Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

Based in Austin, Texas, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears have developed since the mid-2000s a fusion of electric blues, soul, funk and garage rock driven by Black Joe Lewis’s gritty guitar and vocals, supported by a rhythm section and horns. Outside the academic circuit, Lewis discovered the guitar while working in a pawn shop and honed his craft on Austin’s club stages before shaping the Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears project around a sound close to 1960s rhythm and blues, filtered through a more direct rock approach. Signing with Lost Highway led to the release of Tell ’Em What Your Name Is! in 2009, followed by Scandalous in 2011, which established the band on indie circuits and festival bills. Under the shortened name Black Joe Lewis they released Electric Slave in 2013, before returning to the full moniker with Backlash in 2017 and The Difference Between Me & You in 2018, continuing an aesthetic centered on simple guitar riffs, taut rhythms and economical but present horn arrangements.