John Fusco

While best known as an award-winning screenwriter, John Fusco comes from a blues music background, best evidenced by his first movie "Crossroads," (1986) an acclaimed cult film among rock and blues musicians. Now, singer-songwriter (and Hammond B3 player) Fusco has returned to the Delta to team with Memphis soul singer Sharisse Norman and Cody Dickinson of the Grammy-nominated North Mississippi Allstars to form the X-Road Riders. Memphis music journalist Mark Jordan has described their self-titled debut LP as "combining the loping, gritty vocals and church-ified organ of Gregg Allman with the sweaty, Southern blues muscle of Tab Benoit and Albert King." Fusco's originals run the range of electric blues, gospel, swamp boogie, and country rock -- all of it celebrated with scorching guest appearances by slide guitar monster Luther Dickinson (Black Crows, NMA), Memphis rap pioneer Al Kapone (Hustle and Flow) and a further compliment of guests who bring horns and blues harp to this "loose and mature feast."