Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King – My Heart’s In Texas
Of all the road warriors on the contemporary House Of Blues etc. circuit — think Anson Funderburgh, Rod Piazza, Duke Robillard — these guys are the least purist, and that’s no putdown. They’re more from the Stevie Ray than Jimmie Vaughan tradition, and their brand of boogie wouldn’t have been out of place on the stage of the Fillmore during the glory days of blues-rock. Like many such bands, they’re best taken in smaller doses than you get on this live album. Still, Smokin’ Joe Kubek has a huge catalogue of licks, and he mixes them impressively on tracks like the nine-minute “Where I Want To Be”. Bnois King, who’s usually content to provide a soft yet solid rhythm guitar, offers some jazzy lead lines of his own on that one, and his vocals (somewhat reminiscent of, say, Albert King in their conversational warmth) are a steadying influence on Kubek’s guitar pyrotechnics. If you’ve got any taste for high-energy, blues-rock throwbacks, you’re unlikely to find anyone doing it better.