Featured Artist: The Mustangs

 The Mustangs

The Mustangs are a British blues rock band that were formed in Hampshire in 2001. They are unusual on the blues rock circuit as their albums are made of entirely original material.
The Mustangs were formed by Adam Norsworthy and Derek Kingaby after an impromptu jam session in the Fountain Pub in Rowland's Castle, Hampshire, in 2001. The Mustangs first came to national attention after winning the Eel Pie Club's Search for New Blues Talent competition in 2004.
The Mustangs have played and headlined a wide variety of gigs and blues festivals across the UK and Europe including Colne, Maryport, Blues on The Farm, Newark, Swanage, Skegness, Hyde Park, Goodwood, Zinc Paris, Gosport and Southsea. Their concerts showcase singer Norsworthy's dynamic energy: he runs and jumps about the stage throughout each concert, whilst maintaining a visible camaraderie with the other band members.
As well as their own material, in concert the group often plays some blues standards, though radically reinterpreting the arrangement to suit the band's "truly storming... ferocious" sound. These include Leadbelly's "Hands Off", Troyce Keane's "Annie Maybe" and Cyril Davies "Countryline Special".
Chiefly influenced by the British blues rock bands of the 1960s such as Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac as well as Dr. Feelgood, the Mustangs also draw on more traditional blues influences such as Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Robert Johnson. The band's use of blues harp, played by Derek Kingaby, adds to an authentic, traditional blues sound.
The majority of the songwriting is by Norsworthy, but all four members of the band have contributed songs to the albums.
The band's fifth album, Cut Loose, received a 5 star review in the May 2010 issue of R2 magazine. In the same year, as well as being nominated for best band at the British Blues Awards, Ben Mckeown and Jon Bartley were nominated for an award in their own instrument categories, Mckeown for Best Bass Guitarist and Bartley for Best Drummer.
The band's sixth album, Shaman & the Monkey, was released in October 2011. The band supported the release with a number of shows at high profile blues festivals across the UK including Maryport, Cambridge, Swanage, Newark and the Isle of Wight. The Mustangs left Cross Border later in 2011 and signed to the Trapeze Music label, who subsequently took over the release of the Shaman & the Monkey album, as well taking over the distribution of the band's entire back catalogue.
In December, 2012 Shaman & the Monkey was voted Best UK and European blues rock album by the prestigious Blues Underground Network. The song 'Highwire', from Shaman & the Monkey, was nominated as Best Original Blues Song at the 2012 British Blues Awards. This was the band's fourth ever nomination at the Awards.
The band's seventh album, Speed of Love, was released on April 8th.
In 2012, as Adam & the King Bee, Norsworthy and Derek Kingaby released Pow Wow, a collection of blues- and country-tinged songs that they had written while rooming together on tour with the Mustangs