Maple Blues Award nominee Boobie Browne is not your typical instrumental guitarist. You will not hear his music over the loud-speaker at Wal-Mart, nor does he wank incessantly just because he can. Well, very rarely, anyway. Rather, he borrows from many genres and throws in a healthy dose of humor along the way, with his distinct finger-plucking sound as the unifying factor. There's a little funk, some rockabilly, surf, blues, fingerstyle jazz, country two-step, 70's arena rock, and whatever else catches his fancy. Influences include Albert Collins, Danny Gatton, Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck and Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown. These elements come together on 2002's 'Birth of the Chickenpick', his ten-song debut CD that is gathering great reviews and getting radio play around the world (20 countries at last count). You can hear it on a country show in Australia, a blues show in Spain, or a rock show in Germany. It has also been accepted for full servicing country-wide on the CBC, Canada's national radio broadcaster. Boobie was picked as a top-five finalist in the 2003 North American Rock Guitar Competition, part of the Buffalo Niagara Guitar Festival held annually in Buffalo, New York. He placed 4th in a field of great players who were chosen by panels comprised of music educators, musicians and industry representatives, winning some great gear, a nice trophy, and the chance to talk shop with Sid McGinnis from Late Night with David Letterman. The competition was taped by WNED-TV for broadcast on PBS stations in the Spring of 2004. Boobie was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada to an extremely supportive family who always dug deep to lend him the money to buy his instruments (and yes, sometimes his supper). He learned how to play on stage with whoever would have him, and eventually became a part of the local hot blues scene. Dividing his time between the two lovely cities of Montréal and St. John's, he's picked up French and Spanish, as well as the mandolin, and hasn't had a cigarette in a loooooooong time. Press: I've just listened to your CD and it totally snapped my brain!! -Eric Black, Blue Country News, 101FM- Logan City, Queensland, Australia (Boobie Browne & the Onions) turn in a program of ten picking delights...that aren't especially indebted to anyone else's instrumentals that I can think of. -John Valenteyn, Maple Blues Magazine, Feb. '03, Toronto Blues Society Wonderfully entertaining guitar instrumentals...making his guitar sound very much indeed like a chicken at times. Totally cool stuff. -LMNOP, on www.babysue.com, Decatur, GA Many are not yet familiar with his name but they need to become aware that something new and completely different is on the scene. -Tim Holek, CanadianBlues.ca