Pimps Of Joytime
https://www.pimpsofjoytime.com/
When it comes to throwing a party, the Pimps of Joytime raise the bar with swagger and substance. Dubbed "raucous and captivating" by Okayplayer, and "Visceral in all of the best ways possible." by Pop Matters, The Pimps artfully blend Brooklyn beat, New Orleans soul, and world funk. Created by Grammy nominated producer Brian J in 2007 the Pimps Of Joytime have released five studio albums and toured extensively building a loyal international following.
The brain child of Grammy nominated producer Brian J, Pimps of Joytime bandleader, is no stranger to working with A-List talent in the studio as he's produced albums for a "who's who" of New Orleans heavyweights, including such stars as Cyril Neville (The Neville Brothers), James Andrews, Corey Henry (Galactic) plus records with Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (The World's Most Recorded Drummer) and GRAMMY Award-nominated blues artist Cedric Burnside. On the production of "La Vida" Brian J is playing all the instruments on the track, flexing skills as a multi-instrumentals and producing an incredibly unique version of the song.
And the Pimps' live experience only takes it higher! Over the past decade, the group's grassroots following mobilized from the underground club scene in New York to sell out historic venues like the Fillmore in San Francisco and earn top billings at music festivals across the US and Europe. Quite simply, the Pimps' dancefloor is magnetic. Word spreads to the wise when you pair high-caliber musicianship with melodies and beats that are as universally enticing as they are unconventional.
Black Joe Lewis
https://www.blackjoelewis.com
Black Joe Lewis is the realest motherfucker there is. When Covid sidelined his touring this past year, he started laying concrete to help support his baby mama and his kid. That's fuckin' real. When Joe and his band, the Honeybears, popped onto the national stage over a decade ago, many critics embraced him but still, there were some that maintained that they hadn't paid their dues. Joe's still here. Still going. Still cashing checks and snapping necks. The dues of hard work; the delirious heights of the industry as well as the disappointments and low hanging fruit. Through this all, Joe's only honed his mastery over gut bucket blues guitar and his true voice. It's a vital and distinctly American voice that never anticipated the attention he wound up receiving, never went looking for it either. It just started happening. The garage, the blues, the propulsive and synergistic live performances that inhabit the spaces of James Brown, Lightnin' Hopkins, and the MC5...those things happened naturally from the very beginning and could only be accurately communicated in the live experience, not a press release or a slick brand campaign. Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Cedric Burnside and Lightnin Malcolm, The Dirtbombs, Detroit Cobras, the Strange Boys; these are some of the artists that Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears shared countless bills with; almost a roll call of the most influential soul and garage bands of the last twenty five years. Has the soul blues garage explosion from that era been commodified or worked into the overall template of pop rock? Sure. But the ground floor was a vital space for people that like guitars and grease and at this point Black Joe Lewis is one of the last standing that was there. Last of a dying breed. Or maybe a missing link. Does this make him a throwback? A throwback to a throwback? It'd be tempting and easy for Joe to go along with that but nah, we don't think so. We know that Joe Lewis is genuinely doing his thing and that he'd do it regardless of what's coming down the pipe. A stone cold original and a veteran at that. If you like whistling in your music and some floppy hat, quaky kneed dudes cloyingly singing at you, then you might not "get it" but whatever...there are enough intrepid, degenerate weirdos that do. Those are the folks Joe cares about. Not the glad handing set. Not the fair-weather friend set getting down with the flavor of the month. Like the title of his last album says, "the difference between me and you" is Joe defining for himself that there's the belabored wannabes and then there's dudes that actually "HAVE the blues"...whatever the hell THAT is! Joe's concrete pouring boss is gonna miss him.