Tampa's (actually Brandon's) own Damon Fowler's national debut CD, Sugar Shack, makes its first appearance on the Billboard Blues Chart this week at #12.

This from a release by his record label, San Francisco-based Blind Pig:

Audiences and critics alike are responding to the young guitar phenom's exciting, soulful blend of Southern rock and swamp blues.  In an early review,  Billboard called the CD a "notable project" and Fowler a "formidable slide guitar player … his playing throughout the album is deft … and his original material is solid," while The Virginian-Pilot said "Sugar Shack effectively introduces a major talent" and praised Fowler's "formidable guitar chops and slide work, versatile tenor voice, and expert command of rustic American music styles."

If you haven't seen CL's multi-media feature on Fowler, click here.

This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2009.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...