lower case blues

Artist Information

Biography

Originating from the small state of Delaware, Lower Case Blues has been tearing up the local seen with power house guitar driven blues. The band has played festivals such as the Dewey Beach Music Conference, SXSW, The Delaware Music Fest, The Riverfront Blues Festival in Wilmington De, The Blues House Festival in Winchester, Va, and The International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. They have opened for major blues acts such as Buddy Guy and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, as well as opened for 38 Special, Deirks Bentley, and John Corbit. LCB has 2 full length cd's with all original music featuring a wide range of influences from blues/rock(Hendrix, Buddy Guy, SRV, Jeff Healey) to roots funk and jazz(James Brown, The Meters). Lower Case Blues' goal is to keep blues and roots music alive. There is never a song played the same way twice as everyday life experience is the main influence on the feeling behind the music.

Previous festivals and events:

June Jam, Houston,De
Dewey Beach Music Conference, Dewey, De
SXSW, Austin, Tx
Blues House Blues Festival, Winchester, Va
Riverfront Blues Festival, Wilmington, De
Friendship Fest, Longneck, De
Skid Fest, Newark, De
Delaware Music Festival, Dewey Beach, De
High-Tide Jam Fest, Dewey Beach, De
International Blues Challenge, Memphis, TN

Instrumentation

Jake Banaszak- Lead Guitar
B.J. Muntz- Bass, Lead Vocals
Rick Webster- Drums

Discography

Album-"Days to Come"
Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Johnny Neel.

Most requested tracks- I'm Gonna Love You, Broke as a Joke, and Time to Spare.

Album-"One More for the Road"
Recorded in Elkton, Maryland with producer Kenny Jones.

Most requested tracks- Got Me on Hold, My Way Back Home, Judes Diner Blues

All these tracks have had radio airplay on 98.1 WOCM and 98.5 BIG Classic Rock

Audio

• Broke as a Joke
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• Judes Diner Blues
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• Im Gonna Love You
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• Back to My Old Ways
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• My Way Back Home
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Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• A True Blue Spirit of Music [+ Show ]
  

  A true blue spirit of music Delaware trio blends a rich diversity into lower case blues By Jay Hod...A true blue spirit of music
  Delaware trio blends a rich diversity into lower case blues
  By Jay Hodgkins
  
  
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  Jay Hodgkins
  
  
  
  OCEAN CITY -- They've definitely got the blues, but Delaware band lower case blues has got a lot more musically as well.
  
  "It's all got the blues," group bassist and lead singer BJ Muntz said about the band's laundry list of original tunes, "but it's our flavor and diversity of music we bring to the table that makes a new blues sound."
  
  The different musical backgrounds of all three of lower case blues' members -- Muntz, guitarist Jake Banaszak and drummer Paul Weik -- crop up all over the band's songs.
  
  Banaszak has the hard rock edge, and Muntz says he feeds that rock edge into his guitar playing for more aggressive blues.
  
  Muntz has grown up loving funk as a bass player, and drops those classic funk bass lines into the music to make lower case blues a type of blues to make you move.
  
  Weik has a love for jazz to go along with traditional jazz training as drummer. Muntz said that jazz style allows Weik to make very little sound like a whole lot on the drums.
  
  That combination of sounds meshed with a unified love and foundation in true blues has worked well enough to move the band to full-time status on the area music circuit and drawn enough attention to attract national music talent to record with the trio.
  
  Johnny Neel from the Allman Brothers just recently accompanied lower case blues playing piano and organ on the band's new CD, One More for the Road, they released in June with all original tunes.
  
  Other than the huge accomplishment of having Neel provide his talents on the 2-year-old group's second original album, lower case blues has also seen a significant step up in the group's second summer of blazing the concert trail.
  
  "I've heard a lot more of people saying, 'we've seen you guys four times,' and it's a great feeling," said Muntz. "Over the winter time we got to know a lot of locals and this year we've been bringing in more tourists because our name is out there."
  
  The group's name has certainly gotten out in Ocean City where Muntz said the group plays at Trader Lee's twice a month, at the brand new Castaways every Monday and will play Coins Pub and Restaurant this Saturday.
  
  The group has gotten a unique chance to get a foothold with their originals in Ocean City with the opening of Castaways.
  
  "It's been amazing, building it up. It's nice trying to get a new place build," said Muntz.
  
  In Ocean City and at most live shows, the trio gives fans a lot of what they want with a wide rock tinted set of blues covers ranging Johnny Lang to Buddy Guy, but with a lot of lower case blues still in the music.
  
  "We go off the cuff and play the room. We play a lot of old blues tunes, and spice them up. Make them new, make them our own," said Muntz. "Because of the fact that we add our own flavor to covers, it's not far off from our originals."
  
  And with originals and covers alike, lower case blues is always full of a lot of energy using what Muntz said are a lot of musical dynamics bringing the music up, down and adding some groove to take in the crowd.
  
  While the sound might not be traditional blues, Muntz said the music is in the complete spirit of the blues by being heavy on improvisation and emotion.
  
  "Part of the blues is putting your heart and soul into everything you play," Muntz said. "You could pick other aspects out of it, but everything we play could have the name blues after it."
  
  
  Originally published Friday, August 26, 2005
  
  
  
  

• Young band melds rock, blues full time [+ Show ]
  

  Young band melds rock, blues full time By RYAN CORMIER / The News Journal 01/21/2005If you close ...Young band melds rock, blues full time
  By RYAN CORMIER / The News Journal
  01/21/2005If you close your eyes, they sound like a solid and seasoned, if not hyperactive, blues band.
  
  Open them and you'll see a band whose oldest member was born in 1982, just a year before their hero Stevie Ray Vaughan broke onto the scene, sparking a nationwide blues revival.
  
  Led by the soaring guitar work of 21-year-old Jake Banaszak, this band - lower case blues - melds rock and blues like none other in Delaware.
  
  Banaszak playing is influenced by Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, and even though he's young, Banaszak knows he's good. Having played since he was 13, he doesn't think twice about playing a solo with a Budweiser bottle, the tip jar or even his mouth. (It's not Hendrix setting his guitar ablaze at the Monterey International Pop Festival, but you get the point.)
  
  Banaszak, along with the band's lead singer and bassist B.J. Muntz and drummer Paul Weik, are riding high after a successful summer. Graduates of Hodgson Vocational Technical and Christiana high schools, the band members finally made the plunge as full-time musicians in May when they all quit their upstate jobs and moved to Rehoboth Beach.
  
  They hooked up with a manager who had contacts in the Rehoboth Beach area and began booking gigs when they moved into in a double-wide trailer off Del. 1 together. The band spent the summer playing four to six nights a week in Delaware,
  
  Maryland and surrounding areas. Living together and playing together led to a few bust-ups over the summer, but "as long as everybody shows up to the gig and we play well, everything in between doesn't matter," says Weik, 22.
  
  All three enjoy the lifestyle of waking up late, traveling to gigs in their Chevrolet van and playing all night. It's what they love to do, but they just hope they can keep it up. "They say the first winter you go through as a full-time musician is the toughest," says Banaszak.
  
  The band has been splitting time this winter between upstate venues like the Blue Parrot Bar & Grille in Wilmington and downstate stages like Sand Bar in Long Neck and The Big Easy in Bethany Beach. Muntz, 21, is confident they'll survive: "This is the American dream in action," he says between swigs from a beer before a recent show at Blue Parrot.
  
  All three grew up listening to bands like Nirvana, Metallica and Stone Temple Pilots, so they are far from your grandpa's blues band. And don't be surprised if they end a show with a bluesy version of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" or a Hendrix-ized version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower."
  
  Banaszak's musical tastes are rooted in the blues and rock, with Muntz more into funk and Weik a jazz fan. Weik doesn't even own a single blues album and he finds himself in a blues band. "It's my dirty little secret," he says.
  
  While in high school, the trio practiced in the cafeteria at Hodgson, where one of their teachers ran talent shows. Karen Powers, who now teaches at Christiana High School, remembers the guys when they were just 15 years old. She'd let them practice into the nighttime hours because she enjoyed them so much.
  
  "I'd just let them jam and got my own little private concert," says Powers, who still attends their shows. "They've grown by leaps and bounds. The sound just keeps getting better and better."
  
  In September, lower case blues released their first album, "How Bad Does It Get?" and plan to record a live album this year in an attempt to become prominent on the Delaware music scene.
  
  "It's harder to do something different around here," Banaszak says. "We're going against the grain. We're at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to local bands around here."
  
  Yet there aren't too many bands in Delaware playing mostly original music that can pull in enough money to make a living, even if it does mean living in a trailer.
  
  In March, the band is heading to Austin, Texas, to play during the famed South by Southwest Music Festival, and hopes to turn some heads.
  
  But they aren't thinking they are going to have a big break any time soon. And they aren't looking for it, either.
  
  "That kind of stuff just happens," Banaszak says. "You can't go out there for the big-time record deal. You'll get nowhere."
  
  Contact Ryan Cormier at 324-2863 or rcormier@delawareonline.com. Read his blog at www.delawareonline.com/blogs.
  
  

• lower case blues band competes at International Blues Challenge in Memphis [+ Show ]
  

  By Shauna McVey Staff Reporter _shauna@middletowntranscript.com_ (mailto:shauna@middletowntranscri...By Shauna McVey
  Staff Reporter
  _shauna@middletowntranscript.com_ (mailto:shauna@middletowntranscript.com)
  Plenty of musicians dream of making it big, but the next best thing is
  making it a full-time job.
  One such group of musicians is doing just that, and they recently
  represented Delaware at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn.
  That was the prize the guys of lower case blues won when they took first
  place at the Diamond State Blues Society's battle of the bands in September 2007.
  The band members are guitarist Jake Banaszak, bassist and vocalist B.J.
  Muntz, and drummer Paul Weik.
  The musicians continuously impress blues lovers with their talent that goes
  far beyond their years.
  At the Jan. 26 "Goin' to Memphis" send-off party hosted by the DSBS, a few
  fans said they were "old souls" for the musical ability they possess.
  Banaszak, formerly of Middletown, said the band didn't make it to the IBC
  finals, but they did turn some of the judges' heads.
  "One judge said we were extremely entertaining and we set the bar really
  high," he said. "That was a really good compliment. We got good scores and we
  did well."
  Banaszak said the competition took place last week in 10 venues along the
  world famous blues spot Beale Street. Ten bands performed at each site and one
  band from each venue then went on to the finals.
  He said they had a tough break with their time slots because they had early
  shows on both days they competed when the club wasn't full.
  lower case blues played at the Blues City Café, where such artists as blues
  legend Albert King have frequented.
  "It was awesome. It was a lot of fun," Banaszak said. "A lot of famous
  people have played there. Just playing at that club, it was really inspiring for
  me to be in that room and on a street where so much happened in history for
  music."
  He said the highlight of the trip was checking out all the other bands,
  because music was a constant presence.
  "My favorite part was you could just walk around all night and hear music
  coming from everywhere," Banaszak said. "We spent four days on that street and
  didn't get bored. It hasn't even really soaked in yet."
  He said the band also got to network because the town was full of musicians,
  blues societies and media outlets.
  Banaszak said the entire experience, especially watching the finals, prepared
  the band for future competitions.
  "At first it was a little overwhelming because there were so many good
  bands," he said. "After watching the finals and how everything went, we definitely
  saw where to go with it if we had a second chance."
  Banaszak said the band has been together for about five years, four of which
  they've played professionally.
  He said they moved to the beach in 2004 with hopes to get a few gigs for the
  summer.
  "We got a lot of gigs and got to know a lot of people. It went better than we
  thought," Banaszak said. "We moved down May 1 going on four years ago. That
  was the last time I had a day job."
  During the winter months, the band plays anywhere from two to four shows a
  week. In the summer months, it's usually five.
  The band has played all around Delaware and even as far as Austin, Texas,
  and they have no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
  "It seems like there's always something to keep us going," Banaszak said. "It
  was Memphis for a few months, now we're opening up for [blues artist]
  Michael Burks in March. We have gigs every week, but there are these certain things
  I keep looking forward to."
  To check out a few lower case blues songs, go to
  _www.myspace.com/lowercaseblues_ (http://www.myspace.com/lowercaseblues) .
  

Setlist

The band typically plays 1 hour -1 and a half hour sets in a bar or club... in a festival they can play longer. The band trys to play more of their original music but also covers such as Redhouse(Hendrix), La Grange(ZZ Top), and Whipping Post(Allman Bros.) LCB is very improvisational and makes every set different from the show before, keeping each night new and entertaining.

Basic Requirements

Calendar