Moondogg Live!
Rockin’ Rhythm Revue!
Friday night!
December 26th 6:00pm
@ ISM Brewing & Kitchen
210 E. 3rd st. Long Beach
On The Promenade
Featuring
Dave Melton-Guitar,Vocals
Barry Levenson-Guitar
from Canned Heat,
Jerry Luithle-Bass
Ed Mann-Drums
Johnny Ray Jones-Vocals
Live Roots Rock & Blues!
All the way Live!
“I was putting together a new band that I wanted to use in the studio for this project,” Jones says, “and I named the album after the band that I’d just started. I named it Mystic Chiefs because they’re all really the best in their field, as solo artists and in the various bands that they’ve been in.”
The players in the new band are a Who’s Who of rockin’ SoCal blues and roots music: lead guitarist Junior Watson (co-founder of the Mighty Flyers and guitarist for Canned Heat and William Clarke); pianist Carl Sonny Leyland (keyboardist of Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys); harp player Tex Nakamura (successor to Lee Oskar in War); bassist John Bazz (founding member of the Blasters); percussionist Stephen Hodges (noted for his drumming and percussion work behind Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, and James Harman); and drummer J.R. Lozano (who played with his father, Los Lobos bassist Conrad Lozano, on the East L.A. band’s Grammy-winning album Native Sons).
“I used to sit in at the King King on Monday nights,” Jones recalls. “That was just what you did. You knew where the party was. It was fun — you never knew who was going to drop in. Lester would take a break and let me sit in and sing a tune. If I got lucky I got to do two.
“We do some of the Red Devils’ stuff live. I was actually going to get Paul Size, the Red Devils’ guitarist, to play on the session, but it didn’t pan out., so I went in with Junior and had Johnny Lee do the rhythm guitar. Stephen Hodges was going to play drums, but he ended up doing percussion — he ended up going out on the road. I knew J.R. knew the songs, so I brought him in on drums.”
Jones adds of the other members of the group, “I first saw Sonny play piano with James Harman at the Blue Café in Long Beach back in the ’90s. Gene Taylor of the Blasters was originally going to be playing on the album, but he passed and I had to find somebody who fit that bill, could work in that style, and it just all clicked. Tex worked in my band Moondogg for the last five or 10 years. I’ve been seeing Bazz’s band the Blasters since the ‘80s.”
Sung, written, and played by the best, the Mystic Chiefs release is as close as you can get at home to a night in a blues club where the lights are low and the house is shakin’.