Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Friday
Reviewed by Jim Caligiuri, Fri., March 20, 2009
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! (Lost Highway)Here in Austin, Black Joe Lewis needs no introduction. The local blues shouter and superfreak has turned heads from the Continental Club to Red River's Beauty Bar, including that of Britt Daniel. With Spoon drummer Jim Eno handling the boards and Grupo Fantasma's JewMex Horns holding down the back line, Lewis lets out every kink he's ever trapped in the closet on his national debut, Tell 'Em What Your Name Is!. Lewis and guitarist Zach Ernst lead the Honeybears through 10 horn-driven Southern soul fries that channel James Brown, Wilson Pickett, and take-your-pick from Stax Records and yet have a garage-floor flavor that makes it more than just tribute. The brass-blasting "Gunpowder" kicks off the proceedings perfectly, then you can sing along to horn-dog anthem "Big Booty Woman," before "Humpin'" whomps some Memphis soul stew. Tell 'Em is a hearty hunk of 21st century soul that's gloriously unrefined and unremitting. (Fri., the Parish, 12mid; Sat., Buffalo Billiards, 1am.)
