By Ken Wallis.
The Lowdown Dirty Mojos were so inspired by Muddy Waters 1966 live video of 'Got My Mojo Workin' that they decided to create their own version of that rockin' 60's R'n'B sound. On this their second album, the band proves the formula is a sure winner. It’s fire-brand blues with a gritty edge that’ll knock your socks off. This is one of the best releases of this year.
Ken Wallis interviewed Paul Wootton and Stephen Foster of The Lowdown Dirty Mojos for the radio show Blues Source Canada. The following are excerpts from that interview.
Ken Wallis
The Lowdown Dirty Mojos…they've got a new album out called Stone Cold Groovers and one of the joys of being a host on a radio show is that you discover new bands, But boy is this a surprise …this band is right in my own backyard of Hamilton, Ontario. Joining us to talk about the band are Paul Wootton and Stephen Foster. Hi guys… how you doing?
Paul Wootton
Good… how are you?
Doing great
Ken Wallis
It's really nice to hear your music and to meet you. Let’s talk a bit about the band name…so Paul where did that come from?
Paul Wootton
Well it's something that we actually use in our promo. Steve and I have played in a couple of bands together and we've done a bunch of material and we just happened to be watching a video during a recording session one night of Muddy Waters in London England doing Got My Mojo Working and we said this is the kind of stuff we should be doing except original, We just kind of steered everything that way and reorganized everything we were doing and started a new band and took the name directly from Muddy Waters
And Stephen why the title Stone Cold Groovers?
Stephen Foster
Well actually Paul chose the title. It's a lyric from one of his songs
Paul Wootton
You're going to play…Tombstone Angel. The line’s right out of that song.
We had a few titles but that was the one that that Paul brought back the most often.
Ken Wallis
And Paul one of the songs on the album I really like is Mystic Highway Six. Tell us all about that song.
Paul Wootton
If you read anything about The Band and Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks …they used to play down in Dover almost every Sunday there back in the day. They always refer to that area as kind of a mystical place. So we took like a musical trip down Highway Six to Port Dover…that's what the song's about.
Ken Wallis
How do you guys go about writing your songs.
Stephen Foster
A lot of different ways actually. A lot of times Paul brought some that were fully formed already and I had one that way… and then we'll just kind of jam ideas… some of them are just sketches at first. Like She's The One…Paul had an idea…he just had a chord progression idea that would work and the song kind of got built around that first and then everything else. Sometimes the lyrics are first and sometimes the music's first but usually one of us has some kind of a direction for something and then we just toss it around between the two of us and work out the arrangement.
Ken Wallis
It certainly seems like a strong collaboration between the two of you.
Stephen Foster
We've been writing songs together since 89 or so…off and on and when I joined The Crawling King Snakes with Paul, I wasn't really writing a lot of songs…I was a little bit but we spent a year in the kitchen before we went and got a rhythm section. When Paul rebuilt the band and just wrote songs that kind of kicked everything off. Since then we’ve written with a lot of other people too which you always pick up a little bit more along the way.
Ken Wallis
And Paul this is your second album. Do you feel that your music on the second album has changed from the first?
Well the feedback that we're getting from people is that it's a continuation of what we've been doing…. it's more mature and Steve is the engineer and did most of the mixing on the record. A lot of it has to do with his ability to come up with those mixes…it's not just all the writing. Steve has to be given credit for his ability as a sound engineer.
Ken Wallis
And Stephen who else plays on the album with you guys?
Stephen Foster
Well, we’ve got Robert Jarovi on piano… Joe Csontos on drums…and Bucky Buchanan on bass. Those guys have all got a musical pedigree…everybody in this lineup have done lots of other things before we wound up playing together. It's a nice mix of styles.
Ken Wallis
Where is the album available?
Paul Wootton
In Southern Ontario it's not fully integrated into all independent stores yet but it's in quite a few…all through Hamilton London areas like that. We're slowly but surely getting it on cd into all the independent record stores in Southern Ontario plus we do have a big online presence…we're right now on every online platform…you can download our songs or the album.
Ken Wallis
Well I'm really looking forward to the day when I can see you guys perform live because it is a terrific album. I congratulate you I hope you guys have great success with it.
Website: www.thelowdowndirtymojos.com