Go ahead. Laugh. 3 kids with a combined age of 37 playing the blues? Oh, and they're siblings? Riiiiiight.
So I was skeptical when I saw the front cover of The Homemade Jamz Blues Band's new CD Pay Me No Mind. Skeptical is actually putting it nicely, and so is novelty. I thought this has to be a joke. It has to! Doesn't it?
HJBB is lead by singer/guitarist Ryan Perry. The 15-year old Ryan is the oldest of the three Perry siblings and has been playing guitar since he was seven. 12-year old Kyle handles bass duties, while their younger sister, 9-year old Taya — yes, I said 9-years old — has been playing drums since she was six.
At this point, I was reaching for my thesaurus to keep from using the word "joke." I recently had the misfortune to spend some time on the juvenile talent show circuit and let me tell you something, the new lawyer in our "family" could spend a great many years suing some of these schools for truth in advertising. Elementary school talent shows are neither shows nor exhibitions of talent.
Farce. Sham. Charade. Shenanigans!
We've seen kids play music before and it's cute and some of them are even kind of good at it. But this isn't disposable pop music. These kids want to play the blues and that's a whole different ballgame. The blues is more than a style or a musical genre. It's a feeling, a mindset, and in some ways it's a lifestyle.
15-year olds in Tupelo had faced enough adversity to be able to distill those experiences into authentic blues music in 1908. Having your PS3 taken away in 2008 isn't the type of experience that's going to lead to the next "Hellhound on My Trail'" or "Rolling Stone." Some artists have made careers out of artifice and disguise. You can fake it in pop music and you can fake it in rock 'n' roll, but you can't fake it in the blues. It turns out these kids aren't.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Nice review, big ass picture.
The idea of these kids playing music as pure as the blues, rather then taking the much easier road available today of glorifying guns, gangs, and violence is one that I find really refreshing.
The blues at it's core has always been about the most commonly shared of human experiences, and the emotions which accompany them. It's not as flashy (or unfortunately romantic) as slanging and banging, but it is certainly far more real as far as being about the most commonly shared elements of the human experience goes.
What your review tells me more than anything is that these kids are probably already grown up far beyond their years. And like I said, that is something that gives me hope.
Nice job as always Mr. Josh.
-Glen
2 - Josh Hathaway
Gee, that picture was huge. If only an editor would have resized it for me. *ahem, cough ahem* I've fixed that now.
The kids seem pretty well grounded in that CBS piece where they're interviewed and the CD is quite good. Blues fans should check 'em out. They have a future in this.
Thanks for reading/commenting, Iguana Glen.
3 - Glen Boyd
Sorry about that Josh. Once I moved it to where it wasn't bumping up against the ads, I thought it looked okay, hugeness notwithstanding of course.
Proof I guess that size really does matter.
-Glen
4 - Tom L.
I have watched these kids for some time now. They are really amazing, both musically and as individuals. They are talented far beyond their years and they have excellent stage presence, but when they get off of the stage, they are quite simply just "great kids."
Their mom and dad are committed to their success and as proud as you might guess. I keep telling them that soon I will be able to say, "I knew them when...." As it's turning out, that may be coming sooner than later!
Thanks for writing your review about these fine young entertainers. They are continuing the the tradition, bringing new attention to roots of the greatest genre of American Music.
5 - Joanie
Sometimes age isn't as much an issue as we make it out to be.
We are so lucky to have talented kids like these ushering the blues into the future.
6 - patsy
These kids are awesome, we recently saw them perform in Memphis over the labor day weekend! We loved it!!