Blind Willies is a San Francisco rock band led by singer/songwriter Alexei Wajchman. After releasing two acclaimed Blind Willies albums, The Unkindness of Ravens(2007) and Everybody’s Looking for a Meal(2008), and performing extensively as an acoustic duo, Alexei has put together a new band of experienced, young musicians accomplished across diverse genres including rock, jazz, classical, world, and hip-hop. The new album, Needle, Feather, and a Rope, recorded all analog at Tiny Telephone in San Francisco, was released in April 2011.

Blind Willies has performed at eclectic venues across the US, including San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival(NY), Great American Music Hall(SF), Café du Nord(SF), Djangofest, Whole Earth Festival, Berkeley’s landmark Freight and Salvage, Minstrel Concert Series(NJ), and Brooklyn’s intimate backroom at Barbès. Their previous albums have been played on radio in the US, Canada, UK, France, Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Israel. They’ve shared concert bills with “dawg music” innovator David Grisman, punk icon Penelope Houston(Avengers), and folk iconoclast Peter Stampfel(The Holy Modal Rounders).

“A heady mix of americana, blues, folk, and rock ‘n’ roll, their latest album Needle, Feather, and a Rope showcases frontman Alexei Wajchman’s incredible range of emotional nuance.”
Laurel Kathleen, Best New Bands

"Gogol Bordello immediately spring to mind . . . but where Gogol to me sound like Borat on crack, Blind Willies are more like Jagger fronting The Pogues."
Ben Hughes, Uber Rock, UK

"Blind Willies goes electric and adds some new members. Lead singer/songwriter Alexei Wajchman produces a haunting and gleefully sardonic album."
Alan Joyce, KZSU Stanford University

"Any band that combines a Hammond organ and a cello has my attention, to begin with. Likewise a band that features a lyric about being tried “by a jury of your fears” in the song’s first 25 seconds. . Front man Alexei Wajchman has a sly sense of humor and a slightly unhinged singing and guitar-playing style that fully commands the aural stage (and I have no doubt of his command of the physical stage as well)."
Jeremy Schlosberg, Fingertips Music

“Blind Willies are the antithesis of ‘popcorn’ pop musicians. For them the music is a voyage of discovery and they make powerful statement after powerful statement."
Michael Mee, Americana UK

“Alexei is a remarkable songwriter.”
Jenn O’Donnell, DOA, Top Ten

Alexei's songs have been played on over 200 radio stations around the world.
Confirmed radio play includes Better Days Radio, Vancouver, BC; Pirate Cat Radio,
SF; KPIG, KRSH, WXPN, WFUV Woody's Children, KPFA, WFDU, KALW, KZSC,
KUSP, KYOU, KQED, KDVS, KKUP, WOBC, WTJU, WTSR, WDVX Writer's Block,
WCOM Taproot Radio, Americana Roots, WWUH, KZSU, KRCB, KSCL, WBGU,
KAOS, WTUL, WCBN, KBCS, WEFT, WMBR, KCBX, KBGA, WSDP, WDCB, KXCI,
WRKF, KACI, WLRN, KCSC, WFHB, WMUD, KAFM, Thayrone's The Bone Conduction
Music Show(syndicated), WRFL, WDBX, KGLP, Radio Marabu/Europe/No
Pigeonholes, Hanx/Netherlands, Crossroads/NL, Arjen Dekker's Blue Wednesday/NL,
Dutch Roots Radio's Landslide, Gerrit Casper's Goodnoise/NL, Thomas Kaldijk's
Blueprint/NL, Rootsrevival, Michel Penard's ISA Radio American Roots Music/France, Friedrich Hog's Radio Free FM/Germany, Heart of the Night and TransAtlantic Acoustic indieheart.com podcasts, indieSF.com, Todd Mack's Off the Beat-n-Track, Suffolk 'n Cool/UK, CKUA Tom Coxworth's Folk Routes/Canada, WYEP, WGDR, CJLX, CKHA, WHAY, WBSD, WKZE, WHDD, NHPR, KRCC,
KLOI,CHES Erin Radio, CJTR,Progressive Roots/WSJF, WHJX, WFJO, KFOK,
WMRD-AM, WLIS, WMPG, WXIN, KVMR, WMUC, WPSU, 2 MAX/Australia,
Triplej/Australia, 3 INR/Australia, 2AIR/Australia, 4RED/Australia, Radio Upper
Galilee/Israel, Highway 61 Radio Voce Spazio/Italy, Radio EVW/Germany, Radio
ZuSa/Germany, Radio Shalom/Canada. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.