This Fourth of July, the Poor House Bistro is celebrating sixteen years of blues, brews, and flavorful cajun food with a blowout to remember. The event is sure to be the last anniversary held at their original location on Autumn St., as the entire Bistro, 100-year old Victorian and all, is about to relocate to Little Italy to avoid the path of Google development. The party begins at 4pm with a parade from nearby Diridon Station. Once it gets back, Jefe and the Family Band kick out the jams and keep them coming til the sun goes down.

PHB 16 Year Anniversary
Sun, 4pm, Free
Poor House Bistro, San Jose

AC Myles has it bad and, buddy, there ain’t no cure. Morning, noon and night, it’s there with him. The blues. On new album With These Blues, the Central Valley-born guitarist charts one man’s descent into the azure hue note by note, and fret by fret. Once described as “perhaps the only soulful thing to come out of Fresno,” Myles puts some grit on his guitar this Saturday at Poor House Bistro, playing out those blues that have shaken him (and perhaps you, dear reader?) to his very core. Sure there’s no cure, but there is plenty of good company.

AC Myles
Sat, 6pm, Free
Poor House Bistro, San Jose

San Jose’s New Orleans joint, Poor House Bistro, is filling up this Sunday with food and live music straight from the Big Easy, at their annual Lil’ Easy event, a backyard party fundraiser for the Stroke Awareness Foundation. Poor House will be showcasing six Bay Area blues bands alongside a silent auction and a special menu featuring charbroiled oysters. The acclaimed boogie-woogie pianist Wendy DeWitt and harmonica wizard Gary Smith are both slated to perform, bringing the rich musical heritage of New Orleans with them.

Lil’ Easy Backyard Party
Sun, 11am, $60
Poor House Bistro, San Jose

Even if you don’t recognize the name, you’ve probably heard the Stone Foxes. Their music has been used in multiple TV shows, including Showtime’s Shameless, FX’s Sons of Anarchy and a 2013 Jack Daniels TV campaign that prominently featured their cover of Slim Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee” (a song once covered by The Rolling Stones).

Ahead of the release of their most recent album, the Stone Foxes ran into an increasingly common problem for bands these days.

“Every single person who makes vinyl is backed up like 6 months,” singer and multi-instrumentalist Shannon Koehler says, referring to a global dearth of vinyl pressing factories.

Despite the hold up at the plant, the San Francisco band’s fourth full-length, Twelve Spells, still managed to ship in time for its March 18 U.K. release. When I speak with Koehler, he is just completing the final preparations for shipments and signing records for pre-orders.

Though technically an album, the production of the set of songs on Twelve Spells was unorthodox. Instead of going into the studio to record the whole album in one go, the songs were recorded at different times. Even more unorthodox is the fact that the composition of the band itself changed in the process. In this sense it is a document: capturing a band in flux, and highlighting the changes the band has gone through since being featured on national television.

“It was this chronicle of how new guys got into the band,” Koehler says, describing the album’s development, and the gradual accumulation of new members.

A propos of the process, the band decided to release each of the songs individually, putting a new one online once a month for a year.

“At the end we thought, well, this is an unconventionally put-together record,” Koehler says. “Should it be put out like a conventional record? We kinda thought it would be cool to give our fans something new every month.”

It’s clear that the whole band thinks of the record as their first step in a new direction. And for the three newest members (guitarist, bassist, and drummer), it literally is.

Since its U.S. release last September, the band has been touring regularly, crisscrossing the states and making their first jaunt across the pond. England is a long distance for the California natives, and they recently followed up the tour with a show that took them almost home, to Fresno—near where the core members of the group grew up, just outside the even more remote Tollhouse, population: 2,000.

The group’s rural upbringing is clearly audible in their sound, which pays homage to all things Americana. And though it might now have rebranded itself around hyperreal techno-capitalism, not that long ago, the sound of San Francisco used to be similar.

“There’s such a rich heritage,” Koehler says, poignantly, on the music of San Francisco. “From the garage guys, down to the punk ’80s scene, to the Dead and Big Brother, and Quicksilver Messenger Service, Canned Heat, Sly Stone, and all that stuff …”

The sounds of San Francisco’s Summer of Love can be heard all over Twelve Spells. Keyboardist Elliott Peltzman channels gone-electric Dylan with tremulous, “Like A Rolling Stone” organ and stabbing metallic Rhodes chords. Lead guitarist Ben Andrews strangles his axe with Hendrix-ian aplomb and occasionally picks up a fiddle along with bassist Brian Bakalian. And when the Foxes are quiet enough, you can almost hear the casters of the speaker cabinets rattling in harmony with the amplifier tubes.

With these elements in place, they have all the touchstones of a classic San Francisco lineup. Though they’re based only an hour away, the Stone Foxes have rarely played in San Jose.

“It’s kind of bizarre,” Koehler says. “It’s like Santa Cruz, you know, they’re both great spots, but for whatever reason we don’t get down there very much.”

For years there was not a single mid-sized venue downtown. But with the recent opening of the Ritz, more national acts—like our neighbors, the Stone Foxes—are finally coming to San Jose.

“We’re excited,” Koehler says. “Its cool to be able to stay close to home on a weekend and just party as hard as we can.”

The Stone Foxes
Apr 1, 8pm, $10-$13
The Ritz, San Jose

It’s early afternoon and Rival Sons guitarist Scott Holiday is calling from a hotel room in Winnipeg—or “Winterpeg” as locals call it. “It’s even too cold for Canadians here,” the lifelong Southern Californian jokes. It’s amazing what sun worshippers will put up with if it means their band gets to support Black Sabbath, as the Sons will tonight at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre. “These are Black Sabbath’s shows,” he humbly adds—“we’re just blessed to be here.”

The blues-inspired rock & roll of Rival Sons has drawn comparisons to Cream, Led Zeppelin and The Animals, but there’s a Muscle Shoals country soul thing going on as well. “We just want to sound like us,” Holiday explains. “We don’t want to bullshit the listener.”

When not coaxing you with a quivering whisper-sing, vocalist Jay Buchanan declaims like a Pentecostal preacher. The booming 2/4 stomp of drummer Mike Miley and walking bass lines of Dave Beste evoke Zeppelin’s rhythm section. Holiday knows his way around the guitar (check the epic soloing on “Manifest Destiny, Part 1” from 2012’s Head Down) but bristles at the idea of anything technical in his playing. British bluesmen, including Jeff Beck are influences, but so are modern avatars such as Jack White. “He plays with a lot of fervor and personality,” Holiday says of the ex-White Stripe. “I’ll take that over the dude fresh out of school who can burn through every mode and scale.”

Rival Sons’ latest offering, the Tour Edition of 2014’s Great Western Valkyrie (live versions, B sides, and acoustic performances in Norway with Holiday playing dobro) contains a cover of “Black Coffee” by Humble Pie. “I’m a huge Steve Marriott fan starting with Small Faces. If you watch reruns from (British TV show) The Old Grey Whistle Test, they did a version of ‘Black Coffee’ with The Blackberries on backup. That was inspired, and it’s always stayed with me.”

Supporting rock royalty is nothing new for the Sons, who just finished a European trek with Deep Purple and have toured with AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Guns & Roses. They got a standing ovation in Omaha on the opening night of the Sabbath tour, but it’s hardly gone to their heads.

“No matter how ‘normal’ it becomes there’s still the quiet moment on every tour when we’re like, ‘These are the people in the music magazines I read as a kid. This is where all the licks I learned started. Oh my God!’

Rival Sons
Feb 9, 7:30pm, $105
SAP Center, San Jose

Many bands plug away for years, playing house parties, clubs and smaller halls before they ever reach a stage inside an arena, assuming they even reach such a stage at all. But the South Bay-bred indie-blues-rock group Fritz Montana were fortunate enough to play at Oracle Arena in Oakland—on their fourth show.

This isn’t to say the members of Fritz Montana haven’t earned their success. The group went up against a slew of great local bands in Live 105’s local band contest before pulling in the most votes and nabbing the coveted opening slot for the radio station’s annual Not So Silent Night concert last December.

“It was beyond a dream,” says Fritz Montana bassist Kevin Logan, who recalls how the gravity of the accomplishment didn’t totally sink in until the group showed up at Oracle the day of the show. “The second we stepped into that arena, we started seeing all the techs, the roadies, the sound guy—it was really overwhelming.”

Since last year’s NSSN, Aaron Axelsen, Live 105’s music director, has continued to play Fritz Montana’s tunes on his weekly local and new music show, Soundcheck. When the group recorded some new tracks earlier this year, he put those into regular rotation on his program as well.

The group’s infectious mix of heavy, blues-tinged alt-rock and high-energy pop—a la The Arctic Monkeys and The Black Keys—has been earning the band a following, at home and around the country. According to Logan, the NSSN gig served as a springboard to bigger local shows and a seven-show run at this year’s South By Southwest.

For a band that is hardly 2 years old, Fritz Montana are certainly making big waves. That doesn’t come as a surprise to San Jose promoter Barbara Wahli, who caught the group’s very first show at San Jose State University.

“I loved the songs and knew they would resonate well with a large audience,” says Wahli, now Fritz Montana’s manager. “They have so much potential and everyone I contact responds positively to their music. My gut tells me big things will happen for the band.”

So far, Wahli’s predictions appear to be on point. Fritz Montana saw a large turnout at the July 26 release party for their new EP, Scaredy Cat, held at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco. And in addition to regular spins from Axelsen, they’ve garnered some positive press. The music blog, Infectious Magazine put Fritz Montana on its “best unsigned bands to watch in 2013,” while another music blog, Lucy Out Loud, featured the band on one of its new music compilations.

“Every show I feel like, we build up a little more momentum,” Logan says. “When we started we did not have a game plan. The experience of playing in front of several thousand people, that got us hungry for bigger shows.”

Fritz Montana play The Blank Club on Oct. 24 at 8pm. More info.

Growing up in San Francisco with a “beatnik” for a sister, it didn’t take long for Rick Estrin to be introduced to the blues. “When I was 11 years old she started showing me some of her blues records,” Estrin recalls. “I was instantly fascinated.”

Champion Jack Dupree’s first album, Blues from the Gutter, especially impressed the young Estrin. For his twelfth birthday, he received a copy of Ray Charles’ The Genius Sings the Blues, a record that inspired him to learn how to play the harmonica.

Estrin formed the electric blues/swing revival combo Little Charlie and the Nightcats with Charles Baty in 1976. In the years since, the group has released nine albums and a live collection, and have toured the world. Baty retired from music in 2008, and Estrin has taken over as leader and will be fronting The Nightcats this Saturday when they headline Redwood City’s PAL Blues, Arts and BBQ Festival.

The Nightcats released a live record earlier this month called You Asked For It…Live!, recorded at the Biscuits and Blues nightclub in San Francisco. It’s the band’s first live record since Baty’s retirement.

The group still plays songs from Little Charlie and the Nightcats’ catalog, alongside newer songs from the band’s two newer studio albums. “Earlier on, Charlie and I would write songs together to compliment his swing-inspired playing style, but now everyone gets involved,” Estrin says, explaining that the different blues backgrounds of his bandmates help make a stronger, more democratic songwriting process.

Recently, Estrin’s harp playing earned him critical accolades. The Blues Foundation granted him a Blues Music Award for his harmonica playing in 2013, and he and the Nightcats share four other nominations for Blues Music Awards in the past four years.

The Blues, Arts and BBQ Festival is a free event benefiting the city’s Police Activity League. Estrin joins six other acts on Saturday, including Bay Area artists the Aki Kumar Blues Band and Danny Caron’s Good Hands Organ Trio.

Southern California set Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers play on Friday evening.
In addition to the music, Rack and Roll Barbecue will be serving food, and Matagrano Distributors will provide a lineup of craft beers. The Blues, Arts and BBQ Festival takes place Friday, July 25 from 6-8 pm, and resumes the following afternoon from 11am to 6pm. The event is part of Redwood City’s “Art on the Square” series of summertime events, which put a spotlight on Downtown Redwood City.

The Nightcats are looking forward to playing a show in the Bay Area, an opportunity they do not often have due to constant touring. “We only get to play in Northern California 3 or 4 times a year,” Estrin says. “The rest of the year, we’re touring.” Estrin also loves the festival’s lineup. “A lot of blues festivals feature bands that are really just hard rock. But all the bands playing here are blues. They’re the real deal.”
—Jonathan Davis

Rick Estrin and the Nightcats
July 26
5pm
Courthouse Square, Redwood City
redwoodcitypal.com/blues

Trying to pin down Maxx Cabello Jr.’s sound is no easy task. Even he can’t do it. So when he decided to start working recently on his album Love and War, he saw no other way to capture all his different styles than to make a double album with 32 songs.

“I know it seems crazy, but I have so much music,” says Cabello, who performs at the Blank Club on October 13. “I want to give somebody an album that they’re going to have at least one song on it that they’ll really love. It gives everyone an option, whether you like blues, rock & roll, soul, Latin music or a hip-hop feel. I want everyone to feel my music.”

The album is tentatively scheduled to come out next March. As the title suggests, it will showcase his tender love songs, as well as the heavier, darker material.

In order to complete the weighty task of producing a double album, Cabello has been recording a little bit at a time. When one song is ready, he’ll take it up to Fantasy Studios in Berkeley and record it from start to finish. In some cases—like with the Curtis Mayfield-inspired soul song “My Love”—not only has he finished the track, he’s already made a video and released it on YouTube.

This pace of recording will not only give each song a distinct texture, it will also allow him to put his all into each song, he says.

“If you pull all your creativity out at once, it gets watered down,” Cabello says. “When you let it flow naturally, it’s so much more beautiful. It gives it a chance to breath. You know when a song is done when it’s perfect to you. That’s how long it takes.”

Despite all the different styles of music Cabello play—Santana Latin rock, Chuck Berry rock & roll, 1970s classic sou—it all comes back to the blues. The raw emotion in the blues spoke to him the first time he heard it, which was back in high school. His neighbor (and mentor) Jerry Rubalcaba introduced the genre via a mixtape of blues classics. From then on, the blues would shape how Cabello approaches music.

“The blues is so simple, but it’s really cool and deep,” he says. “You cannot imitate the blues if you ain’t got that soul. It gave me the foundation I needed for music.”

Cabello’s connection to the blues probably explains why, despite his young age, he often gets labeled an “old soul.” The music he loves tends to go back to the pre-digital era, back when early rock and soul were all done with live bands, and audiences expected raw, honest, energetic performances.

San Jose local Maxx Cabello Jr. is known for his guitar chops, his soulful voice and for mixing it up with a wide range of styles. He plays everything from slow soul jams, blazing electric blues and Latin rock. In the case of his new video, “My Love,” he digs into old-school romantic soul, a throwback to the days before the style was dominated by drum machines and synthesizers.

A quick Google search reveals footage of Cabello playing eight minute blues guitar solos, which he’s quite talented at, but the simplicity of “My Love” makes it a good place to start for people new to his music. Like the video, the song is smooth and sweet—just a straight forward love song with nothing over-complicated about it.

The video holds special significance because it helped Cabello land an opening spot at San Jose’s Jazz Summer Fest this Friday after submitting it to festival organizers in a contest where people voted for the song they liked best. “My Love” won by a landslide.

Cabello opens the San Jose Jazz Festival on the main stage at Cesar Chavez Park this Friday at 5:30pm.

If there’s an unofficial theme that dominates this year’s Metro Fountain Blues Festival, it’s the power of the Chicago blues sound. And indeed, the Chicago sound did literally bring power to the blues, turning the acoustic Delta tradition up to 11 with amps and electric guitars.

But to headliner Fountain Blues headliner Elvin Bishop, Chicago blues represents an even greater power. It’s an electrical force of nature, and he remembers the first time it struck.

“I heard some by accident one night, driving from Memphis, Tennessee,” says the Oklahoma-raised Bishop. “I heard it on the radio, and it went through me like lightning. I don’t know, I just went crazy for it.”

The man he heard on the radio that night was Jimmy Reed, who released his first album in 1958, when Bishop was 16 years old. Though less well known than fellow Chicago bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, Reed had as much lasting influence as any of them, influencing Elvis, Van Morrison, the Yardbirds, and many more. He was practically an obsession to the Rolling Stones, who have covered many of his songs.

He hooked Bishop, too, and after that, Chicago was like a beacon. He was a National Merit Scholar finalist in high school, and went to the University of Chicago on a full scholarship to study physics. Now, however, the truth can be told.

“It was kind of my cover story,” admits Bishop of his esteemed academic career. “It was my ticket to Chicago. Gradually the music just crowded it out.”

How could it not, considering that within three years Bishop had met up with fellow student Paul Butterfield, and begun meeting blues heavyweights like Waters and Wolf. For five years, Bishop played guitar in the Butterfield Blues Band, whose 1965 debut record would decades later be named one of the 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone. He released two more albums—and played the Monterey International Pop Festival—with the band, before beginning a legendary solo career that has lasted almost half a century.