Jon Justice

Jon Justice - The Rebound - 2008 - Independent

An hour of kickass blues from a Cincinnati white guy. Justice lays down the blues like no other with heavy guitar riffs and solos. Great rhythm section and horn work will please any blues fan. What "The Blues" is supposed to be. © (KH) © 2005-2009 by Texas Music Times LLC. All rights reserved

"The Rebound has been subject to world wide praise and has been charting in the Top 20 of the Roots Blues Music Reports for over 3 months, reaching as high as #8. The album evokes influences from 50's blues icon's, 60's soul kings and 70's funk titans, however at the end of the day, Jon Justice's truly original sound shines through". © www.uptownmarble.com/node/308

A good, no messin' rockin' soul blues rock album. There are no exceptional songs here, but no bad songs either. The musicianship is terrific, especially Jon's great funky guitar work, and terrific sax and trumpet work from the great back up band. Jon Justice also deserves great credit for penning the fourteen tracks here. A really great listen. Buy Jon's great "Forget About Time" album, which is arguably a "stronger" album

TRACKS

1. Nobody's Bizness
2. Bad Bad Man
3. Mean Old World
4. All in My Head
5. The Rebound
6. Blame
7. Leavin' to Stay
8. You and Me
9. Lose It All
10. Working Girl
11. No Good Goodbyes
12. You're Mine
13. Get You Good
14. Brighter Day

All songs composed by Jon Justice

MUSICIANS

Jon Justice: Guitar/Vox/Percussion
Wade Baker: Bass/Vox/Trumpet
Ben Walkenauer: Tenor-Alto-Baritone Saxophones
Eric Mannweiler: Percussion
Andy Miller:Drums/Percussion
Phillip Wolfe:Hammond Organ/Wurlitzer Piano/Harmonica/Background Vocals
Daphne Delva, Javaria Porter, Adrian Simmons, Andre Trice, Holly Steele:Background Vocals

THE BUZZ

"These guys will go someplace, if there's any justice in the world." - Watermelon Slim, 2008 Blues Music Award winner

"Justice is a fine guitar player and vocalist and his original music has a lot of energy and style with wonderful hooks throughout. Give Jon Justice a listen and I think you'll be very pleased with what you hear!" ? Brett Fleming, WEVL Memphis
"Listening to Jon Justice on The Rebound is like listening to the best of Delbert McClinton and Jonny Lang rolled into one, with a little Lucky Spaulding added in. Congrats Jon!" - Bill Hulsizer, Founder, Big Joe Duskin Music Education Foundation
"The kid can flat-out play!" ? Buddy Guy

"I have a strong feeling that The Rebound will cause Jon to get picked up by someone major. It might be the Cincinnati police, but at least his name will be in the paper. I can hear the cop telling him, "Son, it's about your record."" - Phillip Wolfe, producer of The Rebound

"Jon is such a talented kid with such a bright future. The live shows are just great!" ? Wayne Jackson, The Memphis Horns

REVIEW

At only 27 years old, Jon Justice has a sound that is years beyond his youth. Rough and ready vocals and stinging guitar work accompanied by a soulfulness that can only come from spending a lot of time on the road. The Rebound is the sophomore effort and shows that he’s learned his lessons well. From the opening guitar hook of Nobody’s Bizness, Justice’s no-nonsense approach to his music is evident by the polish shown on this release. Bad Bad Man delves into the swamp funk arena with a full horn section laying down some mean charts to compliment the choppy guitar funk. Straight ahead rocker Mean Old World is a radio friendly tune ready to air play. To show his softer side, Justice’s next foray is into the ballad area with All in My Head. Justice has put together a sold backing band, the same band he tours with featuring Philip Wolfe on Hammond B-3, Wurlitzer piano, Wade Baker on bass and trumpet, Ben Walkenhour, tenor, alto and baritone sax and Rudy Miller on drums and percussion. With added background vocals by Daphne Delva, Javaria Porter, Adrian Simmons, Andre Trice, Molly Steele, Philip Wolfe and Jon Justice. Unfortunately it gives the CD a fullness which will be missing in live performances. Too many times I’ve heard CD’s which I really liked because it had a big fat sound with singers and horns and when you see the band live they show up as a three piece. Definitely disappointing. The rest of this CD features a fine array of hook-filled tunes that cover the soul R&B genre but really it’s all been done before and Justice while being a great player and good songwriter, breaks no new ground here and will soon be lost in the masses of bands trying to make it big. © 2009, Tim Richards, BluesSource.com



BIO [ from http://www.jonjustice.com/jon_justice_bio.html ]

Jon Justice was born in the Chicago-Land area in 1982. His first formal music experiences came as a teen touring nationally with Bluegrass and Gospel groups. In 1999 he acted upon the visceral effect such music had had on him. He moved to Memphis seeking to be among those who shared the same deeply felt music sensibilities. Using that musically rich city as inspiration, Justice joined with veteran pianist Steven Bowens (Percy Sledge, Exile), to form The Recipe. They toured together between 2000 and 2003, performing hundreds of shows and turning thousands onto the emerging sounds of Jon Justice. Developing his sound and experience on the road, Justice finally took it to the studio in 2004. He joined forces with Phillip Wolfe, producer of artists such as Alabama, Trick Pony, and Dickey Betts, and Memphis Horn Wayne Jackson, contributor to the outstanding music of Otis Redding, Elvis, Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt, and Aretha Franklin. This partnership lead to the well received debut, FORGET ABOUT TIME, released in 2004. With the release of the surprisingly diverse and deeply delightful, Forget About Time, Justice struck out on his own with the Jon Justice band. From coast to coast, town to town, the JJB toured non stop. The band opened for such diverse acts as Indigenous, Ten Years After, Joe Bonamassa, Silvertide, Tinsley Ellis, Watermelon Slim, Popa Chubby, Anthony Gomes, Guitar Shorty, and Walter Trout. Jon shared bills with music luminaries such as Buddy Guy, Johnny Johnson, Jimmy Thackery, Pinetop Perkins, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Justice also performed at some of the country's best festivals including, Cincy Blues Festival, King Biscuit, Bean Blossom Blues Festival, Blues at the Crossroads, St. Mary's Blues Fest, Blue Bonnet Festival, Turfway Park, and the Fraze Blues Festival. In January of 2008, with his road-tested, rock-solid, touring band, Justice hit the studio once again. And this time, he did it his way. Justice wrote, arranged, and co-produced all of the 14 tracks that make up his sophomore release, THE REBOUND. "The fewer cooks in the kitchen, the better the food", Justice says. "I wanted to be as hands-on as possible and I think it comes through on this record, man"! His new release, THE REBOUND, (Independent May 27, 2008), is jam-packed full of original swamp-driven blues anthems, searing slide guitar, and the sweet soul ballads Justice is becoming known for. THE REBOUND evokes influences from 50's Blues icons, 60's Soul kings, and 70's Funk titans. At the end of the day, 14 tracks and 70 something minutes later, this album is however all Jon Justice! THE REBOUND, named for a girlfriend's - friends nickname for him, takes on a grittier, more organic approach than his debut. With lyrically honest, intimate songs that recall private moments shared between individuals, snippets of political commentary, and a band from hell (actually Cincinnati), THE REBOUND is a Blues-Soul-force to be reckoned with. Possessing a soulfulness that belies his youth, Justice is constantly exploring musical influences and expanding his repertoire. The "Jon Justice sound", is always pushing outward towards fresh expression, reverberating as it does with Justices' singular take on the events of day and building innovatively on the bedrock of the pioneers that came before him. "Write what you know, play what you feel. That's what I try to bring to the table," Justice says. "I don't know any other way!" Justice was recently sited as Best of Cincinnati 2008 Blues Singer/Slinger, won the Cincinnati Blues Challenge representing the Queen City at the IBC in Memphis. In 2007 Justice was nominated for three C.E.A's for Best Blues Artist, Best Live Act, and Best Up and Coming Artist and appeared in a Bootsy Collins', ( James Brown, Parliament Funk, George Clinton), video "BENGAL ROCK". Jon was also honored with a C.U.LA.N award by the city of Cincinnati for his artistic contributions to the community in 2008. © www.jonjustice.com