Brian Lee & the Orbiters
News

Brian & the Orbiters receive two WBS 2012 "Best of the Blues" awards, with nine nominations ! 
 
Brian and the Orbiters have been honored in 2012 with two "Best of the Blues" awards by the Washington Blues Society:  

2012 Blues Recording: Brian Lee & the Orbiters "Identity Theft"
2012 Blues Songwriter: Brian Lee

In addition to these awards, Brian and the Orbiters  were also recognized through nine nominations!  

Brian Lee & the Orbiters:  Blues Act, Traditional Blues Act,

Brian Lee:  Male Vocalist, Slide Guitar, Harmonica, Performer, Songwriter
Hank Yanda: Blues Bass

THANK YOU Washington Blues Society members for
these awards and nominations!!! We really appreciate this recognition! WOW!

Awards Press Release
Nominations Press Release


If you aren't a WBS member, consider joining! The WBS hosts a free monthly meeting with both an acoustic opening act, and electric band. The WBS also publishes the excellent monthly "Bluesletter" with news, a calendar of performances/venues, and other great articles on the blues scene. For more on the WBS, see their website at www.wablues.org



"Identity Theft" hits  #15 on Living Blues Radio Chart! 

Our new album, "Identity Theft", has charted at #15 in the Living Blues Radio Charts for world-wide blues radio airplay!   
 
Founded as America’s first blues publication in 1970, Living Blues magazine has set the standard for blues journalism around the world. From its first issue featuring blues legend Howlin’ Wolf on the cover, Living Blues has provided fans with insightful, in-depth stories on such legendary blues artists as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Koko Taylor, and John Lee Hooker. Living Blues is renowned for its detailed feature stories and exceptional photography.  Each issue contains the Living Blues Radio Charts, which provide the music industry with one of the most accurate compilations of playlists from blues radio programmers throughout the world.
 
The new issue has just released, and Brian Lee & the Orbiters' "Identity Theft" album has hit the charts at #15 for worldwide blues radio play for the month of February! Here's the link to the new chart on the LB site: 


We are very grateful to the Program Directors and DJ's around the world who have chosen to air our music! And THANKS to our loyal fans for your continued support of our band and performances!




"Identity Theft" album hits #1 on the Roots Music Report Washington Charts!  


Brian Lee & the Orbiters new "Identity Theft" album has placed in the top 9 on the Roots Music Chart  for Washington based roots artists receiving airplay nationwide for twelve of the last 14 weeks, and has hit #1 in two of those weeks! 

The RMR charts are compiled from radio airplay data only (# of spins), with no influence from employees of the Roots Music Report. RMR is not affiliated with any record label, promotion company, or artist management firm. 

Thanks to all of the many DJ's and Program Managers that are choosing to play our tunes on the air!!!

The charts for the current week are at: 
http://www.rootsmusicreport.com/index.php?page=statechart&state=WA



New Video!
 

As you may recall, the Orbiters hosted the "Slide Monsters!" show in February at the Highway 99 in Seattle, featuring Brian Lee, Mark Riley, and Rod Cook on slide guitars backed by Orbiters Russ Kammerer, Hank Yanda, and Steve Yonck. It was a real treat, and a great success! The great folks at the Highway 99 would like us to continue the "Slide Monsters" special event in the future, so keep your eyes peeled on this site for the next one!  

Mark Riley now plays guitar with our long time friends in Blues Redemption, and they invited Brian and Rod for a reprise "Slide Show" at Jazzbones in Tacoma, last Friday Mar 30. It was also a big sucess and lot's of fun!  Art Winn was there and happened to fire up his video camera to capture a perrenial favorite-Elmore James' "The Sun is Shining". You can find it on our video page, or directly from the link below.  


Slide Show with Lee, Riley, Cook
You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video.



New "Identity Theft" Album Released!
All original tunes of modern times and timeless blues.
 

Our new album "Identity Theft" released Oct 22, 2011 for digital download and as a CD! The album features Brian, Steve Yonck, Hank Yanda, Russ Kammerer, Tim Sherman, Conrad Ormsby, and Guy Quintino on 11 original tunes. The tunes capture the full range of the Orbiters sound, and the songs feature both traditional blues themes and topics from modern times. 

It's available for album and singles download from our store page, complete with pdf liner notes-lyrics booklet. The download songs are in high quality 256kbps MP3 format. 

The album is also available in CD format. This is a high quality "glass master" CD, not a "computer burned" disc, and it also features a deluxe package with lyrics booklet. It is available at all our performances, as well as through CD Baby at: http://cdbaby.com/cd/brianleetheorbiters 


The album is also being distributed through several digital distribution outlets and streaming services. For more information on these, see our store

It also has been recently nominated for a 2012 Best of the Blues Award by the Washington Blues Society!

It's here! Check it out! 
 
"Identity Theft" Album Reviews

The reviews are coming in... 
By Malcolm Kennedy, Washington Blues Society Blog:
http://wabluessociety.blogspot.com/2012/01/2nd-review-identity-theft-brian-lee.html

Rick Bowen, Washington Blues Society Blog and No Depression:

http://wabluessociety.blogspot.com/2011/11/review-identity-theft-brian-lee-and.html
www.nodepression.com/xn/detail/2342817:BlogPost:694350

Leicester Bangs, UK:




Washington Blues Society Blogspot Article! 
 Tim Maher's in-depth interview with Brian Lee
 

Accomplished writer Tim Maher began following the Orbiters' music after seeing one of our performances at the Salmon Bay Eagles one night. As he describes in this article, this lead to several lunch interview/discussions with Brian about music and related topics. Tim is an excellent and insightful author, and he has distilled these discussions into a unique and entertaining article covering a wide array of topics!