forming a new band which made it to the finals of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis{2005}. While in Knoxville, she performed at the Ladies Sing the Blues at the Bijou Theater{1999} and at thr Hard Knox Blues Fest in Old City{2000}. Many Alive After Five regulars will no doubt remember some of her performances here with Wendel Werner, Phillippe Lejeune, and her own band. Well she's back and sure to put a spell on you! Show at 5:30 Friday at the Knoxville Art Museum... - Knoxville News Sentinal

Keyboard/vocalist Cheryl Renee's live shows are high energy evenings of bawdy, brassy Blues, and she has teamed with Cincinnati mainstays to give us a taste of her performing prowess on a recently released live CD of classic Blues covers. Cheryl Renee's musical travels over the decades have taken her from Cincinnati, to a world tour with the U.S.O., to Boston, to Knoxville, and finally back home again. She is a seasoned performer know as much for her manic stage antics and humorously raunchy lyrics as she is for her rollicking piano chops, and there isn't a more cool and professional backing trio in town than Them Bones["Little Al Thomas on guitar. Dave Chamberlin on drums, Larry Malott on bass]. The CD has a number of standout tracks, most notably a big dark striking medley of Muddy Waters' "The Same Thing" and Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" that both swings and threatens. But it wouldn't be a Cheryl Renee live show without her trademark not-safe-for-kids playfulness, which is fully on display in her arrangement of Albert King's "I Get Evil", and in Jimmy Witherspoon's "Drinking Beer". Part of the purpose of a live recording is to capture the energy of the crowd as well as the band. Recorded earlier this year at "Pickle's Blues Extravaganza," in Lima, Ohio, the CD appears to unfortunately be strictly a soundboard recording. The band comes through loud and clear, but you get almost no crowd noise at all. If you strain your ears at the end of a song, you can hear a bunch of people having a really good time. But it's it is the music that counts, and this CD clearly reinforces why Cheryl Renee and Them Bones are one of the most consistently enteraining Blues acts the region has to offer. Cheryl's full schedule with Them Bones can be found at cherylrenee.com...Blake Taylor - Cincinnati City Beat