John Butler meets John Popper meets Keller Williams. Cousin Curtiss combines the picking style, soul, and energy of John Butler, the incendiary harmonica style of John Popper, and the multi-instrumentalist-live-looping talents of Keller Williams. Cousin Curtiss’s life and music has been featured by Business Insider, MSN, Fox News, USA Today, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Daily Mail UK.

Rootstomp isn’t cute. Rootstomp music doesn’t have choreographed dancers on stage. Cousin Curtiss has a Ph.D. in Rootstomp music and his lectures are dripping with juicy knowledge. While defining what it means to be a One-Man-Band Cousin Curtiss proves that Rootstomp music is a raw blend of Folk, Blues, and Bluegrass without the twang. Rootstomp music is an interesting conversation between guitars, bass, drums, and sometimes the harmonica wants the floor. Cousin Curtiss’s Rootstomp shows are contagious with enthusiasm, energy, and toe-tapping-foot-stomping-hand-clapping goodness. Add to that stories of life on the road and living in a self-made tiny house after leaving behind a successful teaching career in Alaska to chase a dream and you have an entertaining show of the highest value.

Cousin Curtiss was born and raised in Northern Michigan but has since lived in St. Lucia; Tok, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; and now resides in Colorado. His songs are directly influenced by life on the road, strangers with strange stories, love of family and friends, teaching, adventure, and hypothetical situations that help fill the loneliness and silence of long road trips. These songs are brought to life with aggressive finger picking, incendiary harmonica solos, and a contagious four-on-the-floor bass beat generated by a self-made “stompbox."

Audience members are often blown away at how much music Cousin Curtiss generates as a single person. Match that with a crisp and soulful voice that fills an auditorium and still cuts to the core of anyone in the crowd and you have the ultimate performer.