Roman Barten-Sherman

Already a veteran of hundreds of live performances as well as having released 6 CD’s, sixteen year old Roman Barten-Sherman has been singing and playing the blues since he was a young child. In his repertoire, he embodies a rare mastery of pre-war acoustic country blues, skillfully moving from the slide guitar virtuosity of Mississippi Fred McDowell to the complex finger style playing of Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Blake. He has travelled to learn directly from legendary blues musicians such as David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Guy Davis, Corey Harris, Roy Bookbinder and Robert Belfour. As a solo artist, he has opened for David Bromberg, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bobby Rush, and John Mayall. In addition, he has played The Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the SABHF Blues Festival and headlined The Bisbee Blues Festival.  Roman gigs weekly at venues around Tucson, including an ongoing 5 year monthly booking at the Hotel Congress and his music receives significant airplay on Tucson’s KXCI radio.In 2018, he released 2 new CD’s, the first-Roman Barten-Sherman is a collection of original finger style blues improvisations, the second-Searching the Desert for the Blues, a collaboration with Tom Walbank (playing harmonica), is a scorching compilation of pre-war and North Mississippi hill country blues interpretations.