It took about five months, but now I'm quite sure my best albums and tracks of 2009 list is incomplete. Inexplicably, until this past week, I completely missed 'Tell 'em What Your Name Is!' by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. My embarrassment is tempered only by that giddiness you get upon hearing an absolute gem.I'm a huge fan of James Brown, the old Stax scene and most of Atlantic's R&B division. Well, Black Joe Lewis and the boys wear all of these influences on their sleeves. So much so, in fact, it could be a turnoff to some in the same way early Sugarplastic was considered too derivative because they sounded so much like XTC. Well, I'm swallowing these tunes, hook, line and sinker anyway. I don't care that the horns on the album's opener, "Gunpowder," sounds exactly like The Bar-Kay's "Soul Finger." If you're going to steal, plunder from the best. If you have been digging Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, this is going to be right up your alley. Buy it here.
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Sugarfoot (mp3)
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Gunpowder (mp3)
Bonus: The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger (mp3)
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