MARK LEMHOUSE EMBARKS ON COAST-TO-COAST TOUR

Roots Blues guitarist Mark Lemhouse embarked this week on a nationwide tour of live performances.

(PRWEB) July 22, 2003 - Roots Blues guitarist Mark Lemhouse embarked this week on a nationwide tour of live performances. Lemhouse, who according to Blues Revue magazine "should give blues lovers hope for the future of the genre," performs a distinctive brand of original and traditional music that melds together influences from the Delta, Piedmont fingerstyle forms, and North Mississippi trance blues.

The two-month tour by Lemhouse will take him coast-to-coast from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine. An appearance at the renowned Portland Waterfront Blues Festival kicked off the tour, which includes performance dates in fifteen states. A detailed calendar of appearances is available on Lemhouse's website, www.marklemhouse.com. The tour will support "Big Lonesome Radio", Lemhouse's debut album released on Yellow Dog Records.

"Big Lonesome Radio" has received international acclaim in major publications including MOJO Magazine, Blues Revue, and Blues Matters!. The release has also enjoyed strong airplay on over one hundred stations nationwide, reaching #13 on the May 1st, 2003 Living Blues radio chart, and peaking at #4 on the Roots Music Report Blues chart in April 2003. The album is distributed nationally by Burnside Distribution.

A track from "Big Lonesome Radio" is included on "Get The Blues 2", a CD sampler released July 11th by the Blues Music Association and The National Association of Recording Merchandisers. The preceding year's joint sampler by the two organizations, "Get The Blues!", has sold 87,000 copies in the United States, and was the #4 blues record of 2002 on the SoundScan year-end sales chart. On the sampler, Lemhouse's original song "Electra 225" appears alongside tracks from blues legends Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Koko Taylor, as well as some of the most well-known contemporary blues artists, including Marcia Ball, Ronnie Earl, and Kim Wilson.

About Yellow Dog Records
Based in Memphis, TN, Yellow Dog Records was founded in 2002 with the goal of cultivating the American musical heritage. The label features artists who emphasize innovative approaches to authentic American musical roots traditions - Blues, Jazz, Soul, old-time Country, and Appalachian styles. By providing support for recording, production, promotion and distribution, Yellow Dog Records brings this vital music to new and wider audiences. For more information and to hear sound samples, please visit www.yellowdogrecords.com.

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Photos and Electronic press kit: www.yellowdogrecords.com/presskits