Live Just B: Episode I – The Phantom Band

Great bands don’t just appear. The current live JUST B show is no exception. All that fun we’re having jumping around on stage has come about as the result of years of hard work and patience.

It all began about 4 years ago, in 2004. With no band, and my vain hopes of making some money on a cruise ship dashed by the utter boredom of it all, I decided to hole up somewhere and regroup for another attack on the music scene. Armed with a $50 set of antique drums, a couple of amps, guitars, and a recording device, I set about writing a new show.

The goal was simply to write and record a show that would rock any room, using my own songs, plus some of my all time favourite covers – re-arranged to suit my playing style of course. I wanted the show to be something everyone could get off on; the audience and the band. I wanted it to be raw and fresh sounding while still giving the audience songs they could sing along with and dance to. Most of all I wanted it to sound, for lack of a better term, “band-y”. . . 3 piece, raw energy. I was hoping to capture the spontaneous sound of a real band jamming it out . . . without actually having a band.

My method was simplicity itself. I basically used my recording studio as a time machine. Each day, I would start out with whatever instrument my body wanted to grab onto . . . usually the drums. With everything mic’d up and ready to roll, I pick a song – I always choose something that haunts me, and then I just jam out. After that I repeat the process with the guitar, and the bass, and then my voice. So basically, in time I end up with songs just kind of congealing out of the jams . . . just like in a band. I guess since i’ve played so many songs with so many bands, it was easy to put myself in the headspace, and the jamming usually would end up shaping ITSELF.

I knew I could do it . . . you see I had spent years slugging it out in the trenches with rock and roll crazies, seemingly just for this very purpose. I spent years behind the drum kit singing my head off. . . 3 years hefting the bass as a frontman, and another 3 years making my living with a guitar . . . not to mention years of writing, arranging, recording and arguing in endless rehearsals and studios. I also served my time as band sound tech, and band recording tech – - on top of all that, there’s also the fact that i’ve been greedily devouring rock and roll all my life . . . the point is i had seen the beast that is a rock show from just about every angle and i knew i could do it…

…and after 3 months of steady work, i had about 30 songs . . . enough to do a show!

Walk this Woman – Just B

Just B’s Fortune

After a 3 year hiatus, Just B is finally ready to hit the clubs with a new band! Featuring: Just B on the guitar & vocals, Ted Zettle on the bass, and the one and only Izzy Bartok behind the drums. The band is smokin hot, and the music will hit you right in the gut, and make you wanna dance your ass off. Check the site for gigs. See you soon,

Just B & Co.

Review: Meanwhile Back on the Asteroid

Review by John Gardiner

Innovation and interpretation are two of the most important concepts in rock
‘n’ roll – and, indeed, if there is a “spirit” of rock ‘n’ roll, both of
them would make up a big part of it – the ability to take the ordinary and
make it extraordinary – making the old sound new and fresh – knowing when to
stay the course and when a change in direction is needed. When you mess with
someone else’s art, you better know what you’re doing.

Just B’s compilation CD, “Meanwhile Back on the Asteroid”, is a fresh take
on some mostly well-known tunes collected from the last 40 years of rock ‘n’
roll – certainly not the best-known tunes in the history of rock, but tunes
the singer/songwriter obviously feels strongly about. Bob Dylan, the
Ramones, Leonard Cohen, Jimmy Cliff, Blondie – an ecelectic mix of music
pulled together and connected by the passion of Just B.

With the exception of some keyboard work on one number (ably performed by
pappa Andy B), Just B did everything on this CD, impressive stuff when you
listen to some of the soaring guitar solos and know the guy playing them
started out on the drums. Some great guitar breaks, clean, crisp bass work,
outstanding rythym and percussion work and well-produced – a real treat to
listen to..

This is straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll that reminds the listener where music
should have gone all those years ago. Right from the opening two cuts,
Springsteen’s Cadillac Ranch, and David Byrne’s Psycho Killer, this is a
high energy disc that moves briskly from one end to the other. It has its
tender moments, as well, but this is mostly good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll
that stays with you – something that is rare in today’s throw-away and
transitory world.

The range of tunes stretches from the sweetly melodic stylings of Leonard
Cohen’s Hallelujah to the Dylan’s bittersweet 60′s anthem Blowin’ in the
Wind to the Tragically Hip’s Ahead by a Century and each is done with Just
B’s distinctive and definitive style – showing respect for the original
work, but bringing a fresh, new approach to it – something that is not easy
to accomplish.

I’ve spent most of the last 30 years wandering in a rock ‘n’ roll desert –
it has been a difficult time to be a fan of the music that defined one
generation and passed on a powerful legacy for future generations. But every
once in a while in the middle of this musical desert, there comes an oasis –
and sometimes it is worth the struggle. Just B makes me remember something
of what came before.

If you’ve been a fan of classic rock back in the old days, or you’re just
finding your musical self, “Meanwhile Back on the Asteroid” is a wonderful
listen where the integrity of the original pieces is maintained, but
innovation and interpretation combine to make the tunes come alive again for
a new time in rock history.

Just B has deep musical roots and brings a good part of that tradition to
the table when he makes music, but there is a new feel to his music, whether
he’s performing his own songs, or producing interpretations of some of his
favourite songs from rock history – there are even elements of rap, but
given character by a talented musician.

Check it out! Know there’s still some great rock ‘n’ roll music being
created and played. I’ve heard it myself, and I’m not an easy sell……

Review: Hotshow & Afterglow

Review written by: John Gardiner, Ontario.

I’m an old rocker who broke his musical teeth in the mid to late Sixties
when there was a golden age of rock ‘n’ roll filled with innovation and
fresh new sounds. Since then, I’ve survived disco, punk, metal, grunge and a
seemingly endless succession of pretenders to become hier to that magic time
of great rock music.

Not one of them have quite cut it, but over the last few months I’ve been
listening to some music that has made me think where rock music should be as
we enter the new millenium. Hotshow & Afterglow, the 2005 release by
Canadian-based rocker Just B, is a wonderful collection of rock ‘n’ roll –
simple but sophisticated, straightforward, catchy, with thoughtful,
imaginative lyrics.

The record is an impressive production, with Just B writing all tunes,
except for one co-write (Hero), and one cover (I Wanna Be A Cowboy), and performing all music and lead vocals.
Instrumentation is excellent from the get-go and it’s clear he’s a talented
musician. Most of it is hard-driving, go-for-broke rock ‘n’ roll, but there
are also moments of great tenderness and soaring melody lines.

The disc contains a neat variety of rythyms and vocal stylings, any that
could have caught major radio airplay when there was sanity in the music
business and fresh, innovative talent actually had a chance for exposure.
That’s what I kept thinking as I was listening to it – any of these tunes has
the integrity to have succeeded back when rock ‘n’ roll music was a great
artform that revolutionized society.

Lady Freak Show, the opening track caught my attention right away, as the
type of music that is classic rock before it’s time – if that’s possible.
It’s followed by the self-titled Just B and Hero, two more excellent
examples of what this versatile songwriter is capable of. I Wanna Be a
Cowboy is perhaps the catchiest tune on the album – after my first expsoure,
I was humming it for several days.

I smiled, too, to see a song titled Jack Kerouac. Indeed, as one of the
hitchhiking hippies of the late 1960′s, I owe much to Kerouac and have been
a fan since high school. And when the tune started, and it had an almost
rap-like quality to it, I thought that Jack would appreciate being brought
forward to 2008 in such fashion.

This is a great collection of music – and if you’re like me and haven’t
bought a record (except at garage sales and flea markets) for about 25 years
because you’ve lost faith in rock music, this is a great place to have that
faith restored. Well-produced, well-played and able to take you out of the
ordinary, even for a little while. Highly recommended as where rock music
should be in 2008. Check it out!

Buy this album at CD Baby

one . . . two . . . a – one two three . . .

 

hi everybody, and welcome. just b here, blogging it out in the middle of nowhere for your reading pleasure. i’m in songwriter’s heaven right now, thanks to a new friend of mine called peter harris – a tapestry artist who also lives around this little chunk of rural ontario. you see, in the last days of 2007, with all the holiday excitement, friends, realatives, and canadian customs roaring away like a hurricane all around me, i started pining for a nice secluded retreat where i could hole up for a while. at the same time, unbeknownst to me, peter had been invited to speak at a big textile conference in india, but was having trouble finding someone to take care of his farmhouse . . . his nice secluded rural retreat . . . see where this is going. he mentioned it to my mom, who mentioned it to me, and bammo – we got in touch, met face to face, and it was decided. i would take care of his chickens, his house, and a sweet heart of a little old lady cat, zorra. so here i am. nice and settled in now.

it’s day 6 of my retreat already. i’m feeling right at home feeding chickens and wood fires. i have no movies or TV (blech!!!!), and i’m rat-tatting this blog on an old windows ’98 machine, and zipping it through the dial up connection straight to you, dear reader. my routine is rustic by today’s standards . . . i get up early (very strange), feed the animals (myself included), start the woodstove, have a little read with tea, and then play guitar and sing all day and late into the night.

officially, i’m here to write songs for the next cd and put together an intimate show so i can start doing some house concerts.
It was another new friend of mine, the extremely talented singer/songwriter dean mctaggert that turned me on to the idea of house concerts. it’s the latest thing these days i guess. there’s a network of people who hold small, groovy concerts in their living room. it’s not exactly a new idea: beethoven, for instance, played little shows in peoples salons all the time in his younger years. and more recently, back in the great depression (1930s) robert johnson and many other great blues artist did the same. juke joins they called them. i had no idea that this kind of thing was going on right under my nose however, so when dean told me about it, suggesting i look into it, i got very excited right away. now to get a few gigs . . . .

unofficially, i’m here to attempt to read all the great books i can. peter’s house is stuffed with great books – fiction, non-fiction, travellogs, magazine collections, plays, essays, graphic novels, you name it. i’ve already read a handmaids tale (margeret atwood), and on the road (jack kerouac). i cracked open the outsider (camus) this morning, as well as allen ginsberg’s howl. on deck is cat’s cradle (kurt vonnegut jr), and cities of the red night (william burroughs).

i’m excited as hell to be here. it’s been a dream . . . like i said, songwriter’s heaven – peaceful and languid. almost wish i could stay a year. well, that’s about it! i’ve blah blah blogged enough . . . far too much perhaps. thanks for checking in. see y’all on side B.

from the boonies of the great white north:

just b