Last week’s passing of legendary guitarist Smokin’ Joe Kubek was stunning, both for the loss of an icon and for his young age: He was only 58 years old, and strong as ever with his consummate guitar play. I was particularly staggered myself. I really got into his stuff when I began enjoying the Texas blues genre. I have most, if not nearly all of his albums, going back to The Axe Man, released in 1988.
I’m wondering what Bnois King will do from here. He and Kubek were bonded together for over 25 years, and were pretty set in their style. With his jazzy, soulful voice, and pretty adept guitar himself, he should be on his feet pretty quickly. It won’t be the same, though, without Kubek’s Texas blues rock technique. It will be interesting.
Kubek’s wife Phyllis has a PayPal account to get her through this coming year with Joe gone. Few people get rich in the music business these days, and she doesn’t have anything to fall back on in an emergency like this. If you’d like to make a donation, she can be reached at
Pkubek AT tx.rr.com.
