Selwyn Birchwood plays the ‘Electric Swamp Funkin Blues’
The guitarist/vocalist/songwriter among the artists who have taken the stage at a local blues mecca — the Buckingham Blues Bar
Award-winning guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Selwyn Birchwood discovered his passion for the blues young.
He was 13 when decided he wanted to play guitar so he bought himself one, taught himself to play by listening to rock music he heard on 1990s radio and, while he may not have known it then, that was the beginning of a brilliant music career. However it was when he heard a rock legend that he knew what path he would choose.
“I was just trying to play what was on the radio, trying to impress my friends but I got bored with it pretty quickly. Then I got hold of a Jimi Hendrix album which turned my world upside down,” said Birchwood, who is from Tampa. “I started chasing some sounds I wasn’t familiar with and come to find out looking at his bio it’s a lot of the blues sounds. He mentioned a lot of the guys like Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Albert King and Buddy Guy.
The same week Birchwood heard about Buddy Guy he found out the blues legend was to perform at the House of Blues in Orlando where Birchwood was born and raised. He decided to check out the legend he just heard of.
“I just bought a ticket blindly. Anybody that saw Buddy Guy live knew what to expect. I had no idea. He is just such an absolute firebrand, just such a charismatic performer, an electrifying performer,” said Birchwood. “I said whatever this is, I don’t know what this is, but whatever it is I want to learn it.”
As he did as a young boy listening to the radio in the ’90s, Birchwood taught himself the blues by just “chasing sounds.”
“I would go to the CD stores at that time and the blues section had like 10 CDs to choose from,” Birchwood recalled. “So I just started to try to find all the people that people were talking about, looking at bios and history of it.”
His search introduced him to more legends of the blues such as Johnny Lee Hooker, Lightning Hopkins and BB King.
“I was just really trying to start a foundation the best that I could rather than what came before,” said Birchwood. “I got into later stuff after that but that is what I was really drawn to like Howlin’ Wolf and those guys.”
Once he established a solid blues foundation he began to experiment with his own music and how he could take what he learned and make it his own.
“I eventually branched out to more electric, more modern stuff,” said Birchwood. “With my music I try to mix it all up. I think with our music you’d be hard pressed to find a band that sounds exactly like ours. A lot of people say, hey that doesn’t sound like Muddy Waters. But we took what we learned and turned it into our own.”
Hard pressed indeed. By 2013 he and his band were beginning to be known. That year they took part in the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn. Not only did Birchwood’s band take top honors over 150 other bands, he took home the honor of Albert King Guitarist of the Year Award.
“That was the equivalent of winning the lottery,” said Birchwood. “With so many bands and it’s so subjective it’s not sort of a matter of fact; it’s a matter of fact that we did win it that year. I wouldn’t say it opened doors but it did unlock doors. People were more willing to take a second look at me at that time. Instead of just being the weird afro, bare-footed guy from Florida, I was the weird afro, bare-footed guy from Florida that won the International Blues Challenge in 2013.”
One of those doors opened to Alligator Records, one of the pre-eminent producers of Blues music.
They signed Birchwood and his band and in 2014 they released their debut album “Don’t Call No Ambulance.” Rave reviews followed from such well-known publications as “Rolling Stone” and the “Chicago Tribune” and the “Wall Street Journal.” The album won the Living Blues Award and the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist Debut.
Two more albums followed; in 2016 they released “Pick Your Poison” and in 2021 “Living In A Burning House.” The single from that album “I’d Climb Mountains” won the BMA Song of the Year Award.
“I feel our sound has gotten bigger,” said Birchwood. “With each album I feel my song writing is getting much stronger. Each one is better than the previous one. As long as that’s the case I’m happy with it.”
Birchwood calls his electrifying style of blues the “Electric Swamp Funkin Blues.”
“Electric Swamp Funkin Blues means it’s pieces of all of it man, all I learned,” said Birchwood. “You know I was born and raised in Florida and my dream was always to take Chicago Blues, Delta Blues, Memphis Blues, Piedmont Blues, Texas Blues and all that stuff. I wanted there to be a Florida Blues,” said Birchwood. “That is the sound I came up with, Electric Swamp Funkin Blues.
Birchwood has performed in 23 countries since 2013. They perform approximately 150 shows a year, including a recent Friday at the Buckingham Blues Bar.
“I’m scared to stop working, ” said Birchwood. “I see people start to take it easy. I’m worried about taking it easy.”
Birchwood draws inspiration from other musicians he admires.
“It’s so easy to get ears on other people now there’s always someone doing something, there’s a lot of stuff out there,” said Birchwood. “I’m always in the head space of trying to write music. That’s what I pride myself on, trying to write songs, hopefully find sounds that I call my own sound. I feel like at this point we do have our own sound. It is different every time, though. It could be something I experienced in my life, sometimes it’ll be just an emotion that is interesting. I’ll hear someone say something that I think is interesting. I’ll see someone else go through something I think I could relate to and other people could relate to. It is always the argument I would have with girlfriends, ex-girlfriends. I don’t write just autobiographically. Something in a song doesn’t necessarily mean it’s 100 percent true or 100 percent factual. It means that it makes me feel something that will make someone else feel something or relate to. I think that is what music is for. It’s not a diary, sometimes it is but not all the time.”
The current tour follows the release of the album Exorcist, his fifth studio release. A sixth album, songs from which he debuted at BBB, was recorded earlier this year and will be out soon. The title? “Electric Swamp Funkin Blues.”