Patrick Verbeke is a French blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 guitarist, composer and singer born in 1949 in Calvados

Calvados

The French department of Calvados is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast...

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Biography

Patrick Verbeke has spent the past thirty-some-odd years helping to popularize the blues in France, through educational presentations at schools (illustrating his discourses on the history of the genre with pictorial displays and performances of a variety of blues songs and styles), a long and colorful career as a performer and recording artist, and as host of a popular show, Night Blues, dedicated to the blues the French radio network Europe 1

Europe 1

Europe 1, formerly known as Europe n° 1, is a privately owned radio network created in 1955. It is one of the leading French radio broadcasters and heard throughout France...

. Highlights of his career include tours with French rock/pop idol Johnny Hallyday

Johnny Hallyday

Johnny Hallyday is a French singer and actor. An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, he was considered by some to have been the French Elvis Presley. He was married for 15 years to one of the most popular French female singers: Sylvie Vartan...

 in 1976–1977; concerts with French blues harmonicist Benoît Blue Boy from 1978 to 1980; five years of performances with the legendary bluesman Luther Allison

Luther Allison

Luther Allison was an American blues guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas and moved with his family, at age twelve, to Chicago in 1951. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he began hanging outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being...

, from 1992 until the latter’s unfortunate demise in 1997; performing with such artists as Sonny Fisher

Sonny Fisher

Therman "Sonny" Fisher was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.Fun facts:...

, Gene Summers

Gene Summers

Gene Summers is an American rock/rockabilly singer and entertainer. Some of his classic recordings include "School of Rock 'n Roll", "Straight Skirt", "Nervous", "Gotta Lotta That", "Twixteen", "Alabama Shake" and his biggest-selling single "Big Blue Diamonds"...

, Sugar Blue

Sugar Blue

Sugar Blue is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician, who plays the harmonica. He is probably best known for playing on The Rolling Stones' single, "Miss You"....

, Freddie King

Freddie King

Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...

, Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...

, Vince Taylor

Vince Taylor

Vince Taylor was a British rock and roll singer. As the frontman for The Playboys, Taylor was successful primarily in France and the Continent during the late 1950s and early 1960s, afterwards falling into obscurity amidst personal problems and drug abuse.-Early life:Born Brian Maurice Holden,...

 and Freddie Fingers Lee while they were on tour in France; and doing session work for such artists as David McNeal, Valerie Legrange, William Sheller

William Sheller

William Sheller is a French classical composer and singer.-Biography:William Sheller was born William Hand in Paris.He left school at 16 to study composition with teacher Yves Margat and later harmony, fugue and counterpoint at the Paris conservatoire. He turned to pop music after hearing the...

, Yves Montand

Yves Montand

-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...

, and many others. Verbeke also co-founded Magic Blues, a record label dedicated to French artists playing and singing the blues in French, with Hélios Vidal in the late 1990s.

Discography

• Blues in my Soul (Underdog Records / Musidisc) 1981
• Tais-Toi et Rame / Bec Vert (Underdog Records / Musidisc) 1982 / 1985 (two complete albums re-released as a single CD)
• School Boy Blues (Arc en Ciel / Studio SM) 1990
• Blues & Ladies (Miss You / Studio SM – Night & Day) 1992
• Funky Francais (Odeon Records / EMI) 1996
• Willie et Louise conte “Bluesical” (Magic Blues – Arc en Ciel / Studio SM) 1998
• Monsieur Blues (Magic Blues – Mister Music / Wagram) 1998
• Y2K Blues – Blues de l’an 2000 (Magic Blues – Dixiefrog / Night & Day) 2000
• Echos d’Acadie (Magic Blues – Dixiefrog / Night & Day) 2004