Singin' the Blues.
By Austen Smith, Staff Writer

Manchester Enterprise July 17, 2003

n Local blues band chosen for national competition.

Move over Chicago — Manchester has become the capital city of blues music.

The locally celebrated blues band, Chef Chris and his Nairobi Trio, recently was chosen by Billboard Magazine to compete in the Independent Musicians World Series on July 31.

The band’s CD, "Ruff Cuts" was chosen out of 1,200 entries to compete among six finalists in Nashville, where they will be battling for $35,000 worth of musical equipment and gear.

Manchester resident and lead vocalist for the band Chris Sirvinskis said all of the recent attention is just awesome.

"We are all just really tickled about the whole thing," Sirvinskis said. "You submit these things and you just cross your fingers and when it comes back to you, it’s just incredible because there are so many entries."

The CD was submitted into the nationwide contest by the independent record company cdbaby.com. The company handles thousands of different bands from every music genre.

Sirvinskis said because the CD was chosen, the band has been getting a lot of exposure. He said that Billboard has listened to "Ruff Cuts" and different record company representatives.

"We have also been getting a lot of airtime on XM satellite Radio," he said. "In April, we were the number-one requested song and we have been regularly in their top 20 requested songs."

He continued, "Locally it’s played on WEMU, mostly on the blues shows that they do; locally it’s been doing pretty well. A lot of the National Public Radio college stations have been playing it."

The lead vocalist and harp player is known as Chef Chris to his fans. Rounding out the four-piece blues band is Brother Bill Lewis, Vinnie D' Cobra and Sir Tim Duvalier.

Sirvinskis said the other group members live in and around Ann Arbor.

One of the most exciting things for Sirvinskis is the recognition his own original songs have been receiving.

"The CD has four original songs and four cover songs," he said.

"We have a lot of original songs and some are songs that I have written. I just don’t stand there in front of the crowd and say, ‘I wrote this song and I hope you all like it,’ we just do it. It just kills me how they gravitate to the original stuff."

"Ruff Cuts" was recorded in Detroit and mastered in Memphis. Sirvinskis said they have mostly been selling the CD at different gigs.

The Nairobi Trio has also released another CD titled, "You’re going to jail and your car is too."

While competing in Nashville promises to be an exciting and nerve-wracking ordeal, Sirvinskis and his band are no strangers to music competitions.

In 2002, the band won the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. When the band first started playing together, they took first in the Detroit Battle of the Blues Bands.

"We have always been a musical experimentation," Sirvinskis said. "Tim (Duvalier) and I started playing together about seven or eight years ago. We began playing at the Pleasant Lake Inn there in Manchester."

He added that while he and Duvalier have been doing stuff together for a very long time, the Nairobi Trio has been a unit for just over two years.

The band plays regularly all over the state and has also played gigs in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida and Ohio.

Sirvinskis said they have recently booked shows in Wisconsin.

For more information on Chef Chris and his Nairobi Trio, visit www.chefchrisblues.com.