by rudyards | August 18th, 2012
Please join the H-Town Jukes as we pay tribute to and celebrate the life of our friend Leo Aston, local blues guitarist and leader of the Leo Trio. Leo fought pancreatic cancer for a year before succumbing to the disease on July 26th. The upstairs performance space at Rudyards will be open beginning at 1PM on Saturday July 18th so we can celebrate Leo. Live music will be provided by the H-Town Jukes and Snit’s Dog and Pony Show. There will be an all-star jam with the Leo Trio’s rhythm section to end the event. In between the music, friends of Leo will be reminiscing and telling stories of the man we all loved so much. Food will be available for purchase at the downstairs bar. No cover charge. Damn skippy!
H-Town Jukes (Houston, TX)
https://www.htownjukes.com/
Houston Texas is the home of a distinctive brand of blues music that encompasses a wide range of blues styles. The Houston blues sound ranges from down-home country blues through Texas shuffles to Louisiana swamp and classic Chicago-style blues. This unique sound that once filled the clubs and icehouses of Houston is often forgotten in the history of American blues music. The H-Town Jukes keep this sound alive by faithfully recreating it in shows throughout the Houston area and Southeast Texas.
In early 2003, at a weekly jam session held at Danelectro’s club in Houston, Larry Bernal and Steve Gilbert were paired onstage for the first time. They quickly found out their styles complimented each other well, and a close friendship was born. In May of that year, Houston blues legend Joe “Guitar” Hughes passed away. Hughes was a well-known guitarist on the Houston blues scene, and both Larry and Steve had sat in separately with Joe at club shows in the past. It was at Joe “Guitar” Hughes’ funeral that Larry and Steve decided that the time was right to begin playing shows in the Houston area. They named the band the Dukes of Houston, in honor of Joe “Guitar” Hughes mid-1950s band, the Dukes of Rhythm. This incarnation of the band (later known as Larry and the Jukes) played clubs around the area from 2004-2006, often employing Houston blues scene legends Eugene “Spare Time” Murray and Charles McCall on bass guitar and Johnny Prejean on drums. The band decided to take an extended break in August 2006 in order to work on other projects.
In March 2007, the decision was made to re-form the band, and a new band name was in order. Combining their two previous band names, Larry Bernal and Steve Gilbert decided to call the band The H-Town Jukes. Larry and Steve had been looking long and hard for a standup bass player to augment their sound. In early 2009, they found one in Kirk Schafer, a veteran of the Houston music scene who has played in numerous bands around town and around Southeast Texas, most notably Ben Bell & the Stardust Boys. Kirk’s standup bass helps provide the H-Town Jukes with the vintage tone the band has become known for. Later in 2009, drummer Carl Owens joined the band to round out the lineup. Carl has played drums on the Houston Blues scene for 20 years, playing with many legendary Houston blues artists including Pete Mayes, Jerry Lightfoot, Big Walter “The Thunderbird” Price, Pearl Murray and Sherman Robertson.
In May 2010, the H-Town Jukes released their debut CD, “Long Time Comin’”, on 80 Proof Records. The CD contains 11 songs, 5 originals and 6 covers from artists including Silas Hogan, Weldon “Juke Boy” Bonner and Johnny “Clyde” Copeland. It was recorded at Rock Romano’s Red Shack recording studio in Houston, and was produced by Rock Romano and Steve Gilbert. Songs from the CD have received extensive airplay on KPFT 90.1 Pacifica Radio in Houston and WWOZ in New Orleans, as well as college and internet radio stations throughout the world.
In April 2012, the H-Town Jukes welcomed a new drummer into the fold. George “Thumper” Nuñez began playing drums in clubs and cantinas in the Houston area at the age of 12. He went on the become the drummer for the Dropkick Chihuahuas, a popular Houston club/party band, during the 1990s and early 2000s. George later joined the Leo Trio as their fulltime drummer. George’s drumming style, heavily influenced by classic blues and jazz, enhances H-Town Jukes’ trademark old-school sound, and he is a welcome addition to the band.
The H-Town Jukes are gearing up to record their second CD in 2012, with release scheduled for early to mid 2013.
The H-Town Jukes keep their sound true to the blues of Houston’s past, playing original blues tunes and cover blues songs from the 1940s-1960s. The H-Town Jukes play regularly around the Houston area and Southeast Texas.
Snits Dog and Pony Show (Houston, TX)
https://www.snitshow.com/
Snit’s Dog & Pony Show is not a circus act or freak show!!It’s simply an American Roots Rock and Roll Band.They’ve been playing around town a few years now, and Snit’s Dog and Pony Show make no bones about it — originality is overrated. They seem to take as much pleasure in turning the amps to 11 for a rousing version of “Down, Down, Down” from the first Dave Edmunds album as in playing their own… songs. As on their covers-heavy first album, Three Chords and a Cloud of Dust, the new No Good Deed Goes Unpunished finds Snit Fitzpatrick and his like-minded mates sifting ’80s vinyl and the rocking B-sides of their childhood. They faithfully dig into “Got You on my Mind” by Gulf Coast legends Cookie & Cupcakes and smoke through two little-remembered tunes by Scottish blues legend Frankie Miller. Their closing take on Professor Longhair’s “Roberta” is especially choice.
It’s surprising, given Pony Show’s penchant for faithful interpretations of faded classics, but the clutch of originals on the disc not only work alongside the classic nuggets, they manage to catch that working-man’s-boogie vibe that informs the best work of Houston artists from Lightnin’ Hopkins and Albert Collins to Roy Head and Rodney Crowell. If Pony Show guitarist Sam Dunlap’s “Whiskey Highway” isn’t cut from a strip of pavement along Telephone Road, my GPS is busted.
The Leo Trio (Houston, TX)
https://www.theleotrio.org/
The Leo Trio are, Leo Aston on Guitar and Vocals, Bella Adela on Bass and George Nuñez on Drums.
Leo has been playing blues since he saw Albert King in London in 1990. He moved to the States permanently in 1999 and has played in several Houston area bands before moving to New York City and started his own project, playing at Kenny’s Castaways, on Bleeker, twice a week for several months and opening up for the Smithereens and Willie Nile at Kenny’s Castaways 40th anniversary in ’07. He moved back to Houston shortly thereafter and put a new trio together playing all over the Houston area.
Several band member changes later, a CD, “Have You Heard” and a music video of the song “Don’t”, along with a slot at the Houston International festival in ’11, find the Trio going strong with a new CD in the works.
Bella Adela is a rock star in the making! She plays like no other, which fits right in with George and Leo, cuz they do the same! Her capacity for music, understanding, capturing, harnessing and unleashing a groove is second to none. She is a busy woman with many outlets, each one demanding in focus which Bella rises to every time. Jeesh, can we say anymore awesome things about her? Sure we can We love you! She’d like to thank you all in person and will do right after she melts your face off!!
George Nuñez grew up in D.H., living around the crazy people there when one day he heard Stevie Ray Vaughan. This experience turned him from a hard core punk rocker into a blues enthusiast.
From then on he decided to expand his mind to everything else in the blues spectrum, be it funk, blues, soul and R&B. He played in the Dropkick Chihuahuas for about 10 years but now he thinks he found his true calling.
He has Leo, his family and himself and the blues spirit, which will carry them along with the help of their fans. He loves road trips to the Texas Hill country, the Valluco, and to Mexico (before it went to hell), and loves to people watch. George says, “There ain’t nothing wrong with a good cold beer, no matter the brand. Yee haw. Y asî es la calabaza.”
