The Independent
The Ghost Town Blues Band, a Memphis-based group that won second place at last year’s International Blues Challenge—the world’s largest gathering of blues musicians, with more than 200 acts competing annually—will soon make its first-ever appearance in Springdale. The group, which is currently touring as a six-piece, will perform at the Bit and Spur Saloon on Friday, June 12, at approximately 9:45 p.m. There will be a $15 cover charge.
In a genre that sometimes seems dominated by bands tied to an age-old formula, Ghost Town Blues Band’s sound takes a more forward-thinking approach that encompasses elements of rock, funk, New Orleans music, and Stax-styled soul.
“We’re not your grandpa’s blues band,” says Matt Isbell, the group’s frontman and chief songwriter. “With some groups who are branded with the ‘blues’ label, you know what you’re getting before you ever hear them. My hope is that that’s not us.”
To that end, the band employs some of the most original showmanship around. Their show usually begins with a horn-and-drums entrance modeled after the New Orleans second-line tradition, progressing through a lively, wide-ranging set that inspired a leading blues blog to recently proclaim “Their live shows are the stuff of legend.”
During a Ghost Town Blues Band show, drummer Preston McEwan is likely to step out from behind his kit to play an electrically amplified broomstick where you’ll hear impassioned, swelling leads reminiscent of the late, great Duane Allman, and bandleader Isbell will set aside his axe to play one of his homemade cigar-box guitars. He has built the beautiful, one-of-a-kind instruments for a number of industry professionals and often brings them on the road to sell, though he says he’ll probably sell out by the time of the Springdale event. See www.memphiscigarbox.com for more info on those.
The Ghost Town Blues Band formed in 2009 and has honed its barn-burning approach through three albums. The first, “Dust the Dust,” came in 2009 and featured a mix of familiar covers (“I Put A Spell On You,” “Baby Please Don’t Go”) and Isbell’s original compositions, including the driving shuffle “One More Whiskey,” which has become of the group’s signature tunes. In 2012, the band released the highly praised follow-up disc, “Dark Horse” and found an increase in exposure outside the band’s Memphis home base.
Their latest album, “Hard Road to Hoe,” was released in March 2015—barely a year after the band’s big IBC showing—and promptly debuted at #18 on the industry-leading Living Blues Magazine charts. The disc features the group’s most diverse array of styles yet, from raucous, party-ready boogie-woogie (“Big Shirley”) to snarling blues-rock (“Tied My Worries to a Stone”) to well-crafted, deeply felt roots music (“Dead Sea”) to the gritty, Delta-inspired slide guitar of the title track and its slightly quieter cousin, “Road Still Drives The Same.” Regarding the 12-track album, Making a Scene wrote, “Hard Road to Hoe is solid blues-rock that just feels right,” and The Alternate Root raved that the album “mixes the hometown advantage with touches of another Memphis mainstay, the Stax sound,” before concluding that “Ghost Town Blues Band give it their soul.”
One thing’s for sure: the world has discovered that the Ghost Town Blues Band is one of the most promising young acts the blues genre has to offer. Their time is now.
“Our goal is to leave listeners feeling like they’ve just witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime performance,” says Isbell. “We want to go beyond what you thought blues could be, and we bust our asses to give you our best with every single show.”
The Bit and Spur Saloon is located at 1212 Zion Park Blvd., Springdale, Utah, and can be reached at 435-772-3498 or www.bitandspur.com.
For more information on Ghost Town Blues Band, please visit www.ghosttownbluesband.com.
