THE MIGHTY REAPERS

When US actor and designer beer salesman Jim Belushi was in Australia, he took time out to sit in with one of this city`s favourite blues and soul combos, The Mighty Reapers. Belushi had been tipped off back in the US by Dan Ackroyd, as presenter Jake Elwood of the nationally syndicated "House Of Blues" radio programme who had been featuring the Mighty Reapers album released in the US on Terra Nova Records. The Mighty Reapers were formed by "Continental" Robert Susz out of the ashes of the Dynamic Hepnotics back in 1988.

The Hepnotics had shot to the top of the Australian charts with "Soul Kind Of Feeling", the biggest selling Australian single in 1985, and the most broadcast single on Australian radio in 1986. The Mighty Reapers were in constant demand for festival and club dates throughout Australia and when international blues and R&B artists came to town it`s more than often that the Reapers were chosen to support or back them. This list of luminaries includes B.B.King, Margie Evans, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lucky Peterson, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Bobby Radcliff, Hubert Sumlin and Mojo Buford, Lonnie Mack, Johnny Copeland, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Big Jay McNeely, Louisiana Red and Billy Branch, Buddy Guy, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Albert King, John Hammond, John King Cleary, Joe Louis Walker, Billy Boy Arnold, The Holmes Brothers and many, many more.

The Reapers released four albums in their own right as well as their highly acclaimed collaboration with US blues and soul diva Margie Evans. In Australia you can find the Reapers on Rufus Records with whom they built a long and very successful association. In the USA the Californian based Terra Nova label has released all the Reapers' albums and they have received extensive airplay on college and public radio. Vito Portolesi died in 2018.

Members

Dave Brewer (guitar, vocals), Antero Ceschin (drums), Clayton Doley (Hammond organ), Fabian Hevia  (percussion), Vito Portolesi (bass), Sammila Sithole (percussion), Robert Susz (vocals, harmonica), Rob Woolf (keyboards), Hamish Stuart (drums), Richard Ruhle (drums)