 Born on November 30, 1956, Grove City, Pennsylvania, USA.
Having grown up in Irving, Texas, Kubek was playing in Dallas clubs at the age
of 14. Three years later, he took a deeper interest in blues, prompted by Eric
Clapton and Peter Green, and formed his first band. Shortly afterwards, he
played rhythm guitar behind Freddie King until King's death in December 1976.
After a short spell with Robert Whitfield's Last Combo, he joined Al Braggs"
band. Examples of his work can be heard on Braggs" 1979 production of tracks by
R. L. Griffin. He also recorded with Charlie Robinson, Big Ray Anderson and
Ernie Johnson, and on Little Joe Blue's album, "It's My Turn Now". In 1989, he
teamed up with singer/guitarist Bnois King, from Monroe, Louisiana, whose
soul-tinged vocals and jazz-orientated style contrasted well with Kubek's more
strident finger and slide techniques. "The Axe Man" is an album of covers
recorded before their Bullseye Blues debut. Subsequent releases have
consolidated their reputation as a solid, entertaining band. Smokin' Joe Kubek
is one of those people who was born to play the guitar. Kubek has the technique
and the chops to burn up any stage and has been doing so for the past 27 years.
A guitar prodigy at the age of 14 the Texas born guitar slinger frequented the
Dallas bar scene during the 1970's and early 80's playing with Stevie Ray
Vaughan and people like the three Kings, B. B., Albert and Freddie. He was even
ready to go on tour with Freddie King before his death. Kubek, with his
staggering arsenal of instruments, effects and technique, delivers a frenzied,
flame-throwing guitar display that is tempered by the remarkable accompaniment
of Bnois King's jazz influenced guitar. Kubek, coming from the blazing Texas
blues/rock background, found in Bnois King's smooth jazz guitar stylings a
finesse and fat chord sound that was a perfect complement to his technique. The
combination just clicked with a seamless mesh of styles. King lays down a bed of
smooth supporting jazz chords on his hollow bodied Gibson that allows Kubek to
take center stage and play with almost reckless abandon. Together this dynamic
duo has recorded 7 albums for Bullseye Blues & Jazz Records, the newest
being the 2000 "BITE ME." So buckle up and get ready for a one-two punch,
thrill-a-minute ride of high-octane Texas blues. Muscling his way through the
proceedings both live and on disc, Kubek will pull, bend, pick, and push his
strings well beyond what you'd think they'd normally endure as he runs through
his and King's songs. Using Hendrix-style crybaby wah-wah leads and
ear-bleeding, Johnny Winter-meets-Elmore James slide work on songs such as the
title/leadoff cut and the shuffling "She's It," he brings things to a boiling
point with screeching and shimmering lines that rattle speaker cones and make
the fillings in your teeth vibrate. Then, applying the brakes, he runs through
some of the sweetest, most beautiful slow blues on "I'm Here for You" and
"Cryin' By Myself" with shimmering high notes, hanging in the air above heavy
turnarounds. Throughout, King (no relation to Freddie) will comp along on his
Gibson, shout lyrics, and, in general, make the whole package complete. This
union began during a regular Monday-night gig in Dallas when Kubek invited King
to sit in and found that King's softer, jazz-based guitar and vocals perfectly
complemented Kubek's headier rock-inspired guitar work. Although the partnership
is a natural, Kubek still seems amazed that it worked at all. Months earlier,
the two shared an uncomfortable meeting that he still recalls today. "We laugh
at it now," he says, "but when we first ran into each other, it was in some club
dressing room a while before I'd invited him to sit in with my band. Neither of
us remembers why we were there, because it wasn't our gig. We never said a word
to each other. We just kinda sat there and looked at each other. It was weird."
The pair became fast friends and eventually found themselves on the road in
support of their first Bullseye disc, Steppin' Out, released in 1991. On early
tours, the band did weeks in the Northeast in the dead of winter in an old Ford
van, without heat. "It was kinda like that movie Alive," Kubek notes with a
laugh. "We'd drive all bundled up. And it got so cold sometimes, I'd actually
think of building a fire inside the thing just to keep warm. Then to top it off,
every hotel we stopped at only had heat in the rooms when you rented 'em. So
they never got warm. I had to sleep with my hair dryer the whole time. The goal
was just to get home alive." In 1991, they signed to Bullseye Blues, releasing
their debut, Steppin' Out Texas Style, the same year. Following its release, the
band launched their first national tour. For the rest of the '90s, the Smokin'
Joe Kubek Band toured the United States and toured frequently and issued records
like 1993's Texas Cadillac, 1996's Got My Mind Back, and 2000's Bite Me. In 2003
Kubek and King released Roadhouse Research on the Blind Pig label. The duo's
second release for Blind Pig, Show Me the Money, came out in 2004. A single-disc
collection of some of the best tracks from the Bullseye Blues years, Served Up
Texas Style, came out in 2005. A third album from Blind Pig Records, My Heart's
in Texas, was released in 2006.
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