Andy Poxon Must Not Be Crazy

Must Be Crazy (EllerSoul Records) by Washington area guitarist-vocalist Andy Poxon is the latest by a young phenom that certainly has attracted the praises of many like Duke Robillard (who produced his previous CD) and Mark Wenner of The Nighthawks who is quoted on the back cover. For this, Poxon travelled to the Nashville area where he recorded at Kevin McKendree's Rock House Studio. McKendree (himself once a young DC area phenom) handles the keyboards and co-wrote 4 of the 13 Poxon originals (and his son Yates co-wrote the last track as well as plays organ).

Poxon's continual growth and maturity as a guitarist and a singer is established right away. here is someone who has listened to vintage B.B. King, Pee Wee Crayton, Tiny Grimes, T-Bone Walker and the like and brings a lot of heart and personality to his vocals as this recording starts off with a B.B. King styled bluesYou Must Be Crazy, with some explosive guitar. There's the appealing New Orleans groove of Living Alone, and the sizzling jump blues Next to You, with his fleet, clean, uncluttered guitar standing out. There is terrific slow blues, "Cold Weather" where Poxon evokes classic T-Bone Walker, and he is equally comfortable with the sophisticated jazzy feel of Too Late. The closing instrumental, Rebound, with Yates McKendree, has a nice relaxed groove that evokes classic Memphis soul instrumentals of the sixties.

The performances here are uniformly first-rate. Kudos to McKendree, bassist Steve Mackey, drummer Kenneth Blevins and saxophonist Jim Hoke for the terrific backing. The McCrary Sisters and Chloe Kohanski add backing vocals. But Andy Poxon is the star here and as a singer, as a songwriter and as a guitarist, he has hit a grand slam with the fabulous music on Must Be Crazy.

I received my review copy from a publicist. This review appeared in the September-October 2014 Jazz & Blues Report.  Here is Andy performing with Mark Wenner & His Blues Warriors. 

Andy Poxon Tomorrow

I first became aware of Andy Poxon as a mid-teen guitar prodigy with a distinctive red-haired afro. Recently I saw him with DC area saxophonist Scott Ramminger with whom he had shared a short tour and the two were playing songs from their respective recent releases. Listening critically I was struck by the maturity he displayed as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. These qualities led Duke Robillard to produce his new Ellersoul records recording Tomorrow. On the notes he observes that Andy “is a complete and mature musician at the ripe old age of 18.” Further Duke notes that how Andy arrived there was partially “derived from intense listening and research for the American traditions of of blues,early R&B, classic country hillbilly, rockabilly, swing and jazz.”

Tomorrow was recorded in Rhode Island under Duke’s supervision with his band of Bruce Bear on keyboards, Brad Hallen on bass and Mark Teixeira on drums with Duke adding guitar, and horns from Rich Lataille, Mark Earley and Doug Wolverton. With the exception of an instrumental Jammin’ At Lakewest, co-written with Duke, Poxon composed all of the performances.

The music on this is quite enjoyable as Andy has crafted songs that reflect his musical inspirations with a definite pop slant perhaps. His natural singing shares the appeal of the lyrics with elements of blues and classic R&B (a definite New Orleans flavor can be heard on several songs including the lively All By Myself). Other songs reflect his youthful experiences such as You Lied where he caught her with him and finds his baby has lied to him from the start and tore his world apart and College Boy, with its rollicking groove as his baby left him for some old mean college boy. The title track is a lovely ballad with a hopeful lyric and nice trumpet from Woolverton. 

Here is Andy Poxon with saxophonist Scott Ramminger at JVs in Falls Church.

In addition to his songs and vocals, his guitar playing stands out. With all these ear-splitting blues rock guitar prodigies being touted and promoted, it is refreshing to listen to Poxon’s guitar. One can hear elements of rockabilly mixed in with his straight blues attack. His attack, tone and the swing in his solos contrasts with the blues-rock of some of his contemporaries. A good case in point might be the closing Jammin’ at Lakewest. This is a jump blues instrumental feature for Poxon and Robillard, with swinging single note solos from both. Its certainly refreshing to hear a young guitarist who does take off from Stevie Ray Vaughan but rather channels such legends as Tiny Grimes, Al Casey, and Johnny Rogers.

It is tempting to talk about someone of Andy Poxon’s age as a performer that exhibits considerable promise and how interesting it will be to see how his music evolves. It must be stated that Tomorrow is a choice recording of blues and roots that stands on its own considerable merits.

I received my review copy from Andy. This review was written a couple months ago and I should have posted this earlier. Here is a short video clip of Andy and Scott Ramminger I took.