Black Joe Lewis at the Spanish Moon

• By RACHEL SHEPARD
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: Aug 6, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:40 p.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

A baritone and tenor sax, trumpet, bass, drums, guitar, and keyboard all make up one heck of a blues band. Black Joe Lewis started as a new band in April 2007 and has been making music, touring across country, and just living the dream. While some musicians start strumming as soon as they leave the womb, Lewis picked up the guitar much later in life, and that’s where he discovered the blues.

“I started playing when I was 19 or 20, and the people I was hanging out with were interested in blues things,” Lewis said. “That’s really where I learned to play. I would just go hang out with people when I first started playing guitar and try to copy what they were doing.”

After jamming with friends and being influenced by the likes of James Brown, Don Covay and Elmore James, Lewis explained what continually draws him to the blues and why he loves it so much.

“I like that it’s instinctive or impulsive. It’s the kind of music that comes naturally to you or it doesn’t,” Lewis said. “You can be really technically good, but I like the guys that aren’t. It’s like guys that are too good make the blues kind of suck. I like the natural stuff.”

Lewis has that natural, raw talent, but playing with a band hasn’t always been easy.

He shared a little behind-the-scenes information of what it was like in the beginning when he started playing with his very first band.

“Every Sunday night for two years I used to play at this hole in the wall. We’d only practiced one time in those two years, so we played the same songs every night. We’d play gigs with only two or three people there. I got a lot of practice out of that because I had only been playing five years or so, but you’ve got to earn your stripes, I guess,” Lewis said.

And earn his stripes, he did. The hardships of the first band took its toll, but Lewis’ positive attitude and good connections got them a gig at the University of Texas’s infamous 40 Acres Fest.

After that first band played their last gig together, Lewis’ friend had a different idea – a whole new band.

“I really just wanted to quit, because I was sick of the guys I was playing with, because we would fight all the time and never practiced. I wanted to try to find something else to do,” Lewis said. “With this I felt like I had an opportunity, and I took it.”

It’s a good thing he took that opportunity, because now Black Joe Lewis has hit the big time. He was even applauded by Barack Obama, who called him outstanding at a rally in Austin last February.

“There was this big stage in front of the capital, and we had these big giant speakers going all the way downtown so the whole city could hear it,” Lewis said. “It was pretty cool. I like Barack, so it was cool to help support him. It was really pretty crazy with the Secret Service, because you couldn’t get anywhere near him.”

With Texas’s capital city booming in the arts with festivals like Austin City Limits and South by Southwest, it can be hard and intimidating for up-and-comers like Black Joe Lewis to find their way onto the scene.