Noah Wotherspoon is a phenomenal and captivating musician, who found his calling at a young age, and made a name for himself as one of the leading musicians, and blues guitarists, to rein from Dayton, Ohio.
Noah first began playing guitar at the age of 11, and by 15 he was fronting his own band, Noah and the Stratocats. Only a year after their incarnation, the band quickly picked up speed, and they found themselves performing in front of thousands at the prestigious, Chicago Blues Fest, where they would continue to appear for the next 8 years. After their debut at the CBF, Noah and band were asked back to perform again the following morning, where Noah would be discovered by Jimmy D. Lane (son of blues legend and Muddy Waters’ guitarist Jimmy Rogers), leading to the recording and release of his debut album on APO Records “Buzz Me”, which featured the legendary Hubert Sumlin (guitarist for Howlin’ Wolf) on two tracks. The currently out of print recording catalog of N&S is due for re-release in the near future.
Since then, Noah has lived multiple musical lives, exploring various styles and earning a reputation also as a prolific and compelling songwriter. Over the years, he’s shared bills with icons such as Chris Issak, Leon Russel, Bob Scaggs, Savoy Brown, John Hammond, Joe Bonamassa, Johnny Lang, Kenny Wayne Sheperd, and has performed, and/or recorded with, a wide range of his heroes, including Bobby Blue Bland, Hiram Bullock, and Will Lee, to name a few. Wotherspoon and his band have backed two of the late Muddy Waters’ sons, Big Bill Morganfield at the East Tawas Blues Festival inn 2014 as well Mud Morganfield (the eldest son of Muddy Waters) at the Cincinnati Blues Fest in 2026.
In 2015, Noah received the Albert King award for best guitarist at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, and the Noah Wotherspoon Band (with Brian Aylor and Rob Thaxton) placed 2nd overall. Shortly after, the band (with varied members) began performing at venues and festivals around the world, touring Eastern Europe multiple times, performing in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, and Austria, as well as headlining both the Reykjavik Blues Festival in Iceland and the Salva Jazz & Blues Festival in Salvatierra, Mexico.
The NWB has released 2 studio albums, ‘Mystic Mud’ and ‘Mobile Juke House Theater'. The current NWB line-up features Da’Rosa Richardson on keyboards, Tom Rastikis on bass, Brian Aylor on drums and the Just Strange Brothers Horns from Cincinnati on select shows.
As you listen to Noah, there is an undeniable outpouring of soul and feeling. It many times has people curious, what musical influences have inspired him over the years. “...within the first few years of playing I became immersed in the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix. By way of guidance from Dayton musicians Tim Arnold and Shake ‘n Dave Hussong, I dug deeper into learning about the blues, and fell in love with classic Texas/Chicago blues artists such as Otis Rush, Albert King, Magic Sam, as well as Dayton’s own musical legends like Robert Ward. I’ve also always drawn inspiration from the Beatles and great songwriters in the realm of Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley and Doyle Bramhall II. Reading Jack Kerouac as a teenager was a big eye-opener and got into a lot of my writing. I also love world music, and listen to a lot of artists from India especially.”
Noah continues writing, performing, and recording in an array of projects such as: The Noah Wotherspoon Band, Noah + the Rescue Radio (Noah’s indie rock project that has a new studio album, entitled “Sky Size Drive-IN,” set for release this year), collaborations w/ singer/songwriter Jessi Bair, amongst other side projects ie his instrumental psychedelic surf project “The Voggs”.
Since 2015, Noah has been involved with several channels of music education including his “Mobile Woodshed” video podcast series, where he delves into the lives and guitar stylings of his musical heroes. Wotherspoon has also conducted multiple guitar workshops around the globe and has most recently been a co-instructor alongside Johnny Burgin, Billy Flynn, Yoshimi Hirata and Aki Kumar at the Chicago Blues Guitar Workshop that takes place in Chicago during the blues fest for the last two years. Noah’s first pro-shot online blues guitar course “Blues Guitar Deep Dive” (presented by The Music Salon in Madeira, OH) is set for release this summer of 2026.
In May of 2026, Noah was inducted into the Southwestern Ohio Blues Hall of Fame. Most recently, Noah garnered an official endorsement with the legendary Maton Guitar company, based in Australia (est. 1946) and known for their handmade and high-quality instruments.
Outside of solely music, yet integrated - Noah has multiple serialized multi-media projects in the works ie. “The Visions of Eli” - an odyssey about a fictional non-licensed “rail taxi” driver in the 1930’s, as well as “Ishkabibble” - a multi-media epic set in the future that follows a work-a-day individual’s dive into his subconscious during a totalitarian city’s dream prohibition.
Like Walt Whitman, Wotherspoon indeed “contains multitudes”
- Contributing writer Khrys Blank