Texas bluesman Black Joe Lewis returns to Tampa this summer

Black Joe Lewis could probably sing a mean Elvis (and labels have asked him to, according to Austin Monthly), but he’s much better doing originals delivered in a growl that sounds a little like if James Brown and Howlin’ Wolf made a baby.

It’s been 11 years since his band, The Honeybears, played Gasparilla Music Festival ahead of the release for the band’s 2013 Vagrant Records release, Electric Slave. His band was supposed to be the next big thing out of Austin, Texas, but it’s also been a decade since the group—which played “Letterman” in 2011—more or less watched its popularity tank as it dealt with management woes.

Lewis,’ moniker is a nod to a Richard Pryor skit and something of a reclamation of Blackness from the songwriter Stephen Foster whose racist lyrics are widely regarded as an embarrassment of American music. His 2018 album, The Difference Between Me & You, is also making a comeback, which heads back to Tampa Bay this summer.

Lewis—who grew up on a mix of Soundgarden, Nirvana and Iggy Pop, but also Eightball and MJG—spent a lot of the pandemic pouring concrete and doing construction to support his then newborn, but is back on the road as part of a rebirth for his band.

Tickets to see Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears play the music hall at New World Brewery on Sunday, May 19 are available now for $22.

See Josh Bradley’s weekly roundup of new concert announcements below.
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