Blues, rock duo is electric

By John Benson

Blues guitarist Joe Kubek is an optimistic pragmatist.

Even though deep down he knows the odds are against him releasing a platinum mainstream CD, that doesn’t mean he can’t try with his latest Smokin’ Joe Kubek Band album alongside vocalist Bnois King called “Blood Brothers.”

“It’s high energy and lots of music back to back,” Kubek said. “This charted a couple of times on Billboard, which is good. And it’s more of a commercial type blues-rock album than we’ve done in the past. It’s more song-oriented, although there are a lot of electric guitars. Actually, there are some tunes that branch out a bit. We wrote ‘Must be Karma’ in the vein of Sam Cooke, and we have some rock stuff like ‘My Dog’s Still Walkin’ on there that’s in between R&B and [Jimi] Hendrix. It kind of swings a bunch of different ways, but it’s still us. It’s just stuff we felt like doing. When you start writing songs, that’s just how they come out — bits and pieces you’ve accumulated through the years. If you listen to the song ‘Stop Drinking,’ it’s Lightnin’ Hopkins. It’s a slow, blues tune. That’s one we’re real proud of. It’s real dirty, real nasty.”

The Smokin’ Joe Kubek Band formed 20 years ago when Kubek and King hooked up at a Dallas jam session. Quickly, the duo realized the intoxicating power of the guitarist’s fiery sound when combined with the singer’s soulful vocals. Coining their style as the Lone Star blues-rock sound, the twosome averages 150 dates a year with numerous albums to their credit.

For Kubek, the stage has been all he’s known since the early ’80s, when he first started working with R&B singer Al “TNT” Braggs. It was during this time that the guitarist and Grove City, Pa.-native first met Stevie Ray Vaughan. The two would have a long friendship that ended with Vaughan’s 1990 death. So where does Kubek think Vaughan would be if he had survived the horrific helicopter crash?

“Oh, he’d probably be at the top of his game and up there with like Eric Clapton,” Kubek said. “There’s no telling. Oh, we lost a lot. He opened up the doors for people who had been doing this for a long time. For example, more people have heard him do ‘The Sky is Crying’ than they’ve heard Elmore James do it. Yeah, he opened up a lot of doors.”

Kubek said he’s looking forward to making his Youngstown debut Friday at The Dash Inn. In fact, he has a message for Northeast Ohioans looking to spend an evening forgetting their troubles and enjoying some top-notch blues music.

“If they like guitar, they’ll love us,” Kubek said. “They should come out because they’re going to regret it if they didn’t. They’re going to have the greatest time of their lives. They’re going to walk away saying, ‘Man, I had a blast.’ So tell them to call the baby sitter ahead of time and call in sick the next day for work.”