Black Owl Music Records is
    pleased to announce that
    Poppa E's song,
    "Terraplane" has been
    nominated for a Golden
    Kayak Award for "Best Blues
    Song of the Year" by The
    International Academy of
Independent Artists. The kayak represents the
journey of the indie artist, one artist navigating
down the river towards destiny.
The 14 categories are selected by Cashbox
Magazine and IAC, the Indie Capital of the world. All
of the music is independently released CDs and
singles representing a growing segment of the
music industry. The song choices are based on
the criteria of quality songwriting, performance and
production.
NEWS
April 3, 2008
Poppa E by Eric W. Seager
Not long into our conversation, Poppa E settles into his
preferred intimacy zone by dubbing me "Brother Eric. "
So take it from a brother: The 60-year-old blues
guitarist — and pretty much permanent Tobacco
Road fixture — is on a roll these days. A tune of his,
"Terraplane," was just nominated as Blues Song of
the Year by the International Academy of Independent
Artists. And he recently returned from three days of
performances in Mexico at the fifth annual
Zihuatanejo International Guitar Festival. "There were  

guitar players from all over the world," he says, clearly amped. "Paul Pigat from Canada, Esteban Bello, Twelve
Strings from Berlin. It was an incredible experience."
Born and raised in Manhattan, Poppa runs his own Black Owl record label out of Miami with the help of partners in
New York and London. As a much younger guy, he was a session percussion player for Sussex Records, which put
him in the same room as Bill Withers on many occasions (yes, that includes the recording sessions for "Lean on
Me").
When pressed (really hard), he does have one particular favorite Tobacco Road memory. "It would have to be the
evening of February 23 of this year, when the legendary Graham Wood Drout of Iko Iko and I played together upstairs
in the Cabaret. The house was packed, we told all kinds of stories — the warmth and love in the room was incredible.
In fact the entire week leading up to that show was incredible. Graham came over to the house and we talked politics,
ate pizza and drank beer, and played some real blues all night long."
                              The JPF 2008 Music Awards
    The 2008 Nominations have been announced!  25,500+
    albums and 350,000+ songs, lyrics and videos were
    received from over 100 countries to reach this year's 2008
    JPF Awards Nominations and the Black Owl Music Group
    is please to announce that Poppa E's album, "Blue... A
    Healer" has been nominated "Best Blues Album of the
    Year.   Thanks to this year's sponsors TAXI, Disc Makers
    and CD Baby for helping make this all possible!
Poppa E
Bringing the blues to downtown Miami
By Beth Feinstein-Bartl
Special to Metromix
April 17, 2008
Poppa E brings the Delta to downtown Miami.

Tracking down the bluesman isn't hard. He can be found Friday nights weaving
songs at Tobacco Road, backed by a collection of guitars and mouth harps. A
native New Yorker who learned to play at the knee of his Mississippi-born
grandfather, Poppa has become a regular and popular fixture at the club.
His gigs are where heritage replaces high tech, and simple replaces high style.
"I am [an] old-school bluesman," he said. "I'm old, I do blues, I tell stories and I
entertain people."
The musician earned a longtime living as a percussionist, playing backup for Bill Withers, John Prine and Jo Mapes.
He returned to his blues roots in the 1990s and churned out six CDs, with a seventh on the way.
The soon-to-be released "Crossroads" is a departure from his previous efforts. Its archival beat pays homage to
Poppa's grandfather, Perry Valentine. "It's my way of thanking him for sharing his talent with me," said Poppa, who
divides his time between Miami, New York and Montreal.
Of the 12 tracks, six are versions of tunes by Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker. The rest are originals.
"I sing about woman doing men wrong and men doing women wrong," he said. "It takes you back to the old juke
joints, where the music is as raw as you can get."
Poppa E's real name is Musi Faisal. He explained that the "E" comes from the largest letter on an eye chart, a
self-implied reference to visionary music.
Poppa E will be performing tonight (Friday, April 18, 2008) at the third anniversary of the Rock, a weekly original
music night. From 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., 30 bands will play on four stages at Tobacco Road, 626 S. Miami Ave., Miami.
Contact tobacco-road.com or 305-374-1198.

Visit
myspace.com/blackowlmusicmiami or blackowlmusic.com.
complete with a patio art gallery. The Black Owl Café has a laid back and casual atmosphere. So whether you dig
books, incredible art, poetry or a night of great blues, jazz or classic rock from some of Miami's most celebrated
artists, The Black Owl Café is a safe choice.

The Black Owl Café is located in the heart of North Miami on the north side of Northeast Sixth Avenue between 124th
and 123rd St. Its main neighbor, the Museum of Contemporary Art, is just a block away. The Café also offers a
complete list of domestic and imported beers, imported wines and great appetizers.
Copyright © 2007-2008 Black Owl Music, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Unauthorized use is prohibited.
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Poppa Faisal's life is painted in
blues
By Bob Weinberg | Special Correspondent
Entertainment
June 30, 2008
On the Triscuit-sized stage at the Black Owl Cafe in North
Miami Beach, Musi "Poppa E" Faisal is mesmerizing a Friday
night audience. With his acoustic guitar, rack harmonica and
soulful voice, he interprets tunes by blues royalty such as
Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson.

But then, he strums some heart-tugging chords and his
baritone purr dips into the cool waters of his own
Daddy's
Girl
. It's the kind of song listeners might expect from an artist
who played in Bill Withers' band, a moving ode to childhood
innocence that should resonate with anyone who has spent
significant time with an inquisitive daughter, granddaughter or niece.

"Daddy, would you buy me a pair of soft, pretty wings... I really think I'd like to give flying a try," he sings in a voice as
reassuring as a big man's grasp on a child's tiny hand.

A father of three grown daughters, Poppa comes by his moniker — and the emotions in his song — honestly. A
custom-made ring on his finger separates into three parts, providing a constant connection to his offspring, just as the
knit cap atop his head connects him to what he refers to as a higher power.

"My two best accomplishments in life," he says, "are being a good husband and a good father."

He's also proud of his partnership with Ari Diamond, the proprietor of the Literary Cafe; the place was recently
renamed Black Owl Cafe, a nod to Poppa's music publishing company as well as a way to avoid confusion with a
similarly named venue around the corner.

"I had two keys when I met him — one to my front door, one to my car," says Poppa, who turned 60 in May. "He gave
me the key to [the cafe]. He said, 'What you do with it is up to you.'"

For a moment, Poppa chokes up, tears welling in his eyes.

"Sometimes, people, all they got to do is believe in you, man," he says.

War and remembrance
While some soldiers lost limbs in Vietnam, Poppa lost ... Poppa. After three tours of duty, he had seen and done
things he had never imagined.

"I did three months at Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] to get my mind right," he says. "I was a killing machine. I shot
anything that moved. I'm not proud of it, but I was not gonna be a statistic."

Music provided salvation, as did his embrace of the Muslim faith and the family he'd started. He would need all these
things to endure hardships in the decades to follow. Estranged for years, Poppa and his father finally reconciled
shortly before the elderly man was killed by robbers in 1983. A younger brother died in the World Trade Center on 9-11.

But Poppa had developed the skills he needed to take each day as it comes. He traces the attitude back to his time in
Chicago in the 1970s, when he was trying to figure out what to do with his life.

"I'm thinking to myself, instead of being angry, I can go and sit on the steps of this Frank Lloyd Wright house, or I can
go into the park, man, and smell Lake Michigan," he says. "So I decided to turn my life into something profoundly
productive. I treat every day just like it was my last one."

Learning the 12-string
The son of an attorney and an English teacher, Poppa grew up in midtown Manhattan. His mother's father had fled
from Clarksdale, Miss., after shooting three white men who had called his wife a whore. Although he was caught and
sent to the Mississippi penitentiary Parchman Farm, the family took root in New York.

Poppa's grandfather introduced him to the blues. A fan of Leadbelly, he insisted his grandson learn to play the 12-
string guitar.

"He said, 'If you learn to do licks on a 12-string, you can do licks on any guitar in the world,'" Poppa remembers.

His mother's brothers also exerted a powerful tug. One owned a pool hall, the other a record store.

"Between the record store and the pool room, it set the tone for my life," he says.

An angry man
Chicago also provided a vibrant musical laboratory. Artists such as Muddy Waters and Koko Taylor could be found in
Southside blues clubs, while the clubs in Old Town buzzed with everyone from Joan Baez to Gil Scott-Heron. John
Prine taught Poppa open D tuning on the guitar.

Bill Withers taught him plenty, too, when Poppa was hired to play percussion behind the singer in the '70s.

"Bill had anger-management problems," Poppa says. "Bill would go off on anybody about anything at any time."

Poppa also noticed the rough shape Withers' wife, actress Denise Nicholas, was in when she came into the studio,
dark glasses hiding her bruises. One day, he confronted Withers, who threatened to beat him as well.

"I said, 'I don't think so,'" Poppa recounts, lifting his shirt as if to reveal the piece he once carried. "I said, 'You can jump
across the table if you want to. Getting back is gonna be a problem.'"

Giving everything
Although Poppa has lived in Miami for 25 years, he didn't perform here much until the past year and a half. Friends in
the industry got him bookings around the United States and in Europe, but in Miami, he stayed out of the spotlight.

In 2006, Poppa released the CDs
Southern Style: Blues Sessions and Five Long Years ... A Tribute to Carey Bell, the
latter an homage to the late Chicago harmonica master. His appetite for performing reawakened, he began appearing
regularly at Miami's Tobacco Road.

Poppa met Diamond after hearing that the jazz singer and writer was trying to get Literary Cafe off the ground. Even
with sparse audiences, Poppa felt like the place was well-suited to his intimate songcraft.

"I will give you everything I've got, whether it's 10 people or a thousand," he says. "That's what I did. And here we are."

Even with his considerable skills, Poppa says he practices four or five hours a day, as the thick calluses on his fingers
attest.

"I'm still not really good at anything musically," he says modestly. "I'm not an Eric Clapton on guitar; I'm not a Carey
Bell on harmonica; I'm not an Albert Collins or Albert King vocally. But I manage.

"I'm studying a lot," he continues. "The guitar, the harp ... I gotta touch something every day. I gotta do a lick. And if I
don't, there's no sense in me getting up. I can't go a day without music."

Bob Weinberg is a freelance writer in Hallandale Beach.


If you go
Poppa E performs at 9:30 Friday and Saturday nights and 7:30 p.m. Sundays at Black Owl Cafe, 12325 NE Sixth Ave.,
North Miami. Call 786-443-3126 or visit myspace.com/blackowlmusicmiami. He also regularly performs at Tobacco
Road in Miami. Call 305-374-1198.
Hanging With Poppa E
Written by Fredric Cole
Monday, 14 July 2008
Every Friday at 6pm on the outdoor patio at Tobacco Road amongst the laughter, drinks and FREE chicken wings, he
sets up a chair, a microphone, plugs in his guitar and clips one of his 15 harmonicas around his neck.  As he picks
out the first few bars and starts to sing, something begins to happen, discussions of work place gossip, turns into
head swaying and foot patting.  Poppa E. has arrived on the scene and gives the crowd something most of them have
never witnessed live... down home blues.
This quiet, unassuming man simply known as Poppa E. has been bringing us all back to our soulful roots.  
Responding to a MySpace email blast from DJ Oski looking for an original copy of the "Tobacco Road" theme song for
their upcoming 96th birthday celebration, Poppa E. quickly seized the opportunity and responded.  "I didn't really have
the track," said Poppa E. "But I knew the song, so I ran into my studio laid down the track complete with vocals, and
added a Happy Birthday twist."  It worked beautifully, after meeting with the owners of Tobacco Road, they quickly
signed him to a long term performance contract.

A native New Yorker, Poppa E started out playing Jazz with the likes of legends like Ornette Coleman.  His long
winding career has taken him around the world and back again to his roots, the blues.  With the release of his new CD
"Crossroads," Poppa E is gearing up for another tour through Europe and the South Pacific.  In late August, Poppa E
will be appearing live on Ed Bell's NPR radio show.
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Dwntwn Ballin'
Written by Jennifer LeClaire
Summer/Fall Issue 2008
Tobacco Road, one of DWNTWNRS' favorite hangouts,
celebrates its 96th bithday this year, yet it remains hip,
further proving age is relative.  The bar opened back in
1912.  When asked who came here in those days,
manager Joe Portela jokes, "I imagine the Indians."  In 21
years, he's seen it all.  "Everything happens at Tobacco
Road."

In the old days, Downtown's beloved bar was a speakeasy.
After some nudging, Portela dishes about a secret closet
used back then for hiding during raids.  The closet is gone
now, but good times are still had there.

Like most bars, it's dark.  Face it, everyone looks better in
dark, especially after a few drinks.  But that's not why people come here, after all, Miami is known for its beautiful
people.  They come because it's a simple and relaxing place, says Portela.  Both professionals and the younger set
crowd the joint during lunch, Happy Hour, and at night for the live music that plays every evening.  It's a good thing
they're open late everyday - until 5 a.m.

Tobacco Road is also well known for their daring burgers.  Phastong, that's a person not a burger, has been hand
patting those ground sirloin babies for the past 24 years.  Portela says that's part of what makes them so good.

The cabaret upstairs is ultra hip, but downstairs on the patio is where most people like to hang, says Portela.  "In
the middle of Downtown, you can sit under an oak tree," and listen to live music at night.  Mark your calendar for
November 26 when the Big T will celebrate the big 9-6 with a parking lot bash.

Tobacco Road has survived good and bad times, hurricanes, city scandals and corruption, and an array of
neighborhoods throughout the years.  "They come and go: we will always be here."

Tobacco Road
626 South Miami Avenue
Miami, Florida 33130
305-374-1198
www.tobacco-road.com
Poppa E, "Resident Blues Man" at Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road, a hoppin place since 1912
Poppa E Opens Blues/Jazz Club
By Charles R. Boyer,Publisher
July 14, 2008
Big Poppa E, Miami-based bluesman, has
ventured into the cafe/club business with noted
musician and promoter, DJ Oski Gonzalez to open
what they say will be the premiere place for blues,
contemporary rock and jazz in North Miami.

The Black Owl Café is a cozy place open to the
public, artists, poets and musicians who wish to
gather and enjoy a beautiful artistic atmosphere,
Erica Sommer-Solo
by Azar Alcazar
Thursday, September 25, 2008
The beautiful lead singer of local rock lords Raging
Geisha will be performing her solo stuff tonight. She
will be performing with Miami blues legend Poppa E.
This show will definitely be a hoot. Check out her
videos at
www.youtube.com/raginggeisha
POPPA E