Big Al and the Heavyweights began their musical journey in 1996 as the “Unknown Blues Band”. Founding members included Warren Haynes, who went on to become a driving force with the Allman Bros and later founded Gov't Mule, Rick Gerken of Sweethearts of the Rodeo and of course, Big Al. The band has recorded five CD's of original material. Each of the CD's have had songs featured as “Blues Breakers of the Week”, on original Blues Brother, Dan Aykroyd's House of Blues Radio Show. The band’s prolific songwriters have had their tunes recorded by many other artists. These would include Grammy award winning blues artist and winner of the Albert King award, the late Michael Burks’s "Make It Rain", Blues legend, the late great Earl Gaines’s "Why Can't We Be Alone", Johnny Jones and Charles "Mr Dynamite" Walker's, "Wrestlin’ with The Blues" and Zydeco kingpin, CJ Chenier's, "Eat More Crawfish".