The Cash Box Kings

(continued from previous page) but I had faith in my guitar player that he wouldn’t lead us astray and Oscar showed up in a 3-piece orange suit and he got up and just killed it. He did three songs and got three standing ovations. I said, ‘okay, I think we’ve found a spot for this guy in the band.’ That’s how we were introduced to him and he had worked day jobs, labor jobs his whole life, and never ever been a professional musician up to that point, but he it’s in his DNA. That guy is a human jukebox. His father was a Blues musician and had passed away two months before he was born. His mother was friends with a lot of great neighborhood Bluesmen like Junior Wells, Elmore James, Honeyboy Edwards, and Big Smokey Smothers. They’d all come to his house on Friday nights for Oscar’s mom’s fish-fry parties. It’s in his DNA. It’s part of just who he is and it’s been a real incredible journey to make music with him and now writing songs with him. He had never written songs before, but I said ‘Oscar, you can do it, man’. We started writing maybe ten years ago and with every album he’s played a bigger and bigger role with songwriting duties. It was one of those things that kept us kind of sane during Covid when we didn’t gig much. We’d get online and just grabbed a guitar and started running through ideas. I think it’s really blossomed into a great musical partnership when he started writing songs.

Rock And Blues International: Tell me a little about the writing process between the two of you when you write a song. I would imagine that he would come up with the lyrics and you would put together the music end. Does he give you a feel on how he would like the melody go with the lyrics? to you and the band, but is there one song or two songs that when you listen to them you go, ‘Yeah, this is the real Cash Box Kings?

Joe Nosek: Yeah, it kind of varies from song to song. Most of the times I will generate the music and some of the lyrics and then we come in together and collaborate. But, there are the ones, like Oscar’s Motel. That is a great example where he came to me with the idea, an idea in his head and a lot of the lyrics. It’s really done on a song by song basis. I think the most typical way is that it comes from a conversation that he and I have driving or flying somewhere. He’s got so many funny expressions that he’s got and these amazing stories from back in the day. I’ll say ‘wait’ and take a note down and then we get to, ‘well, you were telling me about this club, or you said this thing one time’, then we’ll just sit down and collaborate together and the next thing you know, we’ve got a song laid out. I think more and more these days it’s gotten to be much more evenly distributed and collaborative songwriting between the two of us.

Rock And Blues International: Tell me about the first single that you picked out from this album.

Joe Nosek: Yeah, “Oscar’s Motel” is the first one that’s come out and it’s been getting a lot of airplay on Sirius XM radio and now on other terrestrial radio stations. That’s the first one and I think there are plans to release “I Can’t Stand You” and “Down On The South Side.” I think those will be the next ones that we will probably release.

Joe Nosek: Wow that’s a good question. I would say maybe some of the one’s we’ve talked about. “Oscar’s Motel”, I mean, that’s pure 1950s Chicago and Howlin’ Wolf driving music. It’s all about what Blues music is… what we feel, which is having fun, dancin’, drinkin’, getting’ down, and forgettin’ about your troubles. I think “I Can’t Stand You” is a great example, of the way that we put light humor in our music because I think one thing that Oscar feels strongly about is that Blues music is not depressing, not sad either… it celebrant. I think humor is a big part of that so that song. If that song doesn’t make you smile and laugh, you probably need to make a therapy appointment. That’s what were going for with that one, and “Hot Little Mess,” I think really straddles that line between Blues and Rockabilly that we kind of call Bluesabilly. It shows that we have these other side highways that we go off of the main Blues highway. So, those are the ones that I would probably choose and say like ‘Yeah’! And also with “Nobody Called It The Blues.” We do take our role as a band that’s trying to both celebrate and carry on the traditional Blues sounds, but also keep people aware that this music has a history about it. It’s music that enables people to have their voice expressed and highlights issue in society that need to be addressed.

Rock And Blues International: That song is like an education course in itself.

Joe Nosek: Well, we’re trying to pack that into three minutes and we did our best.

Rock And Blues International: Well, you did a great job on that. Can you comment a little on the other members of the band, the roles they play within this collaboration called the Cash Box Kings? It would appear that you and Oscar are the primary songwriters on this project, but the other members have contributions to this as well. I know that some of their contributions can change the songs somewhat.

Joe Nosek: Well, it’s nice to play with such talented musicians and great human beings. Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, son of the legendary Willie “Big Eyes” Smith has been a part of this band since it’s beginning… 22 years ago. He’s just the best in the business as far as Blues drumming goes. He’s just kind of telepathic in knowing exactly just what to play at the right time and what we’re thinking and going for. And Billy Flynn… we’ve been playing with him for about 18 years and he’s just… well, you talk about a master guitar player that can play any

Rock And Blues International: I know that all the songs on the album are very close continued on next page continued on next page