The band's 5th ZOHO release in 5 years combines 50s and 60s soul/R & B covers with rare 20s and 30s blues.

We are proud to release Jay Walkin', the Jay Willie Blues Band's fifth consecutive release with Jochen Becker and his New York based ZOHO Music label. What is consistent with all these releases is that the cover songs on them pay tribute to the 1950s and 60s Soul and Rhythm & Blues artists who created some of the best music of our time. This time we dug even further back to 1929, featuring a song by Roosevelt Sykes, and 1930 with a song by Blind Willie Johnson. This eclectic mix is complemented by our originals that we trust you will find infuriating, crude, and tasteless .... no, just kidding ! ... edifying, danceable, and entertaining.

While we believed that our last release from 2016, 'Hell on Wheels' (ZOHO ZM201612) would be a tough act to follow for us, our opinion is now that this record is our best to date. This was our first project with Engineer Paul Opalach and Long Hill Recording Studio here in Shelton, CT. Our drummer Bobby T Torello had worked with Paul on past projects and suggested that I talk with Paul about a session.

The studio might not be fancy to look at, but it was proof that a book should never be judged by its cover. The first track that we did together during the free session was Dale Hawkins' recording of Wish I hadn't Called Home. I am a fan of Dale Hawkins' best known for his song Suzy Q and wanted to record this less popular song from 1961 that still has that Louisiana Swamp Rock boogie vibe that Dale is noted for.

I had sent Paul the original Dale Hawkins acoustic version to familiarize him with the song. After Bobby made the introductions with Paul, I plugged in my guitar to play our interpretation of the track with Bobby T. To my surprise, Paul had already recorded the bass and electric drums to a click track so that he had a good baseline to work with. Bobby then did his drum track, Paul did the bass track over and I finished overdubbing the guitar and vocals.

Track Listing

• Wish I Hadn't Called Home
• Jay Walkin'
• Hitting on Nothing
• The Other Side
• 44 Blues
• I Feel So Good
• Move Over
• Sinner's Prayer
• Step Aside
• Go To Guy
• How Blue Can You Get
• Soul of a Man

Additional Details

Label: Zoho Roots

Genre: Blues

Language: English

Run Time: 41 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 12/08/17

UPC: 880956171029