Sean Riley moved to New Orleans over a decade ago and never left — “it's like I've been searching for 'my home' my whole life and it just fit so right.” A familiar face from the Bywater to the French Quarter and Uptown, he plays weekly in the city and tours extensively in Europe and Australia, with a sound rooted in deep delta blues, country blues and Louisiana dancehall traditions.
Stone Cold Hands (2024) is his musical tribute to New Orleans: nine originals plus a swaggering take on Jimmy Reed's “High and Lonesome,” ranging from high-energy house-party rockers to tear-in-my-beer barroom reflections. The album features some of Louisiana's most-lauded musicians — Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes on accordion and harmonica, Waylon Thibodeaux on fiddle, Phil Breen on keys, Tiffany Pollack on harmonies — with Dean Zucchero producing and playing bass and Mike Barras on drums. It followed the Biting Through EP, released under his original moniker Old Riley & The Water.
Riley's guitar style — “varied guitar riffs that are part of his signature,” per OffBeat's Dan Willging — and his plainspoken songs about love, loss and missteps have earned him heavy rotation on blues radio worldwide. As he told Blues.gr: “Keep the party going!”
