PLAY
FOLLOW
SHARE

Hip-Hop & Jazz Vocals artist from Trafford. New songs free to stream or download. Add to your playlist now.

cover pic

James King and the Usual Suspects

Trafford, USA
January 05, 2002
4,441 plays
19,662 views
Welll known in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area for over twenty years, James King and the Usual Suspects play the best in authentic electric blues. This hard-driving band performs regularly at Pittsburgh's top blues clubs and was featured at the 1999 Pittsburgh Blues Festival.
Band/artist history
James King on vocals and harmonica. James twenty-year journey through Pittsburghs steamy R & B scene has made his name legendary. From his early days as a founding member of The Iron City Houserockers, his recent stint with The Mystic Knights, and long-time front man with The Professionals and the Usual Suspects, James has shared the stage with the citys finest musicians and nationally know blues legends. Among those artists are Tinsley Ellis, The Nighthawks, Lenny Kravitz and the late great Stevie Ray Vaughn. James Kings razor sharp chops have made him the harp man to follow. Mark (Freddie) Felger on guitar and vocals. Freddie has been playing upside down and backwards from the age of ten. Being told that taking lessons would require playing the right way made it seem that learning to play the guitar was an uphill battle, but Freddie stuck it out and won. He moved to Colorado in 1983 and met up with Ronnie Earl and a band named Rawhouse who later opened for Albert Collins. Freddie returned to the Pittsburgh area to raise his son Raymond, and still remaining musically active while working in the construction field. Later on he met up with bass player Jon Donaldson in The Elliot Ness Band and formed his own band Fast Freddie who remains to be playing in local clubs. Freddies smoldering rhythms and blazing licks combine with the other elements in The James King Band to produce an effect not unlike spontaneous combustion! Joe Cunningham on drums. Originally from Youngstown, PA, Joe has been playing drums since age eleven and has remained busy playing in bands since age eighteen. His solid no-nonsense style has kept him working with the best bands in the tri-state area. For the past five years he has been with The Mystic Knights, who were voted the best R & B band in the Pittsburgh area, and Chizmo Charles. Joe is excited to be working with the man he considers to be the best harp player in town! Matt Williams on bass guitar. Originally from Barnesboro, PA and now residing in Trafford, Matt has his own creative and original style that sets him apart from many others. His influences being Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, Bootsy Collins and Stuart Hamm, have given Matt an excellent grounding as a musician. A talented composer as well, writing, producing and performing bass, keyboards and guitar on the 1999 jazz fusion CD Jahbudee Inc in which the track Mood Swing reached number one on the jazz charts of Soundclick.com for over a month topping such well-known artists as Peter Gabriel and Lee Ritenour. Another one of Matts songs Civil Warp was placed on the soundtrack for the movie Forbidden released Fall of 2001 in various cities in California and also went to number four on the internet site MP3.com. In January 2001, Matt began performing with Fast Freddie and later on joined as bassist for The James King Band.
Have you performed in front of an audience?
We play live mostly in the western Pennsylvania tri-state area on a regular basis and regularly headline Pittsburgh's premier blues club, The Blue Note.
Your musical influences
BB King, Howlin' Wolf, James Cotton, James Harman, Kim Wilson, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Rod Piazza, Sonny Boy Williamson, William Clarke
Anything else?
Please consider buying one of our CDs at
On playlists (6) Comments
Please sign up or log in to post a comment.