In 2005, slide guitar phenom Joel Tatangelo was living in a sad little apartment in the sad little town of Palmetto, FL, writing songs and building his chops across the river at open jams in Bradenton. The veterans who attended those jams graciously shared their knowledge with the talented, eager-to-learn kid who wasn't old enough to be drinking legally. This led to Joel playing several gigs with blues great James Peterson, who would regale the youngster with stories of performing with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Buddy Guy — Joel’s heroes and biggest influences.

In 2006, Joel moved to nearby St. Petersburg and founded a band called Stand Back with buddy Tommy Stevenson (bass, vocals) and local drummer Joey Cee. Alt-weekly Creative Loafing praised the band’s music as “heavy rockin' blues (that) struts along with funky, danceable rhythms and delicious slide-guitar.” (5.23.07) The Tampa Bay Times wrote "the Tampa band has been a standout this year, performing its own signature blend of blues, rock and soul.” (12.21.07) The trio spent 2007 playing iconic Tampa Bay venues such as Skipper’s Smokehouse, New World Brewery, and the Ringside Café, as Joel continued to master slide guitar in clubs around the Bay Area. Inspired by a trip to New Orleans for a gig during Jazz Fest that year, Tommy and Joel relocated in 2008 to pursue a more Crescent City-informed sound.

Though energized by the jazz, funk and soul that surrounded them in New Orleans, the band’s breakthrough performance came in rural Cottondale, AL, at an annual throwdown in the woods near Tuscaloosa, when Tommy invited longtime friend and drummer Josh McNair and his uncle, veteran piano wizard Barry McNair, to sit in for the show. Barry, drawing on four decades of experience playing with legends such as B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland, tore into classics like “Got My Mojo Workin,” “Corrina, Corrina” and “Turn on Your Love Light,” and turned Stand Back originals like “Spirit Song,” “Whiskey on the Weekends” and “Corner Store” into the soulful, Southern-fried epics they were always meant to be.

Josh, who had toured the U.S. with Widespread Panic tribute band the Henry Parsons Project, laid down floor-shaking beats that kept the crowd dazzled, dancing and hollering for four sets of rowdy, backwoods madness.

The performance was unforgettable, the music explosive, the chemistry undeniable. On a sweltering night in the Alabama woods, The Stand Back Band was born, and the rest is, and will be, history.