"Let Me Be Your Romeo" on Ditty TV - Live in Memphis
"Swamp Train" on Ditty TV - Live in Memphis
Mt. Baker Rhythm and Blues Festival
Arsen Shomakhov
From Rocking Blues and Funky Boogaloo to
R&B and 50's Rock and Roll with Jump Blues in Between Maple Blues Award Nominee
King Biscuit Blues Festival Award Winner
A Maple Blues Awards nominee, guitarist, songwriter and singer Arsen Shomakhov is an electric blues performer truly dedicated to the style's roots yet never hesitating to borrow means of expression from other genres.
He established himself as a blues-devoted virtuoso musician in his native Russia making it to the International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis in 2005 and winning the new talent contest at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, AR in 2007.
After moving to Vancouver, BC in 2008, Arsen formed the Arsen Shomakhov Trio that currently features Bruce O’Neill on bass and Chip Hart on drums. Working hard to make a name for himself, he has performed at a variety of festivals across the US and Canada including The King Biscuit Blues Festival, Waterfront Blues Festival, Edmonton International Blues Festival, Montreal International Blues Festival, and the Calgary International Blues Festival, to name a few.
Arsen’s album "On the Move", released in the US in 2010 made Top 25 Blues Albums of the year worldwide according to Roots Music Report. In the same year Toronto Blues Society nominated Arsen for the Maple Blues Awards.
Arsen Shomakhov Band went to Memphis to represent the White Rock Blues Society at the IBC twice in 2014 and 2016 and both times advanced to the semi-finals. The third Arsen's North American album entitled "Dynamic" was released in August 2014.
Arsen's new album "Rain City Blues" produced and recorded by Kid Andersen at the Greaseland Studios, in San Jose, CA was released on September 6, 2019. The album includes 10 original tracks covering a stylistic range from rocking blues and funky boogaloo to r&b and 50's rock and roll with jump blues in between. The album made Top 25 Living Blues Magazine radio report for September 2019, reached #1 in Canada and #12 worldwide (RMR blues charts wk. of Sep 21), #2 in Canada (RMR, wk of Sep 14 and wk. of Oct 12), #17 in the list of top 40 most played albums in UK (IBBA) in September 2019.
As a truly international blues artist Arsen currently continues to perform at blues festivals in Europe, USA and Canada.
"Shomakhov's strengths are his formidable guitar playing across the spectrum of blues and R&B styles,
his songwriting and his knack for finding good obscure material to cover.."
- Downbeat
"Rain City Blues is short, sweet, and impossible to beat!"
- Rainey Wetnight, Blues Blast Magazine
"Call it a blues variety-show. Rock'n'roll, boogaloo, shuffles, R'n'B, ska, reggae and-best of all-a
particularly virulent form of bad-ass jump-blues accosts the ear like a Russian nuclear bomb. And, in
this case, that's a good thing!"
- Mike Greenblatt, Goldmine (The Music Collector's Magazine)
"His excellent guitar work pays rare attention to tonal variety and to creating strong rhythms as well as
fleet-fingered, inventive solos"
- Tom Hyslop, Blues Review
"He can coax an impressive array of sounds and styles from his Fender Stratocaster"
- Sean McDavitt, Guitar One Magazine
"Dynamic is a guitar-lover's delight of an album, one that stayed in the CD player of the Toronto Blues
Society for a week."
- John Valenteyn, Toronto Blues Society
"His approach is not flashy guitar overkill but an economic restraint in which feel and tone count for
more than dexterity..."
- Tom Harrison, The Province
"Mr. Shomakhov so wowed the audience and our judges with his version of the Delta Blues that he took
home to Russia the coveted bragging rights of being the 2007 Emerging Artist Top Performer and
proved to us that you do not have to be from the Delta to sing or know about the blues."
- King Biscuit Blues Festival
"From swing to shuffle to dirty funk, Arsen Shomakhov & his band have all bases covered. I predict that
folks further afield will soon begin to experience Mr. Shomakhov's soulful delivery."
- Charlie Gray, bluesfreepress.org
"You can't deny his controlled guitar work is full of feeling. This Russian doesn't impress with muscle,
but rather with substance"
- Tim Holek, Blues Beat - Canada
