Gary Clark Jr. had men bobbing their heads and women swooning on Saturday (July 19) at JazzFest as he co-headlined the final day of the festival.

The 30-year old guitarist/singer has been called the future of Texas Blues and a modern day Jimi Hendrix, yet his musical influences and performances show a much broader fan base with a mix of R&B, funk, blues, jazz, country and even hip hop.

Clark has been performing since he was 12, but gained an international following when he appeared at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2010 and was asked to be part of the White House's Red, White & Blues celebration early in 2012. We started working on bringing him to Sioux Falls JazzFest then, but it took us until this summer to bring the rising star to Sioux Falls.

Clark is the first person to be nominated for a Grammy for Best Album in two separate genre categories (rock and R&B) for his 'Blak and Blu' album, winning the R&B trophy. He also won the Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues Male in 2013.

The first video for "Ain;t Messin' Around" also found him nominated for Best Rock Song at the Grammys. Clark is going to be another one of those artists that five years from now, we'll say "remember when we saw Gary Clark Jr. at JazzFest?"

 

 

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