Indian Blues Bands: 6 Acts From Soulmate to Big Bang Blues

The best-known Indian blues bands are Soulmate from Shillong, led by singer Tipriti Kharbangar and guitarist Rudy Wallang, and Blackstratblues, guitarist Warren Mendonsa's long-running project. They are followed by a newer generation that includes Kolkata's Arinjoy Trio, Delhi's Big Bang Blues and The Karan Mahajan Band, all winners of the Mahindra Blues Band Hunt. Indian blues is a small but devoted scene. Its capital is the Mahindra Blues Festival at Mumbai's Mehboob Studio, and its spiritual home is Shillong, a hill town with a long love of American roots music.

This guide profiles the essential Indian blues bands and artists with sourced facts. It also explains where to hear them live and suggests a starter playlist.

How the blues took root in India

Blues has a specific but devoted following in India, as the music writer Narendra Kusnur put it in The Hindu in 2023. Much of that devotion goes back to the Northeast. Shillong's live culture of rock, country and blues produced Lou Majaw, who discovered Bob Dylan in 1964 and has run an annual Dylan tribute concert in his hometown since 1972, and later Soulmate. Our guide to the Shillong music scene explains why the city punches so far above its size.

The second turning point came in 2011, when the Mahindra Blues Festival launched at Mehboob Studio in Bandra, Mumbai, with Chicago legend Buddy Guy as headliner. Guy has since headlined several editions, including the 10th anniversary in 2020. The festival has also brought John Mayall, Taj Mahal, Jimmie Vaughan, Charlie Musselwhite, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Beth Hart and Joss Stone to India. In 2015 it started the Mahindra Blues Band Hunt, a competition whose winners play the festival's Garden Stage. That contest has become the main way new Indian blues bands get noticed.

The essential Indian blues bands and artists

1. Soulmate

Soulmate came together in Shillong in February 2003 and played its first concert at the Roots Festival at Umiam that year. The band is built around Tipriti 'Tips' Kharbangar on vocals and rhythm guitar and Rudy Wallang on vocals and lead guitar, with session players on tour. Wikipedia calls Tipriti one of the finest female singers to have emerged from the Northeast and Wallang one of India's most respected blues guitarists.

Soulmate was the only blues band to represent India at the 23rd International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2007, and returned in 2010, reaching the semi-finals. It has played the Jazzmandu festival in Kathmandu, the Jakarta Blues Festival, the Kennedy Center's Maximum India festival in Washington DC, and the Mahindra Blues Festival from 2011 to 2014. It also opened for Carlos Santana in Delhi in 2012. At the festival one of the two enclosures, the Soulstrat Salon, is named after Soulmate and Blackstratblues. In 2009 Tipriti won best female vocalist and Wallang won best guitar player at the Jack Daniel's Rock Awards.

• Albums: Shillong (2004), Moving On (2009), Ten Stories Up (2014)
• Start with: Set Me Free, Shillong

2. Blackstratblues

Blackstratblues is the musical project of Warren Mendonsa, the Mumbai-raised guitarist who co-founded the rock band Zero in 1998 and moved to Auckland, New Zealand, in late 2004. He released his debut, Nights in Shining Karma, in April 2007. The project has since grown from solo recordings into a group, all self-released. Its catalogue runs from The New Album (2009) and The Universe Has a Strange Sense of Humour (2015) to Artificial Integrity (2026), plus the live albums L.I/O.V.E. Vol. I (2022) and Vol. II (2023). Mendonsa is the nephew of composer Loy Mendonsa of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, who has judged the Mahindra Blues Band Hunt.

• Start with: The Universe Has a Strange Sense of Humour (2015)
• Latest album: Artificial Integrity (2026)

3. The Arinjoy Trio

The Arinjoy Trio from Kolkata, led by guitarist and singer Arinjoy Sarkar with Sounak Roy on drums and Aakash Ganguly on bass, won the 2018 Mahindra Blues Band Hunt. Judge Ehsaan Noorani said Sarkar could play a blues festival anywhere in the world. In the final the trio played Elmore James's The Sky Is Crying, Albert Collins's Honey Hush and an original, Cold Cold Cold. They returned to the festival's main line-up in 2023, when Sarkar told The Hindu he had never seen a more receptive audience.

• Start with: Cold Cold Cold, Late Night Secrets

4. Big Bang Blues

Big Bang Blues formed in Delhi in 2009 as a blues-rock covers band, playing Hoochie Coochie Man, Pride and Joy, Chuck Berry and Led Zeppelin, before moving to original songs. It won the 2024 Mahindra Blues Band Hunt with Jobless Blues, a pandemic-era song about losing work. The current five-piece is founder and guitarist Sushant Thakur, singer Diyatom Deb, bassist Archit Agrawal, drummer Naman Dutta and keyboard player Shivam Khare. Thakur told the Times of India the band works in subtle Indian tones learned from Kishore Kumar and R. D. Burman. Their instrumental Haisha is about fishermen caught in a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal.

• Start with: Jobless Blues, Moonless Nights, Haisha

5. The Karan Mahajan Band

Guitarist Karan Mahajan's band won the 2023 Mahindra Blues Band Hunt and played a special set at that year's festival. The line-up named by The Hindu is Gurpreet Kaur on vocals, Mahajan on guitar, Ravali Komanapally on keys, Tanisha Bhatnagar on bass and Siddharth Jain on drums. It is a rare Indian blues band with a woman fronting it and women in the rhythm section.

• Known for: winning the 2023 Mahindra Blues Band Hunt

6. Lou Majaw

Strictly a folk-rock and Dylan interpreter rather than a blues player, Lou Majaw belongs here as the godfather of Shillong's roots-music culture. Born in 1947, he taught himself guitar after hearing Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, and sang in Kolkata bar bands such as the Dynamite Boys and Supersound Factory. His Dylan birthday concerts have run every year since 1972. In 2023 a documentary about his life, The Platinum Gong, was released.

• Known for: the annual Bob Dylan tribute concert in Shillong since 1972

More Indian blues names to know

The Hindu's survey of the scene adds the Saturday Night Blues Band and Overdrive Trio, both festival regulars, and points to young players such as harmonica player Rohan Singhal and guitarist Amithav Gautam. Past Band Hunt finalists include Bengaluru's The Mojo Hand, a band with Chicago and Delta influences, Mumbai's White Vinyl and The John Blue Ensemble from Siliguri. The Mahindra organisers told The Hindu that more than 100 blues acts have entered the Band Hunt.

Fans of the blues often cross over into jazz venues and lineups, so our guide to Indian jazz musicians is a useful companion.

Where to hear Indian blues live

The Mahindra Blues Festival is held at Mehboob Studio in Mumbai, usually over a weekend in February. Its stages include the Polka Dot Parlour, named after Buddy Guy's polka-dot guitar and shirts, the Soulstrat Salon and a Garden Stage for Band Hunt winners. Mumbai's NCPA has hosted a Soulful Blues series, and the Shillong Blues and Jazz Festival and the Kasauli Rhythm and Blues Festival have booked blues acts. Big Bang Blues are regulars at The Piano Man in Delhi, and the Arinjoy Trio has played the club's Gurugram venue. Rudy Wallang has said the main challenge is a shortage of dedicated venues. For dates across genres, see our music festivals in India 2026 calendar.

A starter Indian blues playlist

1. Set Me Free by Soulmate
2. Shillong by Soulmate
3. Cold Cold Cold by The Arinjoy Trio
4. Jobless Blues by Big Bang Blues
5. Moonless Nights by Big Bang Blues
6. Late Night Secrets by The Arinjoy Trio

FAQ

Which is the best blues band in India?

Soulmate from Shillong is widely regarded as India's leading blues band. It was the only blues band to represent India at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2007.

Who is the best blues guitarist in India?

Soulmate's Rudy Wallang is often called one of India's most respected blues guitarists. Warren Mendonsa of Blackstratblues and Arinjoy Sarkar of The Arinjoy Trio are also highly rated.

Is there a blues festival in India?

Yes. The Mahindra Blues Festival has been held at Mehboob Studio in Mumbai, usually in February, since 2011, with headliners such as Buddy Guy, John Mayall and Taj Mahal.

Which Indian city is known for blues music?

Shillong in Meghalaya is the city most associated with Indian blues. It is home to Soulmate and Lou Majaw's annual Bob Dylan tribute concert.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Soulmate (band)
• Wikipedia: Blackstratblues
• Wikipedia: Mahindra Blues Festival
• Wikipedia: Lou Majaw
• The Hindu: How musicians and listeners in the country are going big on Blues
• Times of India: Kolkata band hits the right note, wins Mahindra Blues Band Hunt
• Times of India: Delhi band's big bang takeover of blues fest stage

Cover photo: Vivek Gupta / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).