"Magic Sam's 'She Belongs to Me' is just a good song. "Johnny puts his own rockabilly twist on 'Don't Start Crying Now,'" Berlin pointed out. The three covers songs were all tunes that had been part of the band's live show for years. "Rolled and Tumbled" really evokes those Muddy comparisons, with good reason. Hoy's bass-baritone vocals will remind fans of Muddy Waters, or perhaps Leonard Cohen, or even Tom Waits, except all Hoy's words are understandable. Buck Shank's guitar solo enhances the raw roadhouse groove, yet the song manages to be sweetly poignant at the same time. The tune "Dancing Danny O" is certainly a memorable tribute, a steamy blues-rocker with visceral harmonica from Hoy, and lines that note the fellow "drew his last breath to 'Got My Mojo Working" as he went down "with a smile on his face," and all things considered, it's not a bad way to go. That's a good example of a song where he had the total concept, and came in and told us all 'I want you to play this, and then that." Johnny has had that one percolating in him for a long while. We wanted to remember him, but didn't know quite how to go about it. "This man who we'd known as a fan for a while, essentially danced himself to death. "Dancing Danny O" is about a very intense event that happened to us," Berlin explained. "Dancing Danny O" is the story of a fan who used to love to dance at shows, until one night he had a heart attack on the dancefloor and passed away in the middle of a Bluefish show. One song is particularly touching, even as it is among the most infectiously fun tunes. Generally the lyrics and main melody are all Johnny, and the arrangements are more of a group effort." He had developed that piano line for a song he had, so structurally the tune is all his, including the female backup singers on the choruses. "Like 'Daddy Right,' that funky take on it is all him, a vision of that song he's had for years. "On some tunes Johnny just has his vision all mapped out in his mind," said Berlin. The three covers range from a rockabilly boogie to a Fred Neil ballad, to a vibrant Magic Sam strut. Roadhouse rockers like "Rolled and Tumbled" stand next to funk like "Daddy Right," a title cut that could be a Cajun waltz, and a country piano ballad ("What's the Story With Time?') that could be compared to Jimmy Buffett's serious side. The new album includes a dozen tunes, nine of them originals. That hasn't yet resulted in national fame, but since three of the members are devoted residents of the island, and all of them are family men by now, the music is its own reward. The band has also always been known for its ability to improvise, and jam out some tunes beyond ten minutes, which, coupled with their infectiously danceable music, helps make them a perennially popular club act. He's got a knack for penning memorable lines, and a voracious musical appetite that shows up in songs that might blend blues, country, folk, zydeco, and swing-sometimes simultaneously. Vineyard singer and harmonica player Hoy, who still maintains a workaday persona in masonry, formed the band in 1991, and almost from the start the focus has been on his original tunes. Hoy and the Bluefish will be performing at Venus II in Marshfield on Thursday, December 11, from 8-11 p.m., with no cover. Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish pretty neatly fit the definition of a roadhouse rock band, which, ironically, makes them fall between the cracks in today's music world.īut that doesn't make the music the Martha's Vineyard quartet creates any less compelling, as they prove on their fifth album, "The Dance," which came out over the summer.
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