Topic: Dance Music
B.B. King observed that, as he became popular with white audiences "in the sixties they dropped the ‘rhythm’ and I became blues only. [. . .] But I can’t help wondering what happened to my ‘rhythm’? Did I lose it along the way? I think the original label still says it best. I still see myself as a rhythm and blues man." [1] As he said elsewhere, he "always liked two drummers. Still use two today. Can’t have too much rock-steady rhythm." [2]
As Thunderbird Davis’ version of "Come by Here" moved from the integrated Blacktop All Stars, who back him in 1989, [3] to the nearly all-white Joe Kubek band in 1992 to Tony Blew’s white one-man band in 2013, the rhythm became progressively rudimentary and the African-American singing style modified to fit tastes inherited from the Anglo-Scots reformation. [4]
Kubek had worked with Freddie King, whom B.B. described as a "monster player, another man related to me not by kin, by spirit." [5] Freddie died in 1976. Kubek’s band included Phil Campbell, who had play drums for Freddie, [6] and Bnois King, an African-American raised near Monroe, Louisiana. [7] His bass player, Greg Wright, had worked with Joe Ely [8] in Lubbock, Texas. [9]
Rhythm was one of the things Kubek altered. He didn’t eliminate it, but made the drums the only percussive instrument. After all, he and his band had spent years working in Texas bars where people didn’t listen, but as Ely’s manager remembered, "if they like you, they get up and dance." [10]
The Blacktop All Stars’ rhythm had merged the sounds of several men, besides the drummer. Davis contributed his voice as to the rhythmic texture. He lengthened the words that fell on the beats and shortened the others while the saxophone supplemented his singing.
Tony Blew simplified the rhythm even more when he performed Kubek’s version in Ottumwa, Iowa. He used a drum machine, and emphasized his guitar playing. He extended the solos and added some neck runs borrowed from rock. Like Wright, he was a second generation country bar musician. [11]
The other change Bnois made was the enunciation. As mentioned in the post for 15 April 2014, the religious Davis may not have been comfortable with some of the phrases. One time it sounded like he said "I need you in the most asking way." Bnois made that "I need you now in a special way." He probably knew the correct words because Ron Levy, who wrote the song with Davis, was the album’s producer. [12]
In another place, Davis may simply have forgotten the words. I couldn’t understand the first line of the third verse, and the second line was "I’ll clean house clean." Again, Bnois either knew the original text or created a rational one when he sang:
"Now you don’t have to worry
I keep the house real clean"
It didn’t matter if one couldn’t understand everything Davis said. The variations in his vocal tones communicated his message. Bnois didn’t begin singing blues until he was in his forties. He may have had a sanctified grandmother, but the years in he spent in places like Amarillo and Wichita Falls, Texas, [13] probably taught him that many of his fans had, to paraphrase the Presbyterian church, to understand what they were hearing. [14]
Bnois kept his voice in a lower register and only screamed a word once. That was during the repetition of the word "baby" toward the end when no one could miss the meaning. Blew sang, rather than spoke, used a guttural voice on one line, and tended to mumble the words that weren’t accented.
Performers
Kubek
Vocal Soloist: Bnois King
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Joe Kubek, electric guitar
Instrumental Accompaniment: Bnois King, rhythm guitar; Greg Wright, electric bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Phil Campbell, drums
Blew
Vocal Soloist: Tony Blew
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Tony Blew, electric guitar
Instrumental Accompaniment: Tony Blew, electric guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum machine
Credits
Kubek
Composers: James "Thunderbird" Davis and Ron Levy [15]
Blew
Original artists- R. Levy and J. Davis
Notes on Lyrics
Kubek
Same as version recorded by Thunderbird Davis with the following exceptions:
1. Bnois reversed the order of second and third verses
2. Bnois altered or corrected words and phrases that were unclear on Davis’ record
Blew
Same as Kubek
Notes on Music
Kubek
Same as version recorded by Thunderbird Davis with the following exceptions:
1. Fewer instruments, so Kubek’s guitar took over the role of the saxophone
2. Rhythm simplified
3. Instrumental break after every verse
Blew
Same as version recorded by Joe Kubek with the following exceptions:
1. Only one instrument, the electric guitar
2. Rhythm reduced to drum machine
3. Guitar solos borrowed virtuoso riffs from rock musicians
Notes on Performance
Kubek
Location: Ardent Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Blew
Occasion: unidentified concert
Location: the room looked like one in a club or community center. It had dark wainscoting and lace curtains at the windows. A local bartender said the version "sounds just like I recall from nights at the Red Lion Inn." [16]
Microphones: floor mike
Clothing: long-sleeved, dark shirt
Notes on Movement
Blew
Blew sat behind a small table and kept time by lifting his left heel.
Audience Perceptions
Kubek
Brian focused on Kubek’s rhythm on the album he made a year before Chain Smokin’. He wrote on Amazon:
"The rhythm section is superb, with Phil Campbell on drums, who shuffles like a dream, and so lid as a rock bass playing from Greg Wright. Bnois King's vocals surprised me at first - I thought they were pretty ‘un-bluesy’. However, after listening through the album they grew on me, and I now consider his voice to be one of the best I’ve ever heard on a blues album. His rhythm playing though, is what does it for me. Unbelievably tight, and unashamedly repetitive. Repetitiveness though, is what I believe it HAD to be in a 2 guitar situation. Due to the fact that Bnois keeps it simple, and Greg Wright and Phil Campbell just ‘sit’ on the groove, it leaves space for the monster that is.... Smokin’ Joe Kubek. Quite how this man can play the guitar the way he does with guage 13 strings, I’ll never know." [17]
Denis summarized Chain Smokin’ by saying: "It’s a great CD for grillin’ and having some beer and having some driving jams in the background." [18]
Blew
His audience, which could not be seen in the video, applauded at the end.
Notes on Performers
Freddie King mentored Kubek the same way Guitar Slim had Davis. The difference was Slim moved in the world settled before the Civil War where plantations used slave labor to grow sugar cane near the coast, and cotton inland. After World War I, both Houston and Thibodaux, Louisiana, became oil towns. [19]
Freddie played in Dallas and west Texas, which developed after the Civil War with cattle. When irrigation from the aquifer became practical, west Texas began growing cotton. After World War II, the air force located bases in towns like Abilene and Amarillo. Lubbock used Mexicans to pick its crops. [20]
Kubek was born in Grove City, Pennsylvania, [21] an industrial town in the coal country north of Pittsburgh. [22] His family moved to Irving, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth, when he was a child. [23] He told Don Brown he was impressed by the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan, [24] and began watching any guitar player on television. He was influenced by B.B. King, before he began working with Freddie [25] when he was nineteen. [26]
After Freddie died, Kubek played with other musicians, including Al Bragg, who had worked as a songwriter for Peacock Records. Kubek worked with him recording demos for Bobby Bland. [27]
He met Bnois King in 1989 in a Dallas club, and they started playing small bars in the area, then began playing more in west Texas. Bnois’s grandmother had sent him to the local Roman Catholic school, but moved away about the time he began playing guitar. [28]
Blew’s family lived in Iowa for generations. [29] As a teenager, he was singing for weddings with his brother in the local Roman Catholic church. [30] His first jobs were playing country music, and then he recorded jingles. He eventually became known in Ottumwa as a blues musician. [31]
Availability
Kubek
Album: Chain Smokin’ Texas Style. Bullseye Blues BB 9524. 1992.
Blew
YouTube: uploaded by tonyblew50 on 13 December 2013.
End Notes
1. B.B. King [Riley B. King]. Blues All Around Be. With David Ritz. New York: Avon Books, 1996. 231.
2. King. 171. The use of two drummers may explain why the individuals quoted in the post for 13 April 2018 weren’t sure who played drums on his recording of "Come by Here." It’s also possible King recorded with a different instrumental configuration than he used in live performances because studios and clubs have different acoustic requirements.
3. James "Thunderbird" Davis recording of "Come by Here" was described in the post for 15 April 2018.
4. For more on the influence of the Anglo-Scots Reformation, see the post for 23 August 2017.
5. King. 252.
6. Robert Baird. "Long Live the King. Smokin’ Joe Kubek Keeps His Mentor’s Flame Alive." Phoenix New Times website. 23 October 1991.
7. Don O. [Don Ottensman]. "Bnois King Interview." Blues and Rhythm 122:1997. Reprinted by Alan B. Govenar. Texas Blues. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. 147-152.
8. Joe Ely was then a country-rock performer. He was born in Amarillo, Texas, and moved to Lubbock when he was twelve-years-old. (William Ruhlmann. "Joe Ely." All Music website.)
9. Joe Ely. Quoted by "Gotta Lubbock." Texas Monthly. May 2000.
10. Johnny Hughes. Quoted by Texas Monthly.
11. Ely remembered, "When I got the first version of my band together, with Lloyd [Maines] and Jesse [Taylor], Steve Keeton and Gregg Wright and Rick Hulett, we were all talking, setting up at the Cotton Club. Everybody knew that everybody else’s daddy, except for mine, had played in bands, but they started talking, and by the end of the conversation, they realized that at one time, their daddies all played in the same band together." (Texas Monthly)
Tony Blew’s father "played guitar in many bands throughout his career including the Ponderosa Playboys which was an area backup band for Nashville stars and the Don Blew Trio and Don Blew Quartet with his two sons." Ottumwa was a regular stop on concert schedules for Nashville artists. (Obituary for Don Blew. Ottumwa Courier. 2 September 2013.)
12. All Music entry for album.
13. Don O.
14. During the English Civil War, Parliament instructed Scots to sing the psalms "with understanding." This emphasis on knowing what was being sung was part of the reaction against the Latin mass and the part singing that followed. (Scotland. Act of Parliament to establish The Directory for The Publick Worship of God. Edinburgh, 6 February 1645. Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics website.)
15. All Music, Chain Smokin’.
16. Mike W. Comment posted to YouTube. November 2017.
17. Brian. Comment posted 25 August 2000. Amazon page for Kubek’s Steppin’ Out Texas Style.
18. Denis. Comment posted 19 June 2010. Amazon page for Kubek’s Chain Smokin’.
19. Hannusch.
20. Texas Monthly.
21. Robert Philpot. "Smokin’ Joe Kubek, DFW Bluesman, Dies at 58." [Fort Worth] Star-Telegram. 12 October 2015.
22. "Grove City, PA History." Grove City Country Club website.
23. "Smokin’ Joe Kubek, Dallas Blues Guitar Great, Has Died at 58." Guitar Player website. 12 October 2015.
24. David Mac. "Joe Kubek (November 30, 1956 – October 11, 2015)." Blues Junction Productions website.
25. Don Brown Sr. "Blues Interview with Smokin’ Joe Kubek." Jazz Internet website.
26. Mac.
27. Mac. Bland was mentioned in the post for 15 April 2018.
28. Don O.
29. Entries for Tony Blew’s parents, grandparents and great-grandparents on Find a Grave website.
30. Item. Ottumwa Courier. 4 November 1974. 5.
31. "Tony Blew." Iowa Blues Hall of Fame website.
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