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 Somewhere near the crossroads of James Brown, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Wilson Pickett you’ll find a young guitarist/soul shouter named Black Joe Lewis. Together with his band, the Honeybears, Lewis colors his foot-stompin’ R&B with a wall of horns, earthy organ and enough flat-out raunch to get his stream-of-consciousness songs an “R” rating — it’s throwback R&B, the kind they serve with a double shot of cheap whiskey in the back room at some out-of-the-way house party.
Growing up a stone’s throw from Austin in Round Rock, Texas, Lewis was into football rather than music. But a fortuitous secondhand guitar, borrowed from the pawn shop where he worked, turned Lewis’ world on its ear. Soon, he was playing open mic nights around Austin and learning the soul and blues music to which his father and uncles listened.
By his mid-20s Lewis had a backing band, but he wasn’t feeling it so he contemplated calling the whole thing off until someone from the University of Texas approached him about opening up for Little Richard at a campus show. That someone, Zach Ernst, was not only a fan of Lewis he was also a guitar player; he eventually put a new band together for Lewis. By 2007 Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears had self-released their debut. Along the way the band toured with Okkervil River and Spoon, and they turned heads with performances at Lollapalooza, South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits Festival.
In 2009, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears issued the full-length Tell ’Em What Your Name Is! Produced by Spoon drummer Jim Eno, the release quickly became a Top-5 blues album.
Provenance: Austin, Texas
Latest Release: Tell ’Em What Your Name Is! (2009)
© 2009 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.
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