Little Louis

Armed with a guitar, footstomp and vocal cords ?Little? Louis van Empel delivers a surprising and energetic performance. Louis' voice thereby acts as an impressive multi-purpose instrument that astonishes his audiences. His songwriting combines raw deltablues and dark americana with various folky sounds. His main influences are the old bluesmasters like Blind Willie Johnson, Son House and John Lee Hooker, but also artists like Beck, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Tom Waits. With full dedication, he delivers his own unique version of "the blues".

Because of his savage stagepersona he mostly leaves baffled audiences behind after a long set of raw and basic sounds, tastefully varied with more melodic songs. Louis mainly performs as a solo or duo act, but also with The Little Louis Band, consisting of: Aart van der Wulp (harmonica), Geurt Engelsman (upright bass) and Gabri?l Peeters (drums).

In 1994 Louis founded the first Little Louis Bluesband. This band acquired a large regional reputation, which eventually yielded them a performance at the prestigious Belgium Rhythm & blues festival (BRBF) in Peer in 2000.
As from 1999, writing songs with influences from folk, americana, country, latin, blues, jazz and rock occupied Louis and it was no longer possible to incorporate all of his ideas into the bluesband's repertoire. After recording the first independent cd "Compass & Chart", he founded the band "Louis!" at the end of 2000. In 2001 a second independent CD was released, titled "Tales of Liquid Desires & Shining Armours". This album was praised by various dutch music magazines and other music critics. During the summer of 2003 the third Louis! album was recorded, and became the official debut album on Corazong Records. The cd, titled "A Close Watch", received great reviews by the (inter)national (music)press and quite a bit of airplay on national and regional radio.
Apart from the release of the new cd the establishment of the songwriters-collective, Songwriters United, with BJ Baartmans, Eric van Dijsseldonk and Eric Devries was an important activity in 2004. As a result a live-DVD was released in june 2005 of Songwriters United on Inbetweens records.

The "blues-noir" album "Speak or the Devil" was released on Inbetweens records, january 2007. Louis played most of the parts on the album, accompanied by the Little Louis Band. The band also released a free, internet only, Live CD: "Live at Paradox". The band's performance at Moulin Blues, Hollands' biggest roots & Bluesfestival, has been documented professionally on the live CD + DVD, titled "Footstompin' Ground!".


Discography
Little Louis
2008: Footstompin' Ground (Live CD + DVD on Porcupine Records)
2007: Live at Paradox (promo, internet only)
2007: Speak of the Devil (Inbetweens Records)
2002: Hangin' in the Alley (Vinyl LP / Porcupine Records)
2000: Juicy Pear (Self released, out of print)
1998: The Little Louis Bluesband (Self released, out of print)


Louis!
2004: A Close Watch (Corazong Records)
2001: Tales of Liquid Desires & Shining Armours (Porcupine Records, out of print)
2000: Compass & Chart (Porcupine Records)