Hear an interview with Bobby Jones and music from his new CD Comin’ Back Hard.
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Bobby Jones was born in 1940 in Louisiana where he grew up on a farm. As he grew up he worked long hard hours in the cotton fields. In order to get away from the farm he joined the U.S. Army, but when his time of service was over he was back in the same place.
Bobby’s dad and uncles’ lived in Chicago, so Bobby moved there. Bobby start winning talent shows by singing at a small clubs. This led to him doing shows at legendary places like Pepper’s Lounge, Theresa’s, and Trocadero where people like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Junior Wells, and Buddy Guy hung out. Pepper’s Lounge is where he met the Aces who had been led by Little Walter then by Junior Wells. Junior was missing shows because he had a big hit out at the time called “Missing With The Kid.” Bobby Jones was asked to join the Aces, which led to the Aces playing in better and better clubs.

In the mid-sixty, Bobby got into a band called Chicago Blues Union. This band had a young Harvey Mandel, Barry Goldberg, Charlie Musselwhite and Mike Bloomfield. Today that would be a extremely all-star band. Only one record was made, but they did a fair amount of concerts. They played in the Catskill Mountains as an opening act for people like Johnny Carson, Jerry Lewis, and Red Foxx. Man, now that’s what I call an opening act. Forget the headliners, just let the Chicago Blues Union play. Later Bobby made some solo records, that he produced himself. Then he started to drift away from the music business for a few years.

In 2007, the Mannish Boys were working on their Big Plans CD. Pianist Leon Blue brought Bobby Jones to the session. After hours of working on the CD there was a brake and Leon introduced Bobby to the band members. Leon explained that Bobby was a gifted singer and they should listen to him. To say they liked his singing would be an understatement. They already had two fine singers but they asked Bobby to join the band on the spot. Remember this isn’t some bar band it’s the Mannish Boys they are one of the top blues bands out there today. They chose Bobby Jones to join them.

Now you’ve being chosen to hear Bobby Jones’ new CD Comin’ Back Hard. This is a man that has years of experience playing with some of the most gifted artists around. This is his first solo record in many years and he has everyone from the Mannish Boys as his back up band. You will get to hear the driving sound of the Willie Dixon’s song “Two Headed Woman”. You’d swear B.B. King was singing “She’s the One.” Nope, it’s Bobby. That lead guitar must be B.B. King, nope it’s Kirk “Eli” Fletcher. Then you have “Get It Over Baby.” In it Bobby sings, “I know you don’t love me no more.” You would think this would be a sad song, but it’s up beat and fun. You can’t help but think that Bobby has a big smile on his face as he sings this song. He’s just having a great time doing what he likes best, singing. Comin’ Back Hard ends with the Ike Turner song “How Long Will It Last.” Bobby sounds like a man half his age, with a very strong voice filled with emotion. Kid Ramo’s lead guitar playing is outstanding on this, too. Even though this is a Bobby Jones record I could listen to this just to hear the band. They are incredible. This is Bobby Jones first solo record for Delta Groove Productions, and he hit a home run. Below is a link to buy Bobby Jones Comin’ Back Hard from Delta Groove Productions, you’ll love it.

Songs in the show are:
Get It Over Baby
She’s The One
Two Headed Woman
How Long Will It Last
I Must Be Crazy

Bobby Jones Website

Buy Bobby Jones CD from Delta Groove Productions

Check out other great blues artists at Delta Groove Productions

Thanks to Bobby Jones for the taking time to do the interview.
Thanks to Jody Best for all her help over at Delta Groove Music.

Buy Bobby Jones Cd’s from Amazon.Com

Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
formerly A1 Artist Spotlight. Com
by A1 Mark

Hear the David Maxwell interview and music from his CD Max Attack.

2009 Blues Music Awards nominated David Maxwell for The Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Award.

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David started listening to classical music when he was young, because of this it lead him to begin playing piano. Later in high school he started learning about jazz and popular music, while continuing on with classical music. David would be involved with different jam sessions with friends from school. One of the friends was a trombone player who later would become the leader of Canned Heat, Alan Wilson. Like Alan, David was getting interested in the blues. Hearing Muddy Waters, Skip James, Son House, and Howlin’ Wolf, among others, got him interested in the blues. David also made it clear that they also would listen to Jazz, abstract music, and India music because they were very open minded to most any kind of music. After hearing Muddy Waters with Otis Spann in concert, that pretty much got David hooked on the blues.

From the late 60’s on, he worked around Boston with artists like Bob Margolin, who he was in a band with. When artists like Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Rogers, or John Lee Hooker came to town he’d back them. He even worked in Freddie King’s band for about a year and a half. David continued to play around town with a lot of different artist, as well as touring with some. He spent a few years playing with Otis Rush, and that took him to Europe and Japan. David played on James Cotton’s 1997 Grammy-Winning Record Deep in the Blues. Plus he was in a trio with James Cotton that toured for three or four years.

David Maxwell’s current CD is called Max Attack it’s a piano based combination of upbeat blues as well as jazz blues. The songs have an old time feel to them with a sophisticated sound. David’s piano playing reminds me of what it must have been like to walk into an old time bar with a piano player going to town on those keys. The band is out of sight, as you would expect with featuring artists like Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, and Kim Wilson among others. When you combined David’s amazing piano playing with this band’s amazing sound you will always have something that wows you. “What’s the Use of a Broken Heart” has Liane Carroll singing a duet with David that is just so beautiful. “Twisted Tendons” is fun all out boogie-woogie that really gives you a chance to hear what David is able to do on the piano. “Moving Out of His World” is a real show stopper. The atmosphere the band creates is amazing, then when you have Ronnie Earl and Duke Robillard playing off of each other it just takes it to another level. David Maxwell writes the all songs, and sings on most of them, plus there are three instrumentals. David has some humorous lyrics in some of the songs that keep you entertained. Not like you need that with such great music going on, but it is one more thing that makes this a superb record.

The songs in the podcast are:
Moving Out of His World
What’s the Use of a Broken Heart
Thanks for All the Women
Handyman

David Maxwell’s Website

David Maxwell’s MySpace

Buy David Maxwell’s Max Attack at CD Baby Website

Buy David Maxwell’s Maximum Blues Piano at CD Baby Website

I would like to thank David Maxwell for taking the time to be on this show.

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Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
formerly A1 Artist Spotlight. Com
by A1 Mark

Hear the interview with Paul Mark and music from his CD Blood and Treasure.
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What would you get if you mixed a little bit of William Shakespeare, or maybe Douglas Adams, with a little of Bob Dylan, and a nice helping of Groucho Marx? You just might get Paul Mark a man who’s got a lot of things to say. Paul has the best consecutive lyrics for an entire CD of any one I have heard since… well, when was the last really great lyrical record? What is so cool is the lyrics have an over all truth but to get to it you have to go through some pretty amusing stories. A good example is the first song, “Everything is Nothing.” Paul explains how everything in the world seems unimpressive next to the girl he is in love with.
“The Redwood forest, that’s just a patch of sticks
The Taj Mahal that’s nothing but a stack of bricks
And today’s headlines sure sound like old news
Everything is nothing after you”

Then there is the song “Feed the Machine” where Paul says
“My tin-eared neighbor knocked on my door
And said my guitar playing was a crime
I asked him were does a fool
Learn to talk like he’s cool?
He said I read it in the New York Times”

Now I know these may sound a little less impressive with out the music but when the music is there it’s magic. The music of Paul Mark & the Van Dorens is pretty much an American roots sound. A fifties rock, with some country, a little blues, and their own unique blending of styles. I know this is a blues show, but I hope you are open minded enough to listen to other kinds of music if they are really good. Paul Mark & the Van Dorens are one of those other great bands. You’ll hear a song in the show called “Wrong Pair of Shoes,” about how he will do all these incredible things for a girl but right now he can’t do this because he has the “Wrong Pair of Shoes” on. If you listen closely in one part you will hear the theme song to The Flintstones. On the song “Extraordinary Measures,” he accompanies his piano playing with a mournful voice. He explains
“Extraordinary times mean extraordinary measures
Morning coffee is stirred with blood and treasure
We’ll claim to see diamonds in a handful of dirt
And keep light from all our dreams”

I wish there was time to tell you about all their songs. Everything about the CD Blood and Treasure; the music, the lyrics, and the artwork. Everything is good. In the credits he lists the record label he started as Radiation Records. Their slogan is “Confusing Music With Something Bigger.” The publishing company is Last Warning Music. This is the kind of stuff you use to find in a George Harrison record. If you took the time to read what was there you were rewarded.

Please go by Paul Mark & the Van Dorens’ Website and buy Blood and Treasure. When ever you have a bad day just play Blood and Treasure. Your problems won’t go away but you will feel much better.

One last lyric to leave you with from “I’m Still High”
“Woke up this morning
And brushed my teeth with Ben Guy
Splashed down my half-shaved face with Listerine
Lost ten minutes in the driveway cussing out Henry Ford
Trying to start the car with my front door key

Took out that patch of Mrs. Whatsername’s roses
Dodging a devil squirrel that took me by surprise
The police keep asking’
How come you ran them red lights?
Pardon me, sir, I’m still high”

For more, buy Blood and Treasure and have a great time.

Songs used in the show are:
Everything is Nothing
Don’t Get Me Started
Lotta Things To Say
Feed The Machine
I’m Still High
Wrong Pair of Shoes

Paul Mark & the Van Dorens’ Website

Paul Mark & the Van Dorens’ MySpace

Buy their CD’s from their website

Buy Blood & Treasure (2008) from the CD Baby Website

Buy Trick Fiction (2006) from the CD Baby Website

Buy IndigoVertigo (2002) from the CD Baby Website

Buy Disposable Soul (1997) from the CD Baby Website

Buy Metropolitan Swamp (1994) from the CD Baby Website

Buy Go Big or Go Home (1991) from the CD Baby Website

Buy Paul Mark’s Roadside Americana (1999) from the CD Baby Website
This is all-acoustic guitar with no-vocals.

Thanks to Paul Mark for not only making a really fun record but also taking the time to do a really fun interview.
A1 Mark
A1Blues.Com
Blues Music and Interviews

This week you will get to hear an interview with Cash Box Kings’ Joe Nosek and songs from their CD The Royal Treatment.
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As Joe will explain in the show, Cash Box Kings are a band that pays tribute to the blues sounds of the nineteen-forties and fifties. Bands like Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Walter Horton and Muddy Waters. Muddy Waters’ band has an extra closeness, because Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, the drummer for Cash Box Kings, is the son of legendary Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Willie as you know was the drummer for the Muddy Waters band in the late sixties and through out all of the seventies. When Joe Nosek first met Kenny Smith, he wanted to put together an old school blues band. Kenny said he would like that too, because most of the artists he was playing drums for were in their seventies or eighties. As luck would have it Joe finally did meet more younger blues artist that had the same kind of vision as Joe and Willie. While it is always exciting to see the old timers that are still around like Hubert Sumlin, Byther Smith, Magic Slim, and Big George Brock. They have been around a long time and just don’t have the strength or energy to put on the kind of show they did when they were much younger. The Cash Box Kings are young guys giving it all they’ve got, just like the originals did when they were starting out. Joe does whatever it takes to get his audience up and having a great time. Whether it’s sliding across the stage, dancing on the bar top, or just laying down great harp.

Cash Box Kings current CD The Royal Treatment sounds so much like a blues record of the fifties that if you didn’t know better you would swear they were some lost band from Chess and Sun Records. Out of the fifteen songs on this record, Joe or Travis Koopman (lead guitar & some vocals) wrote eight of them. Some of the other songs are Elmore James’ “Please Set A Date”, Sonny Boy Williamson I “My Little Machine”, Muddy Waters’s “Gypsy Woman”, Little Walter’s “Can’t Hold Out Much Longer”, and the classic Big Bill Broonzy song “Baby Please Don’t Go”. The songs, whether originals or covers, all fit together really well. At one point they do a Little Walter song and then go into a very beautiful original ,“Lou & Roxie’s Rhumba”, that features Joe’s harp playing. You would have thought Little Walter had picked these two songs to go together. If you’re ready for some old time stripped down raw blues, Cash Box Kings record The Royal Treatment is just what you want to pick up. Below is a link to where you can pick up this Cd as well as their other CD’s Black Night Fallin’ and Live! At The King Club.

Songs played in the show:
Don’t Go Drinkin’
Why Did I Start?
Lou & Roxie’s Rhumba
Gimmie Some of That
Life Is Tough

Cash Box Kings CD’s are all available at CD Baby Website

Cash Box Kings’ Website

Cash Box Kings’ MySpace

Buy Cash Box Kings’ CD The Royal Treatment from the CD Baby’s Website

Buy Cash Box Kings’ CD Black Night Fallin’ fromthe CD Baby’s Website

Buy Cash Box Kings’ CD Live! At The King Club from the CD Baby’s Website

I would like to thank Joe Nosek for taking the time to do this interview, enjoy the show.

This was made by A1 Mark for A1Blues.Com