Abigail Dowd will host Joey Recchio & Willie Shane Johnston

Matteo Joey Recchio was born in Sparta, NC and started playing the guitar at age 12, playing his first live show at 15. He started in the rock cover scene through college, shifting to blues in the mid 2000’s. As a member of Contagious Blues Band he was a winner of the Charlotte and Triangle Blues society’s IBC competitions. In his second trip to Memphis for the IBC, his band won the Kings of Beale Street contest. In 2009 he joined forces with some of his High School friends in Big Daddy Love and transitioned to the jam band scene. They immediately won the Floyd Fest “On The Rise” competition and followed it up with 4 albums. He has opened for, or shared the stage with, Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Los Lobos, BlackBerry Smoke, Lukas Nelson, Jimmy Vaughn, Sam Bush, Leftover Salmon, Keller Williams, among others. Clocking in over 2,000 live performances in nearly 40 states, his devotion to writing and performing music has never wavered. Keep an ear out for new recordings and live shows with Big Daddy Love and The Deluge, as well as a solo EP being recorded with the help of his musical comrades Jeremy Merritt and Willie Shane Johnston.

Willie Shane Johnston is from Grenada, Mississippi. Between Grenada and his father’s hometown of Clarksdale, there was ample influence of Delta Blues. As a child his grandmother gave him his first harmonica, and lessons, but asked him to keep it a secret since some family members viewed blues as “the devil’s music”. 

Willie has played blues from Florida to International festivals in Canada; New York to Colorado. He has recorded 4 albums. He has opened for Delbert McClinton, Buddy Guy, ZZ Top, George Jones, Shamekia Copeland, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Hubert Sumlin, R.L. Burnside, John Hammond and many other artists.

Over the years, his bands WSNB, and The Red Dirt Revelators have won every single blues society competition in North Carolina, and Cape Fear, SC. WSNB placed third in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, with a performance at the historical Orpheum Theatre. 

Willie continues his pursuit of writing, recording, and performing blues music at every opportunity. 

Abigail Dowd 

Our fearless host who still enjoys music most when it’s embedded in real life, sitting around a fire or every third Tuesday night at the Flat Iron. Each month Abigail invites musician friends to fall into space with her and the audience for what she describes as an evening in her adopted living room. They collaborate, share new songs, play old favorites, make things up, make you cry, make you laugh and most of all make you glad you came