6/4 - Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

New soul, thankfully, has finally veered away from the silky smooth bedroom ass-tapping come-ons of the 90s. There's a good number of young soul bands out there that dialed the clock right back to Memphis' hot-as-fire Stax sides, and the emergent funk of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul himself. With Sharon Jones out there strutting the stage for the ladies, Joe Lewis seems poised to pick up the mantle for the men. Lewis fronts Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears like a mushmouthed preacher of garage soul, generating enough energy on stage to light the White House christmas tree. And he does it with a heavy dose of humor and no shyness for occasinal profanity (as evidenced by the stellar track "Bitch, I Love You"). The Honeybears, for the most part, are a group of young white guys. But, don't hold that against them, because a little band called the MGs back in the day could boast the same, and much like the Honeybears, they could really make those horns sing.

While the 90s might have been about Vandross style sex-you-down lovemakers, the best kind of soul, for my money, is the kind that comes in hot and sweaty, like an urgent quickie, then flips you over and gives it to you again. Black Joe Lewis'll give it to you that way any day of the week.

The embedding for the video of "Sugarfoot," the first single off their album Tell 'Em What Your Name Is is disabled, but can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UOJUbiWC5M
Check it out, and see them live if you can. They'll be opening for the New York Dolls all Summer in the South, the East Coast, and Canada.

http://www.myspace.com/blackjoelewis