The Set Up Kings

New Orleans, Louisiana’s The Set Up Kings are bringing an upbeat party vibe with jump, swing, Chicago, soul, and funk grooves, all wrapped up in a “  big blues party.”

Fronted by the powerful harmonica and vocals of Mark Appleford, this 4 piece New Orleans based band also includes guitar slinger Tony DeFelice and the seriously seasoned rhythm section of Dr. Jack Carter on bass and Willie Panker on drums.

We have our second CD out, Live On Frenchmen St, and are actively playing live in and around New Orleans…
We’d love to see you at a show!

Mark Appleford was born on Thanksgiving Day 1971 in Detroit, the youngest of six children in a very musical household. One sister played piano and one played guitar and everybody sang. After performing in musicals and plays in grade school, he joined his first rock & roll band in high school. While working on a Philosophy degree at The University Of Georgia, Appleford developed a taste for blues & folk music and began playing guitar and harmonica “in the rack” (in the style of Bob Dylan, John Mayall, Neil Young, etc.) and also began collecting lyrics for future original songs.

In 1994, Appleford moved to Knoxville, Tennessee and hooked up with an electric Blues/R&B/Soul band with horns called Slow Blind Hill. The influences of Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, Little Walter, Charlie Musselwhite, etc. continued to shape his harmonica sound and vocals. Two albums with Slow Blind Hill (a studio album and a live album) and two albums of Americana music with Adlin & Appleford were released. Mark opened shows for David Bromberg and Roomful of Blues during this time, even playing with a band inside the U.S. Pentagon(!). Then in 2003, Appleford released his first solo album and followed this with 4 more albums over the years, the most recent being 2017’s “Voodoo”. 

Having moved to New Orleans in 2014, Appleford began sitting in with blues bands in the French Quarter while also playing solo acoustic shows. He played originals and covers in groups The One Tailed Three and The Mojo Shakers before answering the call to join The Set Up Kings in the fall of 2016. The Set Up Kings have released two CDs so far (a studio recording and a live recording) and are currently working on original tunes for their 3rd album, to be released in 2022.

Tony DeFelice grew up in NY State where he learned piano and guitar at an early age.

He continued playing guitar through out high school in local cover bands.

He then headed out to California and played with numerous original rock and roots music bands including Life’s Comedy and King For a Day, playing clubs throughout Los Angeles and Orange County CA.

After a long hiatus he started performing again in 2013 in his then current home town of New Orleans, LA.  He spent 3.5yrs in the James Jordan Beautiful Band  – 4+ horn section, James on acoustic upright piano and Tony on guitar – playing late 50’s and early 60’s New Orleans R&B ala Dave Bartholomew and Champion Jack Dupree…

It was in California where Tony was exposed to the powerful harmonica fronted blues bands, playing big band style tunes with amped up harmonicas blazing the way.  Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, William Clarke, Johnny Dyer, James Harmon and many others light a fire with the upbeat jump swing beats and blues guitar lines that dip ever so slightly into bebop and elsewhere.

In November of 2016, Tony put together The Set Up Kings.

It was his opportunity to put together the different styles of music that he loved, and do it with a group of top notch musicians.

Some of the artists Tony has performed with include Walter Wolfman Washington, Robert Mache, Ronnie Gomez, Bob “Pacemaker” Newham, Stan Ruffo, Jeremy Kelley, and others.

His journey has only just begun…

I was born at Harris Hospital in Ft. Worth on a stormy night, June 26, 1948…..Ha!

There were so many great players in Texas’ blues and boogie scene when I came up, that I was always in good bands, starting in ’63.  Many of those guys were not well known outside of the Southwest, but here are some of the famous ones.

Delbert McClinton (two different bands – the house band at the Silver Slipper club, where Delbo played piano and harp, backing up Sony and Carole (Bonnie and Delaney clones) and later my band, Stray Dog, was his back up band, and recorded his first album length session, with what are still some of his best compositions.

1. Z. Hill – Played with him for 6 months at the Black Cat club in Dallas – great guy; we became friends – lots of stories.

Sony Terry – one gig at Tootsies; played upright and he loved the house band and was great – voice and harp.

Mose Allison – One gig, New Year’s Eve, 1983 at The Hop – he was tre cool – I became his driver in Ft. Worth – took him to our big public park to jog – quite the health nut, and as hip as his tunes.

Doyle Bramhall (Sr.) and Robin Syler. – Several months with D.B. and Robin, easily one of the best hot blues bands ever – Doyle was one of the best on drums and vocals ever, and the same for Robin on guitar.

Rocky Hill – Well known in Texas- Dusty’s brother, and played blues guitar on the rock side; great singer, and was buddies with Johnny Winter so I got to play with him when he sat in.

Lots of other great unsung heros like Roscoe Harvey (Texas tenor, harp, vocals deluxe- way too long a list.

In New Orleans, starting in ’86:  lots of blues, R&B and jazz bands – including notables Marc Adams, Joe Crown, John Fohl, Freddy Staley, Frankie Ford………….. now bassist emeritus in New Orleans.

Willie Panker grew up in Chicago, where he began studying drums at the age of 10 and playing professionally at 14. He developed a strong interest in jazz and blues while studying under Muddy Waters’ and Little Walters’ drummer, Fred Below. He eventually was sent by Below to Roy Knapp, a world-renowned percussion and music theory educator, to continue his studies. Willie became involved in the Blues scene gigging with James Cotton, Junior Wells, Jimmy Rogers and the like.

Upon moving to New Orleans in the 80’s, Willie became a sought-after sideman, drumming for Earl King, Allen Toussaint and Snooks Eaglin, and eventually forming his own group, The Iguanas . Some of the artists he has played with are John Mooney, Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington, Ronnie Earl, Kim Wilson, Mitch Woods, Fingers Taylor, James Harmon, Anson Funderburg, Gary Primich, Mark Hummel, Jumping Johnny Sansone, and more.

Willie has traveled the world over and performed at festivals, concerts and shows in every juke-joint from California to Miami.