Last night, Johnny Barnes & The Night Crawlers kept the crowd at Smoken’ Joe’s BBQ in rapt attention for three hours. The four-piece that features front man Johnny Barnes on guitar and lead vocals opened with an instrumental jam a wild, raucous number that informed right off the bat this band has a heavier, wilder sound than most blues bands.
Barnes and his crew each have an edge. Aside from the lighting that kept coming out from under Barnes’s fingertips, he had keyboardist-sax player Skip Mahler, bass player Rubin Pacheo, and drummer Dave Watson all slamming along to his guitar mania.
Barnes’s fingers moved around his fret board faster than your eyes could keep up, playing like a man possessed by a blues shaman, keeping his fans in a trance with his mesmerizing guitar work. With one vocal line Barnes and his Night Crawlers slammed right into “I Can’t Quit You, Baby.” Barnes sang it with the fire and passion the Willie Dixon classic calls for. The guitarist has clearly mastered the song after spending a lot of time with it. The sax chimed in with a dual melody line that straddled the worlds of rock and blues.
Throughout the night, the rhythm section kept things solid and tight. Bassist Pacheo made a low end sound wide, heavy, and expansive. Drummer Watson packed a wallop on every smack of his skins. Mahler, meanwhile, whipped up all kinds of funky organ chords, riffs, and screaming midi saxophone.
Barnes rocked up “I’m Ready” at the microphone while the music moved down the fast lane in a solid, groove, keeping the behemoth locomotive on track. Barnes blew out a guitar phrase to beat the band. He just played it faster than a drag strip racer. He is just one of those players that you have to hear to believe. Words can never do him justice.
Barnes also has quite a knack for interpretation. He approached Ray Charles’s “Unchain My Heart” with a rocking guitar, hefty chords slamming the songs forward while Mahler provided a classic R&B piano melody underneath. Barnes treated last night’s audience to his 1970s hit “Steel Rail Blues.” He got a great effect from his pedal, the phrase containing an electronic over lap whir that shadowed his melody well.
Barnes’s interpretation of Willie Dixon’s “Back Door Man” was really rocked up, and, it gets played a lot on Sirius XM Channel 70. Mahler put some heavy sax lines over it before banging out some bluesy piano.
Mahler’s Lynyrd Skynerd tribute band, Mr. Breeze, has a show coming up soon. If you saw him last night, you would want follow up on his various projects.
Barnes went into B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby” by sending his guitar phrase into the stratosphere, poking through into outer space, and orbiting around the globe. He just makes his guitar sound like its an unfettered machine that go wherever it wants. Mahler tossed in some funky keyboards screams that actually matched the intensity of the six string. At one point, Barnes broke a string and just kept on playing, transposing the notes the other strings as he went along.
On B.B. King’s “How Blue Can You Get” Mahler provided the classy piano that juxtaposed in gentlemanly fashion with Barnes’s riffing. “Made Up My Mind” featured a really clean, clear guitar line that cut through a mountain of rhythm section magic.
Barnes and his Night Crawlers played Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” like a study in tight, locked in grooves. The beat and rhythm were solid enough to walk across and Barnes shuffled over it with spiraling, grinding guitar phrasing. The Muddy Waters’ classic “I just Wanna Make Love To You,” also written by Willie Dixon, played out like a rocked up R&B number by these guys, funky guitar riffs and swinging sax and vibrant organ swirls highlighting Barnes’s gift for interpretation.
The Jimi Hendrix tune “Red House” got a unique treatment that didn’t really work and didn’t hold the crowd’s attention too long. Yet, a lengthy bass guitar solo from Pacheo rolled on and on with rollicking fun, taking some interesting turns but staying within one elaborate pattern. This low end guy is a busy player who knows his instrument intimately.
Barnes had some fun with vintage songs, “I Put A Spell On You,” “Pink Cadillac,” “It’s A Man’s World,” “Shakin’ All Over,” “Little Sister,” and “Rock And Roll Music.” These played out much closer to their original versions, and these guys nailed all the subtle nuances these classic tunes are known for.
Johnny Barnes and the Night Crawlers finished up with “Tore Down,” leaving a roomful of happy fans, many of whom purchased his last CD, The Thin Blue Line-The Willie Dixon Tribute, released in late 2009.
The drummer Watson really is the sh*t …known his playing for years !!!!