BLUES TORCH

Something older than any of them, carried forward.

Blues Torch brings together three young guitarists whose playing carries a weight and specificity that belongs to no single tradition — and a backline of veterans who have spent decades keeping the foundation solid. The result is a live experience that hits harder than it should, stays longer than expected, and leaves rooms different than it found them.

Nobody called a meeting. Three young guitarists — each making a name on different stretches of the American roots circuit — showed up to the same gig rehearsal one afternoon in New England. The set list could wait. They started trading riffs for fun, playing with what fit. Within a few bars it stopped being casual. Something locked in — a sound that pulled from delta blues, Chicago electric, and Southern rock without belonging entirely to any of them.

Behind them sits a backline with decades of road under their belts — players who have held the stage with Chuck Berry, Big Mama Thornton, Eric Sardinas, and more. They don’t need the spotlight. They need the music to be right. That combination — young intensity channeled through veteran discipline — is what makes a Blues Torch show land differently than it should.

Word traveled. Not press releases or marketing campaigns — just musicians telling other musicians, venue owners comparing notes, phone videos passed around in group chats. The kind of momentum that doesn’t need permission.

RYAN NEWMAN
Ryan Newman sat in with John Mayall when he was eleven years old. Not as a novelty act. Not as a cute kid with a big guitar. He played, and the room paid attention. That was the beginning of something that hasn’t slowed down since.

Based in Chester, Connecticut, Newman has built a reputation across Southern New England and New York as one of the most electrifying live blues guitarists working today. They call him the Continental Kid. Black Eyed Sally’s — the Hartford blues institution — put it plainly: “One of the finest young Blues/Rock Guitarists to come along in a very long time.” In 2021, the New England Music Hall of Fame agreed, awarding him their inaugural Best New Artist honor. Booking agents describe him as “flat out riveting” and kept bringing him back to the Winter Blues and Brews Festival eight years running because “he just burns it up on stage.”

MATT SWANTON
Matt Swanton was nine years old the first time he walked into The Bull Run in Shirley, Massachusetts. Something on that stage rewired him. He went home, picked up a guitar, and didn’t put it down. The next several years looked like what they always look like for the ones who are serious — a bedroom, a guitar, and hours that nobody else knows about. Then high school bands. Then sitting in at blues jams, holding his own against players twice his age.

He writes everything he plays. That’s worth saying twice, because it’s rare. The Matt Swanton Band doesn’t lean on covers or crowd-pleasers — every song on both albums came from Swanton’s head. His self-titled debut steeped itself in traditional blues, late-60s psychedelic rock, and funk. Growing Pains, the twelve-track follow-up released in 2025, pushed further: “Mulpus Bop” opens with an instrumental that sets the tone, “Soldier” delivers what Blues Blast Magazine called “wickedly hot” guitar, and “Too Close to the Sun” goes somewhere most blues acts won’t — mental health, handled with the same directness he brings to everything else.

In 2023, the Boston Blues Society chose The Matt Swanton Band to represent Massachusetts at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. They made it to the semi-finals. BroadwayWorld called the band’s sound “fiery guitar work, soulful vocals, and high-voltage jams.” Blues Blast Magazine reviewed Growing Pains as “blues songs with a heavy rock feel” that merge “psychedelic rock, blues, soul and funk into a fun album” — and added that it was “well worth a spin, especially if guitar and keys are something you appreciate.”

BRAD DUBAY
With singing and guitar playing straight out of the late 60s and early 70s blues rock era and bringing to life in its most authentic form, Brad Dubay has revived “that” lost sound that so many have longed for. He is influenced by artists such as The Allman Brothers Band, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, and The Beatles. His debut album Planet 9 perfectly captures his blend of hard-hitting blues, melodic instrumentals, and old school hard rock. His music delivers the raw energy and soulful phrasing that makes him truly exceptional.

Recorded at Mystic Valley Studio in Boston and mixed/mastered at Welcome To 1979 in Nashville, his debut album Planet 9 showcases Brad Dubay at his finest. The all-original vinyl album master disks were cut at Welcome To 1979, completing a true full analog process throughout. “Going full analog, with absolutely no digital manipulation, brings out a unique and special sound,” says Brad Dubay. You can certainly feel it. Even the light touches of reverb were done with vintage physical plate and spring system units in the studios. No pedals on the guitar work enlightens players and listeners alike as a reminder of how it used to be done, without enhancements. This plays right into the other industry hunger - that is bands playing full-on live, just as it is meant to be, with no auto-tune, enhancers, backing tracks, in-fills, cut-ins, midi, or digital enhancements that have wiped out the true experience of music. Brad’s record is destined to open a new course in what current music fans are longing for. Brad has brought old-school blues-rock to a new era, a new sound, and a new energy. The album “takes us on a journey of the sounds that made that era so special, then places that journey into new orbits of new music that is unique to itself,” says Brad Dubay.

THE BAND

The Fallout Shelter is an all ages performance venue welcoming worldwide, world class music in an intimate setting. Our studio audience attends to watch the creation and production of the music television series The Extended Play Sessions. The Fallout Shelter events are immersive experiences for both audience and performers alike...a live music experience like no other. We are fully ADA compliant and have wheelchair access. We have a wide selection of beer and wine for your adult beverage pleasures and each show comes with a free commemorative event poster. Our doors open at 6PM. Seating is General Admission. We recommend you arrive at the time the doors open.