American Songwriter magazine put it best when it wrote this last year about Patrick Sweany: "If the blues torch stands a chance of being passed down to the next generation, it’s going to be by the works of artists like Gary Clark Jr. and Patrick Sweany. These guys, and others, take the raw basics of the blues – gritty honesty, riff-driven swamp, wired, emotional playing and singing – and swirl them in their own artistic juices."

Amen to that.

Patrick Sweany began his career as an acoustic bluesman, and he will return to those roots on May 10 as he celebrates the re-release (20th anniversary) of his debut solo album with a concert at the (ware)HOUSE.

Raised near Akron Ohio, Sweany was a fixture at regional blues festivals in the late 90s.

In 1999, he released his debut "I Wanna Tell You," a delta blues tour-de-force that showcases Sweany's brilliant playing and soulful voice.

He traded in his acoustic for an electric guitar and formed The Patrick Sweany Band, a group that included Dan Auerbach (later of the Black Keys). The band released "Henryfordbedroom" in 2003.

He signed with Nine Mile Records in 2006 and released "C'mon, C'mere" in 2006 and  "Every Hour is a Dollar Gone" -- both albums produced by Auerbach.

Sweany moved to Nashville in 2009 and released that "That Old Southern Drag" in 2011, "Close to the Floor" in 2013 and Daytime Turned to Nighttime in 2015 -- all great albums, rocking and soulful while still rooted in the blues traditions.

In 2018, Sweany recorded "Ancient Noise" with GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer/producer Matt Ross-Spang after Ross-Spang invited Sweany to check out his new homebase at legendary Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis. The studio that Phillips had custom built in the 70s has been meticulously refurbished by the Phillips family.

“Sam Phillips Recording is the best place on earth to record a rock ‘n’ roll album,” says Sweany. “I live for going into the sessions with no pre-production rehearsals with the band, we just cut the album on the floor of Studio A song-by-song.”

For the sessions, Sweany recruited longtime collaborator Ted Pecchio on bass (Doyle Bramhall II, Col. Bruce Hampton) and ex-Wilco drummer Ken Coomer both from Nashville. When Sweany needed some organ on a song, Ross-Spang got in touch with Charles Hodges, a veteran Memphis session player best known for playing with Al Green on all of his seminal records.

American Songwriter raved about the album: "There’s an understated Little Feat feel to much of this, especially in the tough New Orleans funk/rhythmic 'Cry of Amédé,' where the singer also borrows some of Lowell George’s soulful growl. By mingling the spirit of the blues with a firm singer-songwriter grasp, Patrick Sweany has tapped into a gripping musical direction that feels like a natural and effective way to update the basics of the genre without losing, or worse diluting, its inherent edge.'

Now, Sweany is returning to his solo roots. At his (ware)HOUSE concert on May 10, he will unveil tunes from his soon-to-be-released solo album.