Date:
March 21, 2015
Venue:
Benji's Bluesdoggle
Place:
New Smyrna Beach, Fl
Earlier that day, the three members of
award winning blues band from Canada,
Monkeyjunk boarded a plane in below freezing temps and snow falling in
Ottawa, Ontario. When
Steve,Tony, and
Matt arrived to their destination in Florida, as usual there was plenty of sunshine, sandy beaches and ice tea was
mandatory. We Americans need to pay more attention to Blues Artists of our neighbors to the north, simple as that. Blues is alive and well in
Canada and
Monkeyjunk is proof of that. They took the stage in the heat of the late afternoon and absolutely delivered an hour long set of
Killer Canuck Blues! The band has been playing together for seven years -it shows. They are tight, vocals are outstanding and the guitar and harp work is impeccable.
Steve Marriner is a triple threat with powerful vocals, guitar and harp.
Tony D is an exceptional lead guitarist, doubles on vocals and whips out the
telecaster for slide work that was music to my ears!
Matt Sobb lays down the beat with percussion that brings it all together.
Monkeyjunk won the prestigious
Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year in 2011 with their album:
To Behold. Their set borrowed heavily on that release as well as 2009's
Tiger In Your Tank and the current recording:
All Frequencies. I circled
Benji's Bluesdoggle to see them and was anticipating their first Floirda appearance. So glad I did. With a Photo pass to the festival I was able to capture a few images that will accompany this article. Please check out the video posted as well and remember the name:
Monkeyjunk, you will be hearing more of them in the future.
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