The Smoke Wagon Blues Band: Jukin' For 30 Years
By Ken Wallis | The Sound Journal
Photo Credit: Ken Wallis.
From an interview on BluesSource Canada with Ken Wallis
Thirty years is quite a benchmark for a musical band, but The Smoke Wagon Blues Band has kept their wagon rolling with decades of music and performances. It proves that talent and a desire to keep the Blues alive and thriving is not only possible, but an accomplishment to be proud of.
Releasing a live double album is an event that few musicians would undertake, but Corey Lueck and the band don’t play it safe. Hence Still Jukin’ is a remarkable album.
“I wasn't really thinking that it was a double album until we got into the mastering phase and I realized that it was a double album. And then I thought, oh, this is going to cost a lot more money than I originally expected for manufacturing and things like that” mused Corey.
The band knows how to celebrate the Blues and pull out all the stops when they take the stage. Even from their early days, audiences could tell this band was in it for keeps.
Why the band name?
Corey Lueck:
"We always thought a smoke wagon was what Indigenous people might have called the first steam trains they ever saw," he explained. "A wagon that makes smoke. That's how we always looked at it. But I've also seen reference to it as a gun, but we've never looked at it as a gun’”
What an apt name for a band that’s steamrolled its way across Canada’s Blues landscape
Still Jukin’ highlights the energy and enthusiasm of a band that refuses to stand still, even after 30 years. The album was recorded live at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener, Ontario, and the lineup includes Mike Stubbs (Corey’s writing partner) on guitar, Steve Sherman (producer) on guitar, Peter Beacock on keys, Gord Aeichele on sax, Chris Riding on bass, and Keegan Early on drums.
The band recorded the afternoon performance which was intended to be a warmup for a later gig, but that never happened.
"When Steve and I finally pulled it off the shelf and listened back, we realized the material was pretty damn good," Corey recalled. "We didn't need a second show."
When you’re this good, a warmup is not needed. They decided to go with the original recording.
It All Started in Hess Village, Hamilton.
Looking back on the band's beginnings, Lueck readily admits Smoke Wagon sounded very different in its early years.
"We were kind of known as the Grateful Dead of the blues," he laughed. "Songs would go on for twenty minutes, head off in crazy directions, and then somehow find their way back.”
As the band matured, that “crazy direction” began to be replaced by more sophisticated tunes, with the works of Bobby "Blue" Bland, Ray Charles, classic R&B, and soul music.
“We just kind of started refining our songwriting. And every album was a new process and a new learning experience. And we learned that there was kind of rules to R&B. And there was
rules to soul. It's just small things that you got to kind of follow that you might learn from your producer. And that changes the way you write music and the way that you would attack music. So yeah, we kind of went from a big jam blues band to more refined songwriting.”
The Band is Truly Canadian
Many of the songs that Smoke Wagon perform highlight the traditions and lore of Canada with songwriting that aches to tell stories. Songs like Ballad of Albert Johnson and Matapedia River Blues keep the folklore alive.
"Ballad of Albert Johnson" tells the story of the "Mad Trapper," who sparked one of the largest manhunts in RCMP annals. And then there’s Matapedia River Blues which Corey wrote about Northern New Brunswick, where the Matapedia River valley meets the Quebec border.
"I was visiting family and camping there," Corey recalled. "The area was just so beautiful I knew I had to write a song about it.”
Why the title Still Jukin’?
"It basically means we're still out there,” Corey asserts. "We're still playing clubs. We're still doing festivals. We're still happening.”
Thirty years and nine albums is no lean accomplishment. This band means business. The band is holding a CD release party of Still Jukin’ at Hamilton's Corktown Pub, with the Glen Marais Band opening on November 29th.
Still Jukin’ is a remarkable album. “Our live shows like to be, and we're in a rhythm when we're playing a lot of shows in a row’’… it's whatever songs we’re kind of feeling right at the time. And I think that was kind of easy that way. We threw a couple chestnuts in there, I guess, but geez, if I had my way, I'd just keep recording another live show with more different songs, another live show with more.” Corey sums it all up.
No doubt Smoke Wagon Blues Band will continue Jukin’.
Can’t wait for the next thirty years!
The Sound Cafe Journal
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