Carvin Jones Band – Mik The Who's Artistic Contemplations

Carvin Jones Band @ Madison Bar, Dublin 28/07/2007

A musical tornado blew into Rathmines on Saturday night all the way from Phoenix Arizona and treated the full house of delighted music fans to some tube screaming roadhouse tinged Texas Blues Rock.

Carvin Jones is an ace guitarist and a broad brimmed fun charismatic front man who mixed time honoured classics from Hooker, Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan with his own originals and several tributes to our own Rory Gallagher during the performance.It was high energy solid gold fun from the minute the sequined Carvin stepped on stage with Carvin repeatedly bringing the stage down to the audience with ecstatic reactions from the spellbound audience in the tightly packed Madison Bar as he weaved his way through the crowd with his Fender Stratocaster screaming into the stratosphere.

A Carvin Jones gig is the ultimate participation event for the audience, if you leave your pint out of your hand for a second there is a good chance Carvin will lay his tortured Strat on top of it and commence to play it lap style.Nothing stands between the artist and the audience at a Carvin Jones gig, there are no barriers, and it’s a wonderful feeling and a testament of his self confidence and natural friendliness on stage or off that leaves one and all thoroughly entertained.

Carvin is an ace player and delivers the set of classic covers and medleys with an uncompromising muscular brass knuckled style on his Black Fender Strat, that takes you to the hearts and hands of the essential bluesmen enhanced with some tube screaming sound effects. The guitar – bass – drum line up delivers the rollicking roadhouse rockers with Carvin’s dark brooding vocals teasing the audience.The classic bar room favourites are delivered in rapid succession with Carvin’s fluency imagination and versatility being grounded by his long time stage partner Bill Troxell and the help of an Italian rhythm section on this leg of the tour.The audience were amazed at his playing and it’s great to see such ability and talent being harnessed by such a fun loving entertainer and it’s good to feel so much fun in the atmosphere.

The Carvin Jones gig had us all exhausted at the end but the crowd could have gone on all night long because of the up beat enjoyment. Carvin said at one stage “I am a man who knows what he wants, get up and dance, you know its cool” and that about sums him up perfectly”. Promoter Pat Cannon strapped on a bass guitar and joined the band on stage for the final encore. There’s no messin with the kid.

Saturday Night Blues, Dublin 09/2006

Steve James & Del Rey @ Cobblestones, Smithfield.

Carvin Jones @ JJ Smyths, Aungier Street.

Jalapenos @ Blue Note, Capel Street.

KJ Mac & Aileen Mythen @ Saturday Night Blues

Dropped into Frank Ryan’s in Queen Street and caught the end of the Irish Soccer International in Stuttgart where most of the punters seemed relieved that we had only lost by one goal to Germany before going across the wet cobblestones of Smithfield to see Austin Texas based traditional blues resonator guitar and ukulele performers Steve James sharing a double header with long time friend and country blues collaborator Del Rey from Seattle Washington in the appropriately named Cobblestones live music venue.

Larry Roddy was on the door, a stalwart of live Blues promotion staying closely rooted to the traditional blues styles going way back and I have had the pleasure of attending many of these promotions over the years in Dublin and down in Ballymore Eustace for his Monday night performances by Chris Smither, Catfish Keith, Paul Rishell and Annie Raines.

Steve James is a warm and talkative musical visitor to Ireland for many years and it was a long overdue opportunity for me to catch up with this virtuoso of humorous rootsy tunes and immaculate guitar picking bred of back porches and wood shedding circuits of fast bottleneck story laden legend Furry Lewis who first released classic mould shaping records in the 1920’s and enjoyed a popular revival aided by Steve James by his side in the later decades of his life in the folk blues revival of the 1960’s.

Playing National Resonator guitars with a clean and articulate technique his speed and expression seems limitless, full of energy and spontaneity showcasing an easy command of his impeccable country blues-picking blend.

After years on the road meeting up for duets at countless festivals and workshops around the globe, Del Rey and Steve James together on stage is an amazing feast of counterpoint double lead playing that could only be described as a musigasm of finger picking and bottleneck technique.

Singing tunes about going down to Louisiana and experiences with do right women and the hassle of trying to get from place to place on previous tours around Ireland, it all flows effortlessly and sublime off the folksy stage in the Cobblestone venue with Del Rey visually reminding me of Merle Streep as the 50’s diner lady in The Postman Always Knocks Twice and Steve getting stuck in to his fretboard like a working man with first hand knowledge of his trade.

Milwaukee Blues was excellent and their version of Chuck Berry’s Nadine blew me away and a trip back to 1928 by Steve to the music of Sidney Bechet who created the role of jazz soloist in the 20’s featuring Back Street Blues and One More Meal, with sophisticated finger-stretching levee breaking exercises by Del Rey playing a guitar and Ukulele like Jimmy Page with a double neck, that opened a new universe on that instrument for these eyes.

Carvin Jones Band @ JJ Smyth’s Aungier St Dublin 2

I legged it down to JJ Smyth’s next to catch the end of the flamboyant USA electric rock blues sensation Carvin Jones playing his Stratocastor in every position anatomically possible to a full house of jubilant fans.

With his Hendrix, SRV tube screaming repertoire of fast lane boogie, Carvin moves through the audience with his black hat, cowboy boots and smile as wide as the Liffey and a Karma Sutra book full of positions to make his guitar kiss the sky with, never missing a beat with his cohort Bill Troxill pounding along on Bass.

On a whirlwind tour of Ireland the ever-popular Carvin breaks every speed limit on the fretboard, strapping on an extra Stratocastor for a spot of duelling with both hands playing both guitars at the same time as if they were extensions of his arms.

Jalapenoes @ Bleu Note, Capel Street, Dublin 1

My final stop on the night was over to The Bleu Note on Capel Street to listen for the first time to a new local group for me, Jalapenoes featuring K.J.MAC also playing some great SRV high energy blues on his Stratocastor backed up by a tight rhythm section in spidery fingers of Paddy Joyce on Bass and Kieran Lally on Drums and an excellent vocalist and charismatic stage front presence in Aileen Mythen who exibits a total comfort and charisma on stage adding to a collective assured performance. Kieran is a fine player and although this was my first time to see him play live I had listened many times to his version of Elmore James classic “Talk To Me Baby” on the Irish Blues Club compilation Forty Shades of Blue Vol. 11.

My Babe, Summertime Blues, Pride & Joy, Tell Me Why got maximum R&B treatment, tight and polished arrangements with the dial stuck firmly in the having a good time range.

When they got into the roots material the chemistry was rich and entertaining inhabiting a groove somewhere between the common ground of the old blues masters and the new country artists sometimes referred to as Americana.

The musicianship in the Jalapenoes works so well together and the male female harmonies are so full of vitality, handling any requests from the audience with a perfectly beautiful professionalism of approach and intricate interplay not to mention that Aileen would bring eyesight to the blind when she blows the blues harp and pounds the stage in her blue leader boots.

“My babe don’t stand no cheatin’, my babe
Oh no, she don’t stand no cheatin’, my babe
Oh no, she don’t stand no cheatin’
Everything she do she do so pleasin’
My babe true little babe my babe.”

Carvin Jones Band @ Irish Blues Club, JJ Smyths 30/05/2006

Almost 12 months to the day the Irish Blues Club opened its doors once again to the amazing Carvin Jones from Phoenix, guitar player extraordinaire and one of the happiest guys ever to walk into a room with a guitar around his neck.

With his long time buddy Will Troxell on Bass and stage management duties and new black leader clad Drummer Pino Liberti from Rome in top form fresh from a string of dates up the road at the Warrenpoint Blues Festival, Carvin tore up JJ Smyths with his high energy guitar blazing mix of Rock n Blues.

Recently voted as one of the top 50 guitarists in the world its easy to see why as Carvin in white cowboy boots and black hat turns the entire floor area of JJ Smyths into a stage, playing fast and furious at the end of a 100 foot lead through a tube screaming Fender amp.

All the crowd favourites are present Hideaway, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Red House and Boom Boom Boom Boom played back to back with Drum solos, Bass Solos, in the fast lane hardly coming up for air in-between the intense and powerful shuffles.

Carvin Jones name is synonymous with guitar showmanship and his stage antics are the ultimate celebration of blistering good time entertainment, acquiring accolades from Eric Clapton,Buddy Guy and BB King.

If you want to make a decent living at this business then you have to make the people listen to you and most of look at you and send them home feeling like they had the time of their lives.

If you go to the trouble of opening a store you can’t just stock the shelves with all the things you like yourself, you have got to put what the public want on the shelves as well or else you go out of business, and that’s why Carvin has his store jam packed with all the goodies, SRV, Hendrix, Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry and ZZ Top on top of his own classics.

His new CD I’m What You Need is full of the fiercest sounds to come from a six-string guitar, exquisitely presented on a bed of humorous lyrics, Drowning On Dry Land, Ya Drive Me Crazy,Born To Win and my own favourite Wanna Walk Wicha Baby.

His biting attack and stinging axe work is a roller coaster ride for the audience in JJ Smyths, The Sky Is Crying, All Along The Watchtower, and Voodoo Chile are giving the bone fide classic treatment as Carvin assembles his lexicon from a variety of sources, traditional blues, classic rock, R&B tapping into the bone chilling adrenalin rush of the 12 bar blues progression.

Carvin lets it all hang out on Johnny B Goode which was sent into deep space many years ago by NASA as a representation of life on Earth aboard the Voyager as a message of good will to other alien civilisations and if you wanted them to witness what a good time fuel injected rock n blues show is all about then Carvin is the ideal ambassador.

Carvin creates a compelling web of guitar tones wielding his battered black Strat around the back of his neck, bouncing it off the floor, playing with his teeth, sending it flying down the floor in full volume with a smile of devilish excitement beaming from ear to ear.

The atmosphere is solid gold entertainment, is magically unpredictable and intoxicating with non stop excitement as someone remarked,

“I don’t know whether to eat it, drink it or ride it.”

Just like last years performance there are no barriers between the artist and the audience at a Carvin Jones gig, just the feeling that you are in the presence of supreme confidence, natural friendliness and a super talent.

Its excellent guitar skill given freedom of expression, driven by passion by one of the happiest guys on the planet backed up by a pile driving rhythm section.

It was the best fun as always, vital and interesting at the Irish Blues Club on Tuesday night, and that’s probably the best complement you can pay someone at the end of the day.

Well done Carvin Dublin loves you.

Carvin Jones Band @ Irish Blues Club, JJ Smyths 7/6/2005

Always a” must go” for me when an American Bluesman comes to town and boy was I delighted to be in attendance for this high energy, cocktail of trailblazing guitarmanship, on stage acrobatics and solid gold entertainment.

Carvin Jones and his very competent and capable Band have their priorities right, its all about having a good time and I get the feeling that they don’t ever give up until everyone in the audience feel like their on stage and participating in the celebration, except that their way of doing things is by way of bringing the performance down with fifty foot guitar leads to the tables and sitting in between the amazed members of the audience, laying the regularly abused and evidently long suffering Fender Strat wailing like a banshee to rest across two tables and adopting a lap style technique in mid song and without any interruption to momentum of the piece of music filtering into every crevice in the room.Nothing stands between the artist and the audience at a Carvin Jones gig, there are no barriers, and it’s a wonderful feeling and a testament of his self confidence and natural friendliness on stage or off that leaves one and all thoroughly entertained.

Just watching someone like Carvin is enough to ratchet your own guitar confidence up a level on the stage presentation front alone.At one stage he invited Jennifer a beautiful American Lady and self confessed fan of the Blues in the audience beside me to dance a few steps while his guitar lay reverberating on the ground between the tables.

Carvin arrives on stage in top Texas form smiling like a showman that’s got more than enough to meet the challenge ahead, immediately stepping into a comfortable pair of Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimi Hendrix’s boots with an effortless combination of charisma, soul, showmanship, and guitar vocabulary that pays homage to all the great influential masters of Blues. Carvin thankfully doesn’t go for the pain and sorrow approach to interpreting the blues preferring to whammy it up with joy and pleasure as central parts of his armoury.

Carvin is an ace player and delivers the set of classic covers and medleys with an uncompromising muscular brass knuckled style on his Black Fender Strat, that takes you to the hearts and hands of the essential bluesmen enhanced with some signature sounding effects that deliver right to your doorstep that combine to create a fusion of pile driving rhythm and screaming notes that suspend in the air long enough for someone to run downstairs in JJ’s and outside and rotate a flat tyre on Augier St if the need existed.

Like Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Stevie Ray and Jimi its got more to do with passion than technique at times stepping outside the minor pentatonic box scales and making the magic happen in the intervals, working the space between the notes till there fingers bleed, weaving in and out of the prescribed 1- 1V – V harmony and orbiting around the original influence until its time to land it on your own runway.

Hammering on double stops and rubbing sensually against ninth chords with power tube distortion, its Guitar Slim hanging out with ZZ Top and the wind cries get out of the way or its going to run you over.There is no standing on ceremony here, no bandstand meandering ,if its reverences you want you’re in the wrong house at a gig like this, you need to cross the street and go up to Whitefriars Street Church. Hideaway, Voodoo Chile, Little Wing, Sweet Home Chicago, Boom Boom Boom, Johnny B Goode, Dust my Broom are all just ingredients for the Blues n Boogie stew boiling away on stage.

If we are ever going to reclaim the blues for this generation and the next and solve the commercial nature of it for all concerned, then this sums up what a live performance is all about. This is what Guitar Slim and T Bone Walker has to do fifty years ago along the roadhouses of Highway 61 walking out through the crowds with a 100 foot lead snaking its way from the stage and playing back in at the audience through the window. This is a barrier removing participation tradition that must not disappear and is a signature trademark of the Blues performance and as necessary a credential as an Albert King wide interval bend, BB Kings vibrato and the bone chillin legacy of Albert Collins or John Lee Hooker already incorporated into the standard.

I witnessed our own Peter Moore weave a similar magic in JJ’s one freezing cold night in January, flanked by Ben Prevo and Johnny Reynolds on guitars and with Irish John Earl and the rest of the International Blues Band when the audience and musicians were as one and the atmosphere was warm, wonderful and spine chilling.

Peter also works from a tapestry of diverse and unique delights, one minute your head is in Mississippi and the next you’re a Blockhead in a burlesque London pub gig.So it is when Carvin plays its about attitude, he has one hell of a take no prisoners right hand approach snapping and popping the strings with utter conviction on his beat up Strat at one stage sent sliding down the floor of JJ’s at full throttle. Slashing and cutting the chords, chicken picking and damping arpeggios the reverb drenched sound commanding attention at all times with foxy pull and slide manoeuvres and the occasional bottle whipped off a table to add the bottleneck touch to proceedings.

He is unpredictable and cagey thriving in the fertile soil of Blues, Soul and Rock churning out a mix to keep things interesting, watching the eyes watching him from beneath the Texas Stetson. The Bass and Drum rhythm gives a rolling motion to the boogie as Carvin grafts on cunning grooves and hard rocking riffs delivered in an alternating fluid and piercing attack. Just as Muddy was the master of forging Delta acoustic music into the electrified, Chicago blues of today the flame still burns as long as players with the passion and vision of Carvin Jones are playing from the heart with that gift for spontaneous reorganisation and give freedom of expression to the music so that the end result is larger than life itself.

“If I can bring joy into the world…then I’ll be successful”. Bobby McFerrin musician said and if you want to see that demonstrated treat yourself to a Carvin Jones Band gig.

As I left JJ Smyth’s last night and fair play to the lads in the Irish Blues Club for their efforts to keep the Blues scene alive, someone outside the door told me that the powerhouse rhythms from upstairs had caused the air bags in a Toyota Avensis to involuntarily explode outside the door. Legendary gigs when reminiscing have a habit of prompting exaggeration as time goes by and this one deserves to get off to a good start.