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 t his 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.

Step into a world where dust-strewn landscapes meet the hypnotic melodies of desert blues andpsychedelic cumbia. Where middle eastern funk intertwines with reverb drenched guitar and the pulse of Latin American rhythms. Welcome to the world of Gitkin.

New Orleans-based Gitkin, also known as Brian J, a Grammy-nominated artist and producer renowned for his production skills (working with Cedric Burnside, Bernard Purdie, Cyril Neville) and as the mastermind behind the funk ensemble Pimps Of Joytime, is experiencing surprising success with this passion project.

With monthly streams over 300,000 Gitkin’s three self-produced studio albums are resonating with fans globally. In 2022 inspired by the success of his streaming and social media response Gitkin put together a band and started playing live. The trio featuring Palestinian musician Simon Moushabeck (keyboard, accordion, percussion) and Cuban American Washington Duke (Drums) brings a new life and dimension to the recorded music. Teaming up with international booking agent FMLY they embarked on their first European tour in September meeting enthusiastic audiences in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands,

France, and Austria, selling out a number of shows. This was followed by a short stint supporting Steel Pulse and most recently Say She She.

 After years of making songs where the vocals and lyrics take the spotlights, it's been liberating to let my guitar do the talking. With Gitkin I get to bring in my love for African, middle eastern and south american music and mix it with my native musicality that sits in American blues and funk.

Performing as a trio with my two talented compadres provides a lot of space in the music that opens the door for what I like to call "expensive moments." My favorite moments of a show don't usually happen by somebody playing something fast and impressive. More times It's when a palpable essence takes over the room. You feel it and you know everyone in the spot feels it. That's what keeps me getting in vans and planes and putting in endless hours in the studio.

 As 2024 unfolds, Gitkin, in collaboration with the Brooklyn-based label Wonderwheel Recordings, is set to release highly anticipated new music. The singles will start dropping in May, followed by a full-length album in the fall. Additionally, they have live shows scheduled in the US and a festival tour planned in Europe for July.