Erin Harpe's soulful vocals, stellar pickin' come to Rochester on Sunday

Erin Harpe (Courtesy photo)

Editor's Note: The concert at the Garage featuring Erin Harpe and the Delta Swingers has been moved to the air-conditioned ballroom at the Governor's Inn.

Erin Harpe calls her music "boogie, blues and beyond."

It's a fusion of delta and piedmont blues with a slice of funk, all deconstructed so its essence can be savored for what it really is: plain old damn good old-timey blues.

Erin Harpe and The Delta Swingers, four-time winners of the Boston Blues Challenge and named the best Boston Blues Act of 2012, will perform in the ballroom at the Governor's Inn on Sunday at 4 p.m.

Harpe has played at the Governor's Inn many times. In fact Harpe said on Friday she felt like she grew up with the inn's sound man who was just a youngster when she first appeared there.

"I don't know if he even still works there," she laughed during a phone interview with The Rochester Voice.

Her Boston-based group has been on a virtual nonstop tour since the debut of their first album, "Love Whip Blues," which features a sexy, sassy title track that shows she means business, in love, life and her music.

She said her comfort zone is old-timey blues - played without a lot of sound and production - so that the essence of the music reveals itself.

Harpe's phenomenal finger picking and soulful vocals, sweet with a touch of swagger, drive the group, which also includes bass, harmonica and drums.

She said during their set at the Garage Sunday afternoon they'll try to play stuff from both their albums - Love Whip Blues and Big Road, which she says describes "where she and the band have been, traveling the highways and back roads, bringing people joy through their music."

It's also the name of Harpe's favorite Tommy Johnson song, "Big Road Blues", the one that ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons said he liked her arrangement of when she opened for his band.

Harpe's blues roots go back to her childhood in Maryland, when her dad, a renowned blues guitarist, played in DC bands that included many famed bluesmen including Archie Edwards and John Cephas.

Music critic Chris Spector of the Midwest Record newspaper may sum up Harpe's unique hold on the blues world best.

"A guitar slinger for modern times. Easily Bonnie Raitt on modern performance enhancing drugs, Harpe is blues mama for our times," he said.

The Governor's Inn is located at 78 Wakefield St. The show starts at 4 p.m.