Legendary piano player Pinetop Perkins loves George Kilby Jr. Band
Pinetop Perkins, legendary piano player of the Muddy Waters band, is a huge fan of this band. They play regularly at BB Kings on 42nd Street. Check em out live here.
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- Tags: George Kilby Jr., Muddy Waters, Pinetop Perkins
Sounds pretty good to me. Not every day you see someone that plays accordion and harmonica in a band. It’s like he wants to be in a musical group but is actively trying to avoid getting laid. I think the groupies go through the roadies and even other groupies before they get down to the harmonica/accordion player.
ReplyAny friend of Pinetop Perkins is a friend of mine. I can’t believe that man can still punch those keys the way he does at ninety-five. Makes me feel like a do-nothing slacker that spends his days eating peanut butter sandwiches and posting comments on other peoples blogs. George Kilby Jr. has a good thing going, endorsed by the greats and he can certainly play that guitar, now all he has to do is make sure his band doesn’t look like they’re going to buy some crack from Spanish José on 122nd and Lennox. Buy those boys some damn suits George!
ReplyThis is an instrumental lineup too seldom seen in music today– acoustic guitar, upright bass, slide guitar, and the harmonica. There’s an earthiness about this lineup that is refreshing. I won’t call it invigorating per se, but it is definitely familiar despite its uncommonness in contemporary music. I can’t help but conjure up the Soggy Bottom Boys from the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” and I can’t exactly tell you why. Kilby Jr.’s guitar playing is apt and perfectly suited to the music he’s playing, while his falsetto pops compliment the silliness of the lyrics with great precision. Sure, this isn’t the sort of music you’re going to hear on top forty radio and it’s not going to pack in huge crowds at whatever bar they’re playing, but this is the sort of music that reminds the listener of some forgotten tenets of American music that have been lost in the age of digital compression and auto-tuners. I’m with Perkins on this one– give me a George Kilby Jr. over Soulja Boy any day of the week. It’s not exactly my thing, but there’s just something right about it.
ReplyWhen you say Pinetop “loves George Kilby Jr. Band,” does that mean love, as in a platonic sorta peerish respectful kinda loving way, or is this code for yet another old timer coming outta the closet to profess his homosexual leanings for a fellow, um, harp player?
ReplyGeorge is a friend of mine, so I won’t gush over him. It goes without saying that I consider him to be a very fine musician. In addition to leading his own band (where his music ranges from rock to blues to country filtered through his Alabama roots) he’s also worked with Blues piano master Pinetop Perkins often (in the studio and in live performance [as documented on the "Live At 85" CD]) over the past 20+ years.
Head over to his web site for mp3s and more info:
http://www.georgekilbyjr.com/
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