Gentrification Blues

(Photo from Alligator Records.)

 

My first encounter with The Cash Box Kings was on 7 September 2007 at the King Club. It was a bit of an odd bill that night - kind of like when Jimi Hendrix opened for The Monkees. Also playing were The Treats, a hard rock band in the classic 70s mold, and The Selfish Gene that I recall as having an ELO vibe. The Cash Box Kings opened that night and their traditional take on Chicago blues was out of place.

I felt that those 4 white guys were a reasonable facsimile of the genre though not particularly memorable.

It seems I was wrong because I did remember them as evidenced by my presence at the shiny new Red Rooster here in Madison back in June when The Cash Box Kings played there on a Thursday night. I think the only holdover from that 2007 show was singer/harmonica player Joe Nosek. At centerstage was Oscar Wilson, a black gentleman from Chicago's south side who does a lot to give the band a genuine Chicago blues feel. How Nosek, a white guy from Madison, WI teamed up with Wilson is beyond me. But I am very glad he did.

The band are now signed to legendary Chicago blues label Alligator Records and garner praise and awards for their mix of Chicago blues, R&B, Delta blues, rockabilly, and whatever else they feel like throwing into the mix. Their show at the Red Rooster was a real joy as they cranked out genuine houserockin' music.

As a Chicago ex-pat, I appreciate the band's contemporary takes on my hometown which range from playful ("Joe, You Ain't From Chicago") to the serious ("Blues for Chi-Raq"). As a music fan, I just love their grooves and Nosek's ubiquitous and tasty harp licks.

"Gotta Move Out To The Suburbs" is on their 2015 album Holding Court. Nosek's harp is right up front as it weaves around Barrelhouse Chuck's organ flourishes and Billy Flynn's guitar. Underneath everything is a fairly uptempo groove by bassist Beau Sample and drummer Mark Haines. I love the snare sound here with its great wooden pop. Atop all this Wilson laments the gentrification of some of Chicago's south side neighborhoods.

 

Hearing the song for the first time, I was immediately reminded of a trip that my Frau and I took several years ago to Chicago. Since we were in the area, I drove us to Maxwell Street to see what the neighborhood that hosted the famous market looked like since I hadn't been there since the mid-80s. The University of Illinois at Chicago had acquired a lot of land there and so a lot of development had occurred in the intervening years. It was a wholly different place than the one I remembered.

I suppose it's also commentary on the larger migration of black people out of Chicago. Many leave Illinois altogether but others simply, as in the song, head for the 'burbs.

"Gotta Move Out To The Suburbs" is a textbook example of the band's ability to seamlessly merge old school blues with lyrics are contemporary and relevant.