| Bnois King | |
| Birth Date: | 21 January 1943 |
| Birth Place: | Delhi, Louisiana |
| Genre: | Jazz, Blues, Texas blues |
| Occupation: | blues guitarist, vocalist, composer |
| Instrument: | rhythm guitar |
| Years Active: | 1951–present |
| Label: | Rounder Records, Blind Pig, Delta Groove Music, Alligator Records |
| Associated Acts: | Smokin' Joe Kubek |
Bnois King (born January 21, 1943) (pronounced "buh-noise")[1] is a Texas Blues and Jazz guitar player, vocalist, and composer. He most often played guitar and rhythm guitar, and acted as the main vocalist and original song writer for the Smokin' Joe Kubek Band, touring and equally billed with Kubek after 1997.
King[2] was born January 21, 1943, in Delhi, Louisiana, a small town thirty miles east of Monroe, Louisiana.[1] [3] He had seven brothers and two sisters.[4] King started playing guitar at the early age of eight when he found an unused guitar in his grandmother's closet and started picking out notes.[3] He attended Boley High School, which lacked a music teacher until his final year there.[3] Up until then, the few songs he could play he played by ear.[3] While still in high school, James Moody, the owner and bandleader of a 20-piece big band out of New Orleans (called "The New Sounds"), took him under his wing and gave him his first paying gig, for which King made $15.[3] Once King realized he could make money playing guitar on stage is when he reports "...I really got serious" about playing guitar."[3]
After high school, King traveled to west Texas (Amarillo), Colorado and Oklahoma, and finally settled in north Texas (Wichita Falls) while trying to break into the music industry and make a career from it. Struggling at first in the industry, King sometimes found himself playing at carnival side shows or working 'straight jobs' (such as detailing cars at a dealership).[3] King was, however, again performing regularly in Dallas and Fort Worth by the late 70s,[3] usually playing with jazz bands. playing with Big Joe Williams along with other local talent, often out of a local Dallas blues spot, Poor David's Pub.[3]
It was in Dallas that King met, and thereafter periodically teamed up with, electric blues guitarist Smokin' Joe Kubek, starting in 1989.[3] [5]
King was exposed to gospel music at an early age, but leaned more towards the blues and (especially) jazz, which he listened to on the radio while growing up.[3] He started playing blues covers when still in high school, but continued mostly playing with jazz oriented bands afterward—until he met Kubek.[6] While the rock-influenced Kubek played in an aggressive style, King had been heavily jazz-influenced and embraced a more relaxed playing style.[3] They got along well, however, and two repeatedly partnered up after 1989.[6] [7] Other blues artists, such as Sam Myers would sit in with the group for performances.[3]
Building a repertoire from old, neglected blues genre songs (such as from the likes of Jimmy Reed and Freddie King), the duo found a ready audience for Bnois King's laid-back vocalizations and rhythm guitar playing, and Kubek's hard-playing blues style.[3] At this time, King discovered other talents he didn't realize he possessed: singing and song writing. King hadn't really sung much on stage until he teamed up with Kubek.[3] [4] King said about it: "We needed a singer so I sang... and every time I did the crowds went wild. We needed songs so I wrote about things that happened to me, to people I knew..." Audiences enjoyed the blending of the two's very different playing styles.[4] [8]
The duo released their first collaborative album in 1991, a Texas blues album entitled Steppin' Out Texas Style.[1] The duo's run came to an end October 2015 with Kubek's death.[9]
King and Kubek originally signed up with Rounder Select-Bullseye when they published their first joint album in 1991.[6] That relationship worked until the late 1990s, when King started receiving equal billing with Kubek after 1997.[3] The two were signed with Blind Pig Records from 2002 to 2007; and again in 2015. In addition, King has been signed and promoted (as both a solo act and as a duo along with Kubek) to Alligator Records, Delta Groove, and Simitar Records for various past productions.