Johnny Mastro & Mama's Boys
Long Beach's own Nugene Records recording artist, MB's are JOHNNY MASTRO's vision of how music should be played. Honest, original, raw, get-down music void of today's common cliche's and posing. Hard blues you can only get with keeping one foot firmly planted in the past while moving into the future, therefore keeping it current.
JOHNNY MASTRO kept the band evolving, working and moving forward for over a decade. It started over 14 years ago at the oldest Blues club in Los Angeles, Babe's and Ricky's, that Johnny Mastro found his band being called Mama's Boys. Johnny was encouraged and guided by the band's namesake, Ms. Laura-Mae "Mama" Gross, proprietor of the club since its earliest beginnings back in 1957.
Johnny's passion for the music to propelled the band forward, building a local following that kept coming back week after week. Soon Johnny and the MB's were playing its energy-infused music in other Southern California venues as well, often to sell-out crowds.
Looking back at what happened next tells most of this story: Mama's Boys has consistently played 250+ gigs each year in Southern California for over 10 years. They might be one of the hardest working young Blues bands in the world. And the world, it seems, is now beginning to discover what many Southern Californians have understood for years: Johnny & the boys Kick Ass.
On The 2006 Black Album Mama's Boys offer Blues that is raw and powerful, without excuses or apologies. They don't need them. Mama's Boys is carving its initials in the territory of blues benchmarks set by Hound Dog, Butterfield, Muddy, Wolf, Red Devils, Walter, Junior, and Elmore, among others. It's electrified Blues like you could have heard in a club on the South Side of Chicago in about 1949; a musical expression of the kind of raw emotion that is the true grit of life. Fans of Chicago Blues will snap up this new Mama's Boys CD, then get the two released before it, also excellent, Chicken & Waffles (2002) and Pinch That Snake (2001).
In 2004 they returned to L.A. after a wildly successful first tour of Europe and they are ready to rip it up in the homeland, from sea to shining sea. On their new CD they have proven themselves worthy of the trip.
They are rising stars in Europe with 4 return trips in 2006, knocking them out at the the prestigiuos Moulin Blues Festival and playing for 16,000 in Venlo, Holland.
Johnny Mastro's gutsy, emotive harp is a perfect companion to his distinctive world-class vocals. Couple that with David Melton's seemingly effortless yet incendiary lead guitar and suddenly we begin to understand the MB's unflinching grasp on excellence. Like all great bands, live they make it look simple.
The music is recorded with simplicity, too. For the "Black CD" they went into the studio, set up some mikes and played live for about four hours. Then they did that again. These songs are taken from those live sessions, raw and natural. Not many bands have the guts to record like that, knowing that even the smallest error gets amplified by the recording process. When music stands as it is, without any overdubs or other studio tricks, you get the truth. On this new CD, or any of the Mama's Boys' CDs you can pick up at their performances, you'll hear just that, the truth: the same great music by the same great musicians you saw on stage.
When Mama's Boys come to play in your town, I urge you to make it a point to go see them play. You'll be treated to rock-solid high-energy Blues and a butt-movin' good time, guaranteed.
Gary "Wagman" Wagner - DJ
Instrumentation
Johnny Mastro- Vocals/Harp
Paul Loranger -Bass
Jim Goodall- Drums
Guitar
Discography
1995 - 12 song Demo
1997 - "Round Wound" full length CD
1998 - "6X4" EP
1999 - "Pretty Good" EP
2000 - "Pretty Good" full length CD
2001 - "Pinch That Snake" full length CD
2003 - "Chicken & Waffles " full length CD
2004- "The Black Album" full length CD- Limited Signed European Version
2004 - "The Black Album" full length CD- American Sleeve Version
2006 - "The Black Album" full length European CD on Nugene Records
2007 - "Take Me to Your Maker" European CD on Nugene Records
2007 - "Take Me to Your Maker" USA version CD
2007 - 4 - song BBC Recording Session Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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