#707 > BillyLee Janey Band - King of the Roll (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 

2024 – Fervor Records

By Phillip Smith; Sep. 28, 2024

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

King of the Roll, the latest album from BillyLee Janey Band is seventeen tracks of all-original hard-driving blues-rock, and I absolutely dig it. I’ve been a fan of BillyLee’s work for quite a long time, and he never ceases to amaze me. With Janey on all guitars and vocals, he is joined with Tommy T-Bone Giblin (Lonnie Brooks) on B3 and clavinet, Dan ‘DJ’ Johnson on bass, Bryce Janey on bass guitar, Eric Douglas on drums, and Troy Harper guest drummer on “Lucky Star”.

Setting a strong impression, the album leads off with title-track “King of the Roll” a song loaded with a funky rhythm and searing guitar licks. Douglas’ commanding approach on drums fuels this smoking track. The rolling sound of Giblin’s B3 sets a groovy background for Janey as he lays down the law on “Killin’ Flow”. In a fabulously smoldering performance, Janey and band conjure memories of the ferocious derecho which tore through Iowa in August of 2020 in “Iowa Hurricane”. That was a day I will never forget, and the song captures the event in a most honest way. I love the propulsive “Hellbound Nite Ryder”. The song guides the listener down a mesmerizing journey of Janey’s guitar mastery. “Rain Fallin’” is an amazing track with a jazz-soaked rhythm which brilliantly takes me back to 2008 when a hundred-year flood wreaked havoc across Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hearing Janey cut loose on the nearly seven-minute long instrumental “Star Spangled Blues/Mountain Fire” is a genuine treat.

BillyLee Janey Band truly shines with King of the Roll.  I highly recommend giving this album a listen.

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For more information about BillyLee Janey, visit https://fervor-records.com/artist/billylee-janey/

 

Check out previous PhillyCheeze reviews and photos of BillyLee Janey with this link:

https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/search?q=Billylee+Janey

 

 

#456 : BillyLee Janey - 20 Dollar Tip

2020 – BillyLee Janey

By Phillip Smith; Aug. 1, 2020

 

It’s always exciting to hear new material from Iowa Blues Hall of Fame member BillyLee Janey (Truth and Janey).  Janey’s bravado is a force to be reckoned with and his brand of electric blues is hard to beat.  For his latest album, 20 Dollar Tip, Janey returns to the studio with Dan ‘DJ’ Johnson on bass, Eric Douglas on drums, and Tom ‘T-Bone’ Giblin (Lonnie Brooks, The Dynatones, Mighty Joe Young) on Hammond B3 to produce an engaging, well-crafted record.   His son Bryce Janey mixed and mastered the record, and also appears on backing vocals.

Title-track “20 Dollar Tip” takes off in a dazzling fury with a wonderful display of searing guitar licks.  Flexing its muscles with a hard-driving rhythm and serious B3 back-up, it’s a great song to kick things off with.  Janey infuses a tasty bit of funk in his infectious tribute to delta blues in “Way Down in a Mississippi Town”.  This is definitely one of my favorites.  If there were a category for Best Soul Blues Song of the Year, “Love’s Gonna Stop That Train” would definitely be a contender.  The song is absolutely fabulous.  In “Stepping Out with the Blues”, Janey’s performance drips with Chicago-style authenticity, and sounds like perfection.  This nine-track album comes to a rollicking close with “Shake My Soul”, making for one hell of a blues jam. 

20 Dollar Tip is a splendid listen from start to finish, and highly recommended. 

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The Janeys - Get Down With the Blues

Grooveyard Records,  2013

By Phillip Smith; December 22, 2013

It has always been a pleasurable treat when Billylee Janey and Bryce Janey join forces to play as The Janeys. With Get Down With the Blues, their third studio release playing together, they continue a family tradition of producing outstanding blues.  Accompanying the talented father/son team is bassist Dan ‘DJ’ Johnson, and drummer Eric Douglas.  Also joining the crew on four tracks with his Hammond organ is Tommy ‘T-Bone’ Giblin.

Get Down With the Blues opens strong and closes even stronger as the Janeys cover Jimi Hendrix’s “Beginnings” on track one, and serving up a very cool rendition of ‘Third Stone From the Sun’ on the last track.  I love the dual electric guitar sound riding atop the percussionary bus driven by Douglas on “Beginnings”. Billylee and Bryce trade licks back and forth as if fighting it out in a psychedelic guitar-centric ‘Thunderdome’. 
I consider “Third Stone From the Sun”, the desert at the end of the meal.  I just want to close my eyes and listen when it comes on.  Johnson and Douglas keep the trance-friendly rhythm going while the Janeys totally let loose on their guitars.  This one is the crème de la crème.

The Janeys offers up quite a soulful rendition of “It’s Not My Cross to Bear” from the Allman Brothers Band’s self-titled album.  I like the way it witfully ends with the closing riff from “Whipping Post”, also from that same Allman Brothers album. Giblin and his Hammond, gives this one authenticity.   Still on the subject of covers, I have to smile when I hear “Mind Bender”, the classic ditty from Stillwater about a mind-bending guitar whose father was a Gibson and mother was a Fender (that’s why they call him Mind Bender).  The Janeys also nail down “The Good Love”, a track from Johnny Winter’s Second Winter album.  Bryce’s deep vocals fit this one very well. 

There’s some really nice originals on the album too.  I really like the slightly unsettling track, “When the Devil Comes Out to Play”.  It has a retro Seventies Blues Rock vibe and just the right amount of fuzz.  “The Rose” is another one that made me perk up and take notice.  Marinated in a big bucket of Southern Rock, I hear a definite Allman Brothers influence running through this one.            

The Janeys scored big with the appropriately titled, Get Down With the Blues. This collection of Blues Rock is a sweet blend of deep covers and interesting originals.