The Cash Box Kings

(continued from previous page) came from. Believe me folks, there’s more to the Blues than just a good beat. And the guys are most happy to introduce you to a friend of theirs, Chaz. After you hear this song, you’ll be saying, “I Want What Chaz Has” too. Famed Blues singer John Nemeth lends his vocals to this fun-ride of a song.

We had a chance to sit down and talk to The Cash Box Kings’ Harmonica Ace, Joe Nosek and he was able to give us a lot of insight to this great new masterpiece, Oscar’s Motel.

Rock And Blues International: Well, first off, you get a helluva good sound out of Reliable Recorders. The whole album has that distinctive traditional Blues vibe to it.

Joe Nosek: They do great work man. Do you know Jimmy Sutton?

Rock And Blues International: No, I don’t.

Joe Nosek: He’s real known in the Rockabilly, Blues scene, but he’s a Chicago cat. He built that in his attic basically and got all old vintage equipment and really did a nice job making it. It’s live, one room, and it’s a real nice space. The equipment’s all vintage, but it sounds Hi-Fi. It’s been great I think. I think he’s done most or all of Blind Pig Records there and most of the Alligator stuff too.

Rock And Blues International: Are you going to tape or is it digital?

Joe Nosek: We’re going to tape.

Rock And Blues International: That’s what it sounded like to me. It sounded like tape.

Joe Nosek: Yep, yep, it goes straight to tape and they have vintage tape machines and reverb… all analog stuff from back in the day. Eventually everything finds it’s way into the Digital realm, but we cut it to tape.

Rock And Blues International: Yeah, it had that raw sound to it as opposed to that sterile Digital sound. It was really authentic sounding.

Joe Nosek: Yeah, thank you. That’s what we were going for. We don’t use any funky effects to make it sound scratchy intentionally, but yeah, it’s a very warm, vibrant, earthy organic sound and that’s thanks to the room and the vintage equipment and the great engineer Alex Hall.

Rock And Blues International: Well, it also definitely has that ’50s vibe to it.

Joe Nosek: Absolutely, absolutely, that’s what we were going for.

Rock And Blues International: Well, you got it.

Joe Nosek: They made some good sounding records back then and they were some of our favorites, so we try to keep the topics up to date, but recreate that sound. I’m glad that you felt that we got somewhere close to hitting the mark there.

Rock And Blues International: So, tell me… is there an Oscar’s Motel?

Joe Nosek: There is not. It is a fictional location, but it is based off of the hotel that he (Oscar Wilson) knew as a young man on the south side. He said there would be storefronts on the first floor. On the first floor there would be a barbecue joint, a bar, maybe a hardware store, a liquor store and then you’d go get your various items at those places and hang out, then there would be a hotel up above. He describes it as sometimes a hotel-by-the-hour. continued on next page

Rock And Blues International: I’m familiar with those.

Joe Nosek: I guess it was a transient hotel. We kind of intentionally on this album… we feel strongly about our obligations as artists to use our songwriting to highlight issues within society that we feel need attention. I think on this one everyone was so burnt out between politics and the pandemic that people needed an escape and this was a good time. That’s kind of what the theme is that we were going for in the music and the first two tracks on the album. One is “Oscar’s Motel” and that was an invitation to leave your troubles behind and have a good time and come on down to Oscar’s Motel as if he were running one of those places in the ’50s or ’60s. That’s what he was envisioning. And the second song, “Down On The South Side” is kind of a celebration of a really vibrant music scene in his (Oscar Wilson) neighborhood in the ’60s and early ’70s where you could go. He said there was a juke joint and club on every corner. You could bounce around from one place to another, hear different kinds of music, dance, and have a good time.