Reviewers have described this Maple Blues Award-winning band as stripped-down, hellaciously rockin’ new blues with the distinctive voice and guitar work of Murray Kinsley and a rhythm section that swings with reckless, casual precision.
Based in Ottawa, Canada, the band brings their innovative original blues to venues and festivals across Canada, the US, England, and Germany.
Wicked Grin was a semi-finalist at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, January 2019 and won the Maple Blues Award for Best New Group in 2014. Bassist Laura Greenberg won the Maple Blues Award for Bassist of the Year in 2018 and 2019.
Wicked Grin’s latest album “Murder Creek,” released October 2018, has earned widespread industry acclaim and was a semi-finalist for the 2019 IBC Best Self-Produced CD Award.
TESTIMONIALS
“Murray Kinsley and his band Wicked Grin have been steadily building up a fan base worldwide with a brand of musicianship that stays clear of the hang-dog clichés that often take blues music and its noble power and renders it toothless”
ROD NICHOLSON, SCENE MAGAZINE
“Dark, bluesy ruminations on love and loss featuring the weathered vocals and nasty guitar of Kinsley, who must have sold his soul to achieve such depths of sonic wickedness.”
LYNN SAXBERG, OTTAWA CITIZEN
ACCOLADES AND AWARDS
• 2019 IBC Best Self Produced CD Semi Finalist - Murder Creek
• 2019 International Blues Challenge Semi Finalists
• 2019 and 2018 Winner, Maple Blues Awards Bassist of the Year - Laura Greenberg
• 2018 Winner of Loyal Blues Fellowship Road To Memphis Challenge
• 2015 International Blues Challenge Participants
• 2015 Blues Rock Album of the Year - Stormy Water - Blues Underground Network
• 2015 Top 20 Canadian Blues Album - Stormy Water - Brent Morrison, Rockin' Blues Show
• 2014 Maple Blues Award - Best New Group
• 2014 Runner Up - Toronto Blues Society New Talent Search
• 2014 Blues Rock Album of the Year - Shame On Me - Blues Underground Network
• 2014 Winner of Ottawa Blues Society Road to Memphis Challenge