BLURTING WITH… Black Joe Lewis

By RANDY HARWARD
Maybe you were feelin' Sharon Jones-ed to death, full to edge of
puking on the glut of new or previously unheralded soul artists?
It wasn't just Jones and her Dap-Kings - there's Bettye LaVette,
the Dynamites, the Budos Band, Wiley and the Checkmates, Nicole
Willis, Keite Young, Ryan Shaw... the list is as interminable as
an opera. As good as they are, all crazes must come to an
end-bring on the new albums, but tone down the revival talk,
please. Make room for something else.

Then, of course, here comes Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears.
Their arrival was sudden - like the irresistible groove that
explodes from out of a Chuck Berry lick in the intro to
"Gunpowder" from the band's debut album Tell ‘Em What Your Name
Is! (Lost Highway) - and immediately welcome, despite how snugly
they fit the bitch-session paragraph above. It's because there's
something different about them, a rock n' roll sensibility that
gives their joyous, funky soul music one hell of a kick. That,
and a sense of humor that finds characters like "Cousin Randy"
wiggling into the tunes, and makes a line like, "Bitch, I love
you," both hilarious and romantic.

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