Kipori "Baby Wolf" Woods

Kipori “Baby Wolf” Woods
Blues Vocalist and Guitarist

New Release: “Blues Gone Wild”
Label: Louisiana Red Hot Records
Catalog: LRS-CD-1201
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana

Considering his champion Blues bloodlines, his higher music education and the prodigious talent that was recognized from the start, it’s no wonder that Kipori “Baby Wolf” Woods is hailed by many as the Big Easy’s premier Blues guitar practitioner.

After all, Kipori is descended from the great New Orleans musical Lambert family. “The day I started playin’ the blues/was the day my grandfather died”…wrote Kipori about the passing of “Luscious" Lloyd Lambert, the legendary New Orleans bass player in 1995. “Luscious” worked with the likes of Ray Charles, Little Richard, Danny Barker, and Doc Cheatham and led the band for the most outrageous performer in New Orleans history, Guitar Slim. It was Lloyd who nurtured the adolescent Kipori in Jazz, R&B and Gospel and, most importantly, the flamboyant Blues style of Guitar Slim.

More formal skills were learned from famous patriarch, Ellis Marsalis, and top guitarist Steve Masakowski (Astral Project), which were then honed on the stage. The young phenom, Kipori was invited to perform with some of the best - the Zion Harmonizers, Raymond Myles, the Neville Brothers, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, Kermit Ruffins, Rockin' Dopsie Jr., Walter "Wolfman" Washington - and opening for such notables as BB King, Bobby Blue Bland, and Irma Thomas.

Kipori finally broke out on his own with the band “Kipori Funk,” followed by his first CD, “Blues Man From Down South,” co-produced with Davell Crawford. That led to consecutive New Orleans Best of the Beat Awards for “Best Emerging Blues Artist” in 1998 and 1999, and his acclaimed national debut “Big Black Cadillac” on Louisiana Red Hot Records in 2000.

When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, it took Kipori’s home, marriage, gigs and band, but not all was lost. “Katrina didn’t take the music from my soul, it actually put more in there.” Kipori rejoined his old friends the Dirty Dozen Brass Band for a year and a half of world touring and, rejuvenated, returned to New Orleans to complete his new CD “Blues Gone Wild.”

A veteran of Bourbon Street, the Deep South festival and blues circuit, you are most likely to find Kipori these days in New Orleans at the House of Blues, Irving Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse and the I Club, or at The Shed clubs along the Gulf Coast.

Catch Kipori’s bonafide blistering Big Easy “Blues Gone Wild” at French Quarter Festival, April 12, 2012, and at the N.O. Jazz & Heritage Festival Blues Tent on Thursday, May 3, 2012.

For further information contact: Dawn Griffin, Louisiana Red Hot Records
Telephone: 504/378-0588 Email: dawn@nudawn.biz