Although award-winning Florida musician Selwyn Birchwood is firmly rooted in the tradition, the young guitarist, lap steel player, songwriter and vocalist sets a course for the future of the blues with his visionary, original music. Birchwood, whose band features the pulsating interplay of his blistering guitar with Regi Oliver's driving baritone sax, deploys a singular sound and style all his own. He calls it "Electric Swamp Funkin' Blues," an intoxicating mix of deep blues, blistering, psychedelic-tinged rock, booty-shaking funk, and sweet Southern soul, played with the fire-and-brimstone fervor of a revival tent preacher with a hellhound on his trail.

On his new release, Exorcist, Birchwood delivers the most far-reaching, musically adventurous album of his career. Exorcist was recorded in Florida and produced by Grammy Award-winner Tom Hambridge, with each of the 13 vividly detailed songs written and arranged by Birchwood. The soul-baring tracks all hit with lasting rhymes and unexpected rhythms. Each twists its own tale, ranging from the love-gone-wrong “Horns Below Her Halo” to the love-gone-terrifying title track to the ripped-from-the-headlines escapades of “FLorida Man” to the autobiographical “Underdog.”

Live, Birchwood is a force of nature. His ability to win over any audience is proven night after night on the bandstand. With his warm, magnetic personality, Birchwood is as down-to-earth as his music is thought-provoking and electrifying. With his band feeding off his energy, the 6'3" musician roams the stage barefoot, tearing off memorable guitar riffs with ease. And when he sits down to play his lap steel, he takes it to a whole other level, with the music exorcising any bad times and troubles.

Birchwood, his father from Tobago, his mother from the UK, was born in 1985 in Orlando, Florida. He first grabbed a guitar at age 13 and soon became proficient at mimicking what he heard on the radio. But the popular grunge rock, hip-hop and metal of the 1990s didn't move him. And then he discovered Jimi Hendrix. "He was larger than life. What he did was mind-blowing." As luck would have it, just as Birchwood was learning Hendrix's guitar playing was steeped in blues, legendary bluesman Buddy Guy - a major influence on Hendrix - was scheduled to perform in Orlando. Birchwood was there, front and center. "I was floored," he recalls. "I completely connected with the blues. I knew this was my path, and I had to make this music." He dove deep, listening to icons including Albert King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins and of course, Buddy Guy. "The flood gates opened," says Birchwood, "and at that point I started trying to absorb as much as I could."

Today the Selwyn Birchwood Band tours virtually non-stop. They have performed at the Chicago Blues Festival, Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the Tampa Bay Blues Festival, the North Atlantic Blues Festival, the King Biscuit Blues Festival, as well as on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise and Joe Bonamassa's Keeping The Blues Alive Sea Cruise. Internationally, they have appeared at the Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival, Jazz a Vienne in France, the Rawa Blues Festival in Poland, the Moulin Blues Festival in the Netherlands, the Ottawa Blues Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, as well as playing concerts in Spain, Norway, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Belgium and Mexico.

Now, with Exorcist, Selwyn Birchwood and his band are ready to get back on the road and deliver the new songs live to expanding, enraptured audiences around the world, lifting spirits while banishing demons. Asked what fans can expect when they see him, Birchwood explains, "My goal is to be sure you cannot listen passively. We're going to make you dance, and we're going to make you think." One listen to Exorcist will no doubt convert many new true believers. This is visionary contemporary blues written and performed by an endlessly creative, modern-day blues master.