It has been a whirlwind of 18 months since bluesy, funky guitar master Geoff Achison moved to the United States. He has toured the country and hit many of our great listening rooms and festivals. This summer he was named one of the ‘Top Ten Hottest Up and Coming Guitarists’ by Guitar Player magazine, and earlier this month he was invited to sit in with Les Paul at Iridium in New York City. Paul and his band backed Achison on a version of the Neville Brothers Voodoo, and in so doing they even used Achisons own arrangement of the song (it is a song that pops up at Achison shows from time to time). It was kind of like a roller coaster ride, said Achison of the collaboration, a whole lotta fun but at the same time, it was bloody scary. Paul even honored Achison by leading the crowd in a version of Happy Birthday in Achison’s honor.

Tomorrow night Achison will again join forces with Atlantas soulful blues-based songstress Donna Hopkins to swap songs and stories at Eddies Attic in Decatur, Georgia. Previous versions of this pairing have been Top 5 downloads at archive.org. Donna is an enormous talent, says Achison, Ive always been impressed by artists who have developed their own unique voice and Donna is certainly one of these.
This time the pairing is particularly bittersweet though, as it will take place in the wake of Achison announcing that he will be returning to his native country of Australia in October.
Achisons will also open for Scrapomatic at their release party in honor of Sidewalk Ceasars, at Smiths Olde Bar on August 29, and he will headline the first night of the Charlotte Shout festival on September 12. Webb Wilder and The Beatnecks and The Fabulous Thunderbirds will headline the Saturday version of this festival.Report by Rob Turner