83-year-old Mississippi blues elder Leo “Bud” Welch is one of the last of his generation of no-nonsense, rugged electric bluesman. Born in Sabougla, Mississippi in 1932, Bud picked up a guitar for the first time in 1945. By 1947 at age 15, Bud could play well enough to perform publically and garnered the blessing of many elder guitar players. Bud played the blues continuously until 1975 and converted to playing mostly gospel with the Sabougla Voices, a group that included his sister and a sister-in-law. Bud earned his living logging in North Mississippi for 35 years and performed blues-tinged gospel during his downtime.

Bud kept playing on the gospel circuit of North Mississippi but wasn’t known to the blues scene until 2013, when after performing a blues set live (for the first time in nearly 65 years), started gaining attention after a copy of his set started making its way around the blue scene. His debut album “Sabougla Voices” was released January 7, 2014, two months before his 82nd birthday. His sophomore album “I Don’t Prefer No Blues” was released on March 24, 2015, just two days after his 83rd birthday. Performing live in a trio with drums and bass, he plays with fire and energy. His sound, true to North Mississippi, is rough and rugged. You can dance, or you can sit in amazement, as one of the last of his generation of bluesmen rips through a set of rollicking blues. This will be his Baltimore debut.