Biography

PAPA MALI Papa Mali is a New Orleans singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer whose multi-faceted career has explored many areas of American and World Music. He was voted Best Roots Rock Artist by Offbeat Magazine's readers, who also named his latest release, Music Is Love, as Roots Rock Album of the Year. Music Is Love was produced by veteran record producer, the late John Chelew, a three-time Grammy winner for his work with The Blind Boys Of Alabama, John Hiatt, Richard Thompson and others. Mali’s previous solo releases, Thunder Chicken (1999) and Do Your Thing (2007) on San Francisco’s Fog City Records (and produced by “the true king of raw”, Dan Prothero) established him as a purveyor of psychedelic soul and gritty swamp music, which one critic calls “voodoo space blues”, a somewhat apt description, for an artist who cites Dr. John’s classic ‘Gris Gris’ as an early and important influence. He is a founding member, lead singer and producer of 7 Walkers, a band formed in 2008 with Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Meters bassist George Porter, Jr. and Matt Hubbard. Their self-titled 2010 release debuted at #1 on the Relix/Jamband charts, holding that position for the following three months. The single from that album, 'King Cotton Blues' features a Papa Mali vocal duet with Willie Nelson and is one of nine original compositions co-written for the album by Mali and longtime Grateful Dead lyricist, Robert Hunter.