Last modified at 12:40 a.m.
on Friday, November 8, 2002
By Mike Bockoven
Take, for example, Kubek's treatment of longtime collaborator Bnois King on
the upcoming album "Roadhouse Research." On the first track, Kubek
took King's vocals, fed them through a 1940s RCA microphone, and fed that
through an amplifier to create a sound akin to "singing in a cramped bar
with no amps."
"It sounded like he gained 300 pounds," Kubek said. "It
sounded like Howlin' Wolf on Steroids. It just came out so fat, I'm happy with
what we ended up with."
Kubek has been on the blues scene a long time and has released eight albums
worth of original music. At 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Kubek and crew, featuring
Bnois King, will perform at Gibby's Sports Bar and the Ilanda Ball Room in
Grand Island.
"Roadhouse Research," which hits stores Feb. 4, is the first time
Kubek has ever served as his own producer, however, and the artist known for
his fast-firing fretboard work said being an artist has helped him discern
what people want to hear on a smokin' blues album.
"I like to give the fans live what they hear on the record," he
said. "We've been down several avenues where we dub some stuff in, but
that's not what we tour like. Basically, I'm trying to capture a good quality
of what we do and who we really are."
Being a blues man also means being on the road quite a bit, and Kubek is no
exception. He played Gibby's in May of 2000 and headlined the Hope Blues
Festival in St. Libory some years ago.
But being in the Midwest, the East Coast or the West Coast doesn't much
matter, he said. What does matter is he's playing in front of people who
appreciate blues, and will get into what it is he's doing.
"Some clubs are big, some clubs people are right on top of you, but
neither one really bothers me," he said. "We keep it simple, we keep
it up on stage and we keep the music coming. That's what we do."
Paul Jamson, one of the organizers of the event, said when Kubek appeared
in Grand Island last, around 400 people showed up to hear him. He's hoping the
interest continues to be high for the nationally known artist this time
around.
"The people who appreciated it before, we're hoping they show
up," Jamson said. "That's the idea, anyway. We like to have big
crowds when we bring a big act to town."
However many people show up, Kubek said the show, the style and the music
are pretty much the same; it's the blues.
"What we do is more on the raw side. It doesn't have a lot of horns or
anything like that," he said. "It's just the blues. The blues is
what we do. A lot of this stuff changes, but with us, you know what you're
going to get and that's the blues."
Smokin' Joe Kubek, featuring Bnois King, will perform beginning at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Gibby's Pool Hall and the Ilanda Ball Room, 4th and Eddy in Grand Island. Tickets are $10 at the door and advance tickets are available at Gibby's Pool Hall. For more information, call 384-7972.