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Rock and blues meets gypsy swing and jazz
Annual GLT Summer Concert returns to downtown Bloomington
By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com
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Smokin' Joe is a little bit rock & roll; Bnois King is a little bit jazz & blues. Put the two together, and you get the double-whammy Texas duo known as Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King, the headliners for this year's annual GLT Summer Concert on the downtown Bloomington square.

Their current Alligator Records album, "Blood Brothers," just about says it all, according to Kubek.

The CD, which reached No. 4 on Billboard's blues chart recently, lets the pair do the Texas blues tradition their way, which is why they decamped from the Blind Pig label (who didn't want them to do it their own way) and moved to Alligator (who, needless to say, did want them to).

Doing it their way has pretty much been the order of the day since they first crossed paths 19 years ago, never figuring they'd still be joined at the musical hip two decades later.

"It's kind of surprising," confesses Kubek, 51, who trades guitar licks with King and lets him take the lead vocals with no regrets. "That's a long time, and it's something you would wish for."

But you don't always get it in the mercurial music world, where alliances and allegiances slip and slide with changing fortunes.

When the duo takes to the GLT Summer Concert stage Saturday night, expect to see a tug-of-war of sorts.

No, make that a tug-of-music: "I pull the blues out of him, and he pulls the jazz out of me," Kubek says.

And always the twain shall meet, resulting in what one reviewer called "powerful, hard-nosed, authentic roadhouse blues, punch Texas shuffles, fierce boogies, tough slow blues and mighty fine roots rock."

"It's like throwing a tennis ball around an empty room: it bounces everywhere, but stays in that one room," Kubek continues.

In terms of their songwriting union, "Bnois sets the skeleton as far as the lyrics go. He'll throw something down and I'll put it to a beat, and maybe two-three different things might result."

The Dallas-based Kubek has been catching things thrown, or bounced, his way since he was a fearless Texas teen.

How fearless?

He managed to land a gig with yet another King: late Texas blues great Freddie King. He did so at the tender age of 19 mainly by "being the kind of guy who yanked at someone's coattails 'til they let me sit in."

However, Kubek didn't so much yank at King's coattails as step on them.

"One night back in the '70s, King was playing at the Whiskey River in Dallas, and I talked his guitarist into letting me sit in with Freddie, even though Freddie didn't know about it."

So Kubek took to the stage, he recalls, without King even being consulted or advised.

"He looked around on stage, and there I was. But there wasn't any problem with that," he remembers. "At least he didn't kick me off stage."

Anything but, in fact.

King was so impressed by the teen guitar whiz's talent and moxie that he invited Kubek to join him on his upcoming tour.

Alas, fate stepped in, ever so cruelly: King dropped dead from a heart attack as the tour was preparing to hit the road. He was only 42.

But Kubek had absorbed what he calls "a lot about feeling and execution," a learning experience that would aid him in his journey from one King to another, and another, and another.

Along the way, he continued to yank coattails and wound up working with R&B singer Al "TNT" Bragg, Albert King (King No. 3) and, importantly, fellow Texan Stevie Ray Vaughan, who became a close friend and also was doomed to an untimely early death, at 35 in a 1990 plane crash.

Then he remembers the night he got his hands on Lucille, and we don't mean a groupie in a dark back-stage corner.

We mean the hallowed original guitar of one of Kubek's idols, yet another King, name of B.B. (in case anyone is keeping count, that makes four Kings).

As Smokin' Joe recalls it, he was at an all-star blues bill that included King and, in typical coattail-yanking fashion, "I talked my way backstage into his dressing room."

Kubek isn't giving out any of his talking-his-way-into-B.B.'s-dressing-room secrets, other than to confirm that they work, and that they don't involve any literal pulling on coattails.

"We talked all evening, and he seemed to like it," recalls Kubek.

Somehow, the subject of Lucille came out, with Lucille sitting in plain open view. "It was the original one," Kubek notes.

Before long, Lucille's neck was in Kubek's hands, being used to show His Majesty some of his own guitar licks, learned by listening to B.B. King records.

"He said, 'Don't show me my stuff, show me some of your stuff!'"

Kubek complied, and wound up administering Smokin' Joe riffs on the most famous blues instrument in the land.

"He told me, 'You remind me of somebody else who came into my dressing room one day, and did the same thing.' I know for a fact it was George Benson. He wasn't comparing our guitar-playing, just our enthusiasm."

In retrospect, he has no regrets.

"You know, him saying those kind words to me has helped through the hard times. It's meant a lot to me, so I always try to say something kind to anyone who comes to me."

Even so, he admits he'd probably be a little less calm and collected than Freddie King was when a 19-year-old kid named Kubek slipped on stage, unannounced and began jamming with the master.

"I might, as long as they brought something good to it. But if they brought something not-good ... well ... that wouldn't be so good, would it?"

What will be so good, he promises, is his jamming with Bnois King this Saturday night, during which a good time is expected to be had by all.

"If there are a couple pretty girls up front, Bnois will really come alive," he promises, adding, "me, I have to stay cool -- I'm married."



Gypsy swing sound emanates from opening act The Belleville Outfit



By Dan Craft | dcraft@pantagraph.com

In addition to headliners Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King (see accompanying story), Saturday's GLT Summer Concert has plenty of other goodies on tap, just as it does every second weekend of June.

Here is an overview of some of them:

The Belleville Outfit

Preceding Smokin' Joe and Bnois King on stage will be the gypsy swing sounds of this five-man/one-woman band out of Austin, Texas.

The Belleville Outfit call their sound not only gypsy swing, but a blend of additional big-band jazz and Americana riffs.

Photographs make them look like they just exited high school, but their deceptive youthful appearance masks a lot of action packed into their collective history.

The band was formed a year ago, but in the time since, they've packed in gigs around the country, sharing stages with the likes of Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Del McCoury Band, The Waybacks and others.

Membership is comprised of Rob Teter, guitar and vocals; Connor Forsyth, piano; Jonathan Konya, drums and vocals; Jeff Brown, bass and vocals; Marshall Hood, guitar and vocals; and Phoebe Hunt, violin and vocals.

The "Belleville" part of the band's name hails from a Django Reinhardt song, and the Reinhardt sound, they say, "exemplified a great portion of our sound."

The band's first album, "Wanderin'," was released in February.

Local motion

Also on the concert bill is a pair of local favorites spanning the generational spectrum: longtime blues-rocker Bill Porter and 12-year-old blues guitar sensation Matthew Curry.

Porter and Curry will get the show going around 4:30 p.m., followed by The Belleville Outfit and the headliners. The evening ends around 9:30 p.m.

Other amenities

Though the music doesn't kick in until 4:30 p.m., amenities will be on tap throughout the afternoon as everyone gathers 'round the square and stakes out their turf.

Food vendors will start serving at 2 p.m., followed by the beer garden going on tap at 3:30 p.m.



At a glance



What: GLT Summer Concert with Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King, The Belleville Outfit, Bill Porter and Matthew Curry

When: Saturday, with food vendors open at 2 p.m. and beer garden at 3:30 p.m.; concert, 4:30-9:30 p.m.

Where: downtown Bloomington square

Cost: Free

Information: (309) 438-2255

Take a look
Smokin' Joe Kubek, left, and Bnois King.
The members of the The Belleville Outfit.
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Reader comments on this story - 2 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

B/N reader wrote on Jun 14, 2008 2:18 PM:

" WGLT always has great events. I saw the Heartland Jazz Orchestra one summer at this venue and thoroughly enjoyed it. This one should prove to be a good one also. "

crimson wrote on Jun 13, 2008 2:12 PM:

" I'm looking forward to this. Thanks for bringing these folks here, GLT! "
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