Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King
Blood Brothers
Alligator ALCD 4920
In Don O’s liner notes for this excellent album, Joe Kubek describes learning about the business of the blues from the late
AL "TNT" Braggs, whom he met in a South Dallas junkyard: "He really taught me to be a band leader, how to arrange a show, how
songs worked back to back, and the importance of varying tempos and timing".
Joe has carried that knowledge over into his recording career. Blood Brothers, which he produced with Alligator founder Bruce
Iglauer, is a masterpiece of sequencing. There’s plenty of hot guitar on barn-burners such as
"Freezer Burn" and "Cold Folks Boogie". but it’s never pointlessly virtuosic. The solo always serves the song.
And the guitar showcases are artfully interspersed
with tunes that are slower, more thoughtful and sometimes downright pretty.
Kubek and King, who have played together for two decades, wrote 13 of the 14 songs here, some with additional collaborators.
The exception is a nicely nasty version of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ "Stop Drinking". long a favorite of the band that Kubek calls
"a very dirty, lowdown slow blues". And so it is. Like all good covers, this version is true to the original without being an
imitation. Lots of good, nasty guitar here.
There’s good songwriting, on this CD, too. My favorite (so far) is "Coleman Avenue". Bnois King’s story of being
galvanized by the blues as a 13 year old in Monroe, Louisiana. "I can still hear the
sound", he sings. "It just keeps calling me.
Never got over the feeling. It’s in my soul, you see". Isn’t that every blues lover’s story?
As the two musicians seem to have discovered almost instantly when they started playing together, they fit together like a hand in
a glove. King’s playing and singing provide a smooth, soulful complement to his partner’s fiery but always tasteful playing. But
King’s voice can bite, too, when the song demands it.
This is one that gets better the more you listen to it. Can’t ask for more than that.
- Jay Brakefield -
Southwest Blues CD Review - March 2008
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