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Brian Setzer

Brian Setzer’s career has always moved to the snap of a guitar string. Born on April 10, 1959, in Massapequa, New York, he started out on euphonium and played in school jazz bands before rock, punk and rockabilly pulled him in another direction. That mix of discipline and restless taste would shape his work as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, bandleader, producer and actor. After playing in the Bloodless Pharaohs and the Tomcats, Setzer formed the Stray Cats with double bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom. In 1980, the band sold its instruments to fund a move to London, where it met guitarist and producer Dave Edmunds. Their debut album, "Stray Cats," delivered "Stray Cat Strut" and "Rock This Town." Back in America, "Built for Speed" and the band’s MTV exposure helped bring their rockabilly sound to a wider audience, while "(She’s) Sexy + 17" became another hit. When the Stray Cats disbanded in 1984, Setzer began a solo career that refused to stay in one lane. "The Knife Feels Like Justice" leaned toward R&B and heartland rock, while "Live Nude Guitars" moved further into blues rock. He later returned to the music that had first caught his ear, shifting from a rockabilly revival to the jump blues and swing of the Brian Setzer Orchestra. That seventeen-piece band found major attention with its version of Louis Prima’s "Jump, Jive an’ Wail" on "The Dirty Boogie." The recording won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and "Sleep Walk" won Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Setzer continued stretching familiar forms with "Wolfgang’s Big Night Out," an album of interpretations of classical pieces, and returned to solo recording with "Gotta Have the Rumble," announced in 2021. Across those changes, his career has remained rooted in an evident appetite for revisiting older sounds without treating them like museum pieces.