Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King
Show Me The Money
(Blind Pig 5090)

The sightless sow company strikes again with this hardcore, foot stomping, gut wrenching, hard grinding blues extravaganza from the Kubek and King. 12 tracks of all original work. These guys are hard working! I was blown away by their last CD and am equally impressed with the follow up. Smokin' Joe Kubek on electric, acoustic and slide guitar, Hammond B3 organ and electric bass. Bnois King on vocals and electric guitar. Paul Jenkins on bass, Ralph Power on drums and some dude named Anson Funderburgh playing guest guitar on one of the tracks. As I've said before, actually back in February, the thing that really makes me stand up and holler like a Republican at a Michael Moore film, is the out of sight guitar dialog between these two powerhouse performers. The give and take musically is awesome. The two men seem to have this uncanny ability to play off of each other to maximum effect. They have this magnificent intensity to their projects, a real raw edge: almost like being at a live show minus the bar tab.

Couple that with some wicked songs and you have a lethal combination of elements. Check out "She Can Smell Another Woman" or "Let's Stop Pretending" for some fine examples of the aforementioned guitar attacks. "Invitation Only" is the Funderburgh contribution to the CD and it's a honey. "Armadillo Blues" is another smoking (I guess it should be smokin') tune that really cuts the rug into little tiny pieces. Come to think of it, I would be hard pressed to find a bad apple on the whole tree. Every song's worth its salt. It's becoming a Kubek and King phenomenon. I have yet to hear a bad song on one of their CDs. I think it's because they truly give it everything they have for every single song. That's why they - as the young people would say - rock!
- Bill Fountain

October 2004 Southwest Blues