Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan

Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan

There is nothing that exudes the concept of real true country blues more than the great guitar/ harmonica duos: Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and their heirs Cephas & Wiggins. That tradition is still going strong with duos that are still together today: Eric Noden and Joe Filisko, and Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan, the red-hot duo of from Santa Barbara, California. Since the death of John Cephas and Phil Wiggin’s solo career, Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan are one of the longest running permanently-paired guitar / harmonica duos in America. In 2019, they triumphantly celebrate their 40th Anniversary, outrunning even the great Brownie and Sonny who had a 35-year partnership.

Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan are both superb instrumentalists and outstanding interpreters of the country blues. Both play guitar with astonishing virtuosity, but Tom Ball is the singer and the main harmonica player, and Kenny Sultan is plain out as good as it gets as an acoustic guitar picker – a guitarist’s guitarist and an extraordinary fingerpicker. (Check out his own signature Martin Guitar Model 000-18KS, an honor bestowed only on the best of the best.)

Together, they not only carry out the traditions with respect and reverence, but they play with swift passion and fury, as good as it gets when you pair these two instruments. The Flying Fish/Rounder recording artists with eight records under their belt, plus solo albums, have mastered blues, rags, and good time music and have played concerts, clubs, and blues / folk/bluegrass festivals all over the world. Even if their name does not yet ring a bell, you have probably heard their music in countless TV shows, commercials and movie soundtracks. Both are respected teachers and desired session players.