The Cash Box Kings

(continued from previous page) style of Blues and do it really well… He’s just a team player. The newest member of the band is John W. Lauler, on upright bass. He’s a great young Blues, Jazz, and Soul player out of Chicago and he’s really done a lot of woodshedding and did his homework. He knows himself and is great every time that we play. And then there’s our piano player Lee Kanehira. Unfortunately she lives in Tokyo, so we don’t get to play with her a lot. She usually comes to the US for a month or two and will often meet us when we tour in Europe. She’s really one of the best boogie woogie piano players in the world right now and she is just so good at doing exactly what needs to be done on piano. She’s a male Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins, Sonnyland Slim, and Memphis Lynch. She’s got them all down. We recorded this album live, so there’s a real synergy and an ensemble approach that we take as a band. No one’s trying to outplay anyone. We’re just team players. We listen and we really try to play together as a group and I think it carries through in the recording and the live shows that we play.

Rock And Blues International: I really think it sounds very authentic. It doesn’t sound multi-layered. It does sound live. I think it carries through in the recording perfectly. It definitely doesn’t sound like everybody showed up at the studio at different times and did their part. It sounds very cohesive and together. It sounds like there’s a real connection between all of the band members.

Joe Nosek: Well, we’re locked in. We record these albums live and in 90% of our shows, that’s the lineup that you hear on this album, that’s who’s playing live. A lot of shows, a lot of miles. Traveling together I think has made us a tight band. I think the novel thing about this record is probably that a lot of the songwriting was made on Zoom. People were isolated, laying low and Oscar and I… it was like ‘Oscar, I’m going to teach you how to use Zoom.’ I learned Zoom and then I taught Oscar how to use Zoom. Despite the idea that we’re playing this older, retro style of music, we were able to capitalize and use up to date technology to help us in putting this album together and writing it. By the time the Pandemic opened up and we were able to get back in the studio together we had those whole set of songs ready to go. I think that’s what really made this album unique compared to the others.

The Cash Box Kings Oscar’s Motel is a celebration of the Blues that you won’t want to miss. It’s filled with great moments and tons of fun. As you can tell from the interview above, a lot of thought went into the making of Oscar’s Motel. They were able to take their time during the pandemic to sit down and constructively take advantage on this tragedy of American history and turn it into a very constructive period for the band and create a fantastic new album. Every song on this album is simply a masterpiece and I really can’t wait for everybody to hear it. Oscar’s Motel was very inspiring for me to listen to. From the opening bars of “Oscar’s Motel” to the last note of “Ride Santa Ride,” The Cash Box Kings kept my ears glued to the speakers. It’s definitely one of the best Blues albums I’ve heard in the last couple of years. I’m sure you’ll feel the same way I did once you start listening to it. Be sure to pick it up today. The Çash Box Kings are vocalist Oscar “Mr. 43rd Street” Wilson, Harmonica player and vocalist Joe Nosek, guitarist Billy Flynn, drummer Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, bassist John W. Lauder, and pianist/organist Lee Kanehira.