Hokie Joint

Hokie Joint - The Way It Goes...Sometimes - 2008 - Cool Buzz

"Wonderful emotive harmonica playing, great tone and all that stuff." (Paul Jones, BBC Radio2)

"The finest player that I heard since Eric Clapton and I were together and he was at it's finest. It's like Joel picked up where he left off." (Bobby Whitlock, Derek & The Dominoes)

Hokie Joint is a good eclectic, fresh sounding blues band from Colchester, England. The band has an authentic old time Delta blues feel with a refreshing new twist, and their material is mostly all original. Jojo Burgess and ace harmonica player Giles King played on Ian Siegals "Meat & Potatoes" album. Comparisons to the great UKs blues man Ian Siegal himself are already being made by the music media. "The Way It Goes. Sometimes" offers a great variety of styles with a crossover potential to a wider audience. The music is very well played, and with time the material should get stronger. Hokie Joint play mainly around the Essex area in Britain, and are striving to spread their music further afield. The album and band is a welcome addition to the British Blues scene, and Hokie Joint is a band with good potential. "The Way It Goes...Sometimes" is a good introduction to Hokie Joint's music.

TRACKS

1.The way it goes...sometimes
2. Mrs Jones
3. Franklin
4.Chocolate cake
5.Back where we are going
6.Tom Rushen blues
7.The crying song
8.Ghost
9.Clarksdale mill
10.Chain me
11.Lost in the city

BAND

Vocals: Jojo Burgess
Guitars: Joel Fisk
Bass: Fergie Fulton
Drums: Stephen Cutmore
Harmonica: Giles King

REVIEWS

An exciting new band have emerged in recent months. They're known as Hokie Joint and feature Felixstowe-based harmonica player Giles King in their ranks. It never ceases to amaze me just how busy Giles is. As well as his commitments with Hokie Joint he's also a regular sideman of American bluesman Lightnin' Willie and it seems whenever a British blues star visits Ipswich they invite Giles up on stage to blow on a few numbers. In recent years Matt Schofield, Ian Siegal, Paul Lamb and Earl Green have all called on Giles's expertise and Suffolk's King of the blues never fails to deliver. Giles isn't the only well known local musician in the quintet. The rhythm section of bassist Fergie Fulton and drummer Stephen Cupsey Cutmore used to provide the backbeat for the much missed Booze'n' Blooze while vocalist Jo Jo Burgess and guitarist Joel Fisk complete the line-up. They've only been together for a year but have wasted no time in completing their debut album The Way It Goes, Sometimes. Word is spreading fast about Hokie Joint's new approach to the genre and the Dutch label Cool Buzz have signed them up and at the time of writing are about to issue the aforementioned CD. © Stephen Foster, 2008, BBC Suffolk website

I am fortunate to receive many new CDs to listen to and many are played once and then join a pile to listen to again later. Sadly many on that pile do not get played again! By contrast, a CD that has been an almost permanent fixture in my player is this, the debut offering by Hokie Joint and very exciting it is too! Hokie Joint is an Essex based band formed in very late 2007 which brings together two very talented young men in their early 20s, Jojo Burgess on vocals and Joel Fisk on guitar and bvs with three equally talented not so young men, top harmonica player Giles King and a rhythm section that has played together since they first met at a jam more than twenty years ago at the birth of what was to become the notorious Booze’n’Blooze, Fergie Fulton and Stephen ‘Cupsey’ Cutmore. The result is stunning! The CD contains all original material bar one re-arrangement of a Charley Patton number and is a joy to listen to whether it is for Giles’ great harmonica, Jojo’s gravelly, smoky vocals, Joel’s gloriously dirty guitar or Fergie’s intriguing bass lines or Cupsey’s fine drumming. Fresh, raw yet rich, this is a superb debut from a band that surely has a great future. Search Hokie Joint on Google for loads of clips and help yourself to a slice of ‘Chocolate Cake’! Superb! © Ashwyn Smyth, January 2009, www.digitalblues.co.uk

SHORT BIO

Hokie Joint are a five piece band from Colchester, England. On one hand we’re talking part Waits, part Wolf vocals, fuzzing slide guitar, dirty harmonica, driving bass and train-like drumming. On the other hand it’s gut-wrenchingly emotional vocals, melancholic guitar playing, sweeping harmonica, well constructed, melodic bass and intricate, mesmerising drumming. These musicians have covered all corners of the blues that influenced them and forged together a refreshing new sound. From perfectly executed slow blues to high-energy upbeat tracks that audiences can’t help but dance to. The difficult task of writing blues with a catchy chorus is something that this band revel in. A vibrant, stimulating live band, harking back to the club scene of the sixties but with a distinctively original modern approach. Hokie Joints debut album “The Way It Goes…Sometimes” was released in November 2008 in the Benelux countries, shortly followed by a release in other territories. Hokie Joint Having played before in bands that supported acts such as Geno Washington and James Hunter, or in bands winning prestigious band competitions (hosted by Jools Holland) for “best unsigned band” these guys are now ready to go the extra mile. Charismatic singer Jojo Burgess, guitarist Joel Fisk, ace harmonica player Giles King (who guested on Ian Siegal’s “Meat & Potatoes”), drummer Stephen Cutmore and bassist Fergie Fulton make up Hokie Joint – the band to take the Blues to the masses.