The following article was written by Nancy Burns-Fusaro, Arts & Culture Editor at the Westerly Sun. The original article is located on the Westerly Sun's website.
'Fun-Raiser' at United with Bobby Christina's Caravan to benefit Wood River Health
Bobby Christina's Caravan — featuring Willie J Laws on guitar and vocals, Steven Bigelow on bass and Christina on drums — will perform at the United next Wednesday for a fundraiser for Wood River Health.
The Caravan consists of a rotating lineup of the region’s best musicians who fill venues across the East Coast with the sounds of blues, R&B and jazz.
Once the house band at the House of Blues/Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and Margaritaville in New Orleans, the band won the Mass Blues Society Challenge 2011, were semifinalists at the International Blues Competition 2012 and Beale Street Kings Awards.
The Caravan has been nominated twice for the New England Music Award, and have been nominated also for "Best Blues Act" in 2015 and 2016, and were nominated for the 2015 "Boston Music Award" and "Best Blues Act."
Christina, a Westerly native, has been playing and producing music for more than 40 years. After listening to his brother Fran practice in the basement with his friends — legends like Al Copley, Duke Robillard and Larry Peduzzi from the original Roomful of Blues — Bobby began playing on his brother’s hand-me-down drums.
Laws is a Texas guitar “gunslinger,” vocalist and songwriter following in the footsteps of T-Bone Walker, Lightning Hopkins, Albert King and others.
"This music is the kind of real Texas soul, all mixed up with classic R&B, country, blues/funk that grows from the Texas soil," said Christina in an email. "Willie has performed nationally and internationally, including two tours of Russia at the invite of the U.S. Consulate in St Petersburg."
Bigelow began playing at age 13 in clubs and at the Navy Base in his hometown of Groton and signed with Atlantic Records in 1989 as a member of Neal & the Vipers, said Christina. He is a member of the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame and has made so many appearances over the years he earned the nickname “Sirgigsalot," Christina said.
"We are excited to partner with United Theatre for this event," said Alison L. Croke, Wood River Health's president and CEO, in an email Monday night. "Community health centers across the country have increased their fundraising efforts to bridge the gap between the cost to provide health care and the amount we are reimbursed for our services."
"Donations and fundraisers help to close that gap and enable us to continue caring for the members of this community," Croke said.
