Tas Cru

NJBS Blues & Brews features Tas Cru.  

With six albums in the last eight years , Cru is slated to release his Tas Cru Band LIVE in 2024. This album showcases his 2024 tour band performing his fan’s top-ten requested songs. To no surprise, these fan-fed songs are all rough and tumble. Gone are the frills of a studio album. The band just gives each song a best go, kicking down the fences - cage-free – loose, loud and proud! Cru is a well-seasoned performer and entertainer. He knows how to read an audience. By intuition, Cru adjusts his sets on the fly to make sure he reaches them. While this is a skill acquired from years of performing, having a repertoire of well over 100 original songs to draw on certainly gives him a leg up on most others. Indeed, above all else Tas Cru is a songwriter. “He is a real writer,” says Bruce Iglauer – owner/producer of the renowned Alligator Records. High praise comes from Downbeat magazine, describing Cru as one of the most unique of roots musicians plying his trade today; “With fresh melodies and his trademark well-crafted lyrics, Cru has the ability to cast a magical hook.” According to Tas, himself, “I insist that words serve more than to treat the listener like a hitch-hiker desperate to reach the guitar solo!” Tas Cru – always original and where the songs matter, lyrics speak, and melodies thrive! Cru is most known as a blues artist but his songs show that he is truly a roots music eclectic who refuses to be bound to any one genre. Based out of Central New York he performs in multiple formats ranging from a six-piece backing band to solo acoustic. He sings and plays a wide variety of guitars - at home on either electric, acoustic, resonator or cigar box and is known to sprinkle in a bit of harmonica from time to time. Tas made his mark in the blues world as the founder and host of his Tas Cru Annual Rum Boogie Jam (2008 – 2023) at the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis Today, Tas tours extensively throughout the US and international touring includes Europe and Canada. Tas is a Delaney Guitars (Austin TX) endorsed artist and is signed to Subcat Records, Syracuse NY. Tas Cru is a BMI artist and is represented by Anne Bello Productions and in Europe by Martin Scheschonka (Electric Blues Bash).