Billy Hector Band

SOMEDAY BABY Billy Hector (Ghetto Surf Music) ***** +

Sings like David Wilcox, plays like Gary Moore- amazing! With this disc, due out August 25th, Hector injects his blues with plenty of enthusiasm, rock and funk. He comes from the Jersey shore, but you’d never know it listening to Some Day Baby. He has a strong singing voice that, like Hendrix, augments his guitar playing in a similar way. Blues Matters says this is “the stuff of legends”, and the strength of the playing and the songs support that view. This was definitely love at first listen!

KEY TRACK: Butt Naked And Funk - John Kerieff

BILLY HECTOR
Someday Baby
Ghetto Surf Music
Have you ever wanted to get butt naked and funk? I know I have. Transpires that Billy Hector does as well although hopefully not at the same time or place as me.
Nuddy aside this is an absolute stormer of a record. Mr Hector certainly knows how to get down and dirty on his guitar as he works his way through a set of original (bar a couple of Trad Arrs) material. He’s got a good voice as well, so it’s not just the funky, driving riffs that keep you listening. There’s an assortment of rhythm sections with some additional keyboards, horns and harmonica when the song requires. But it all gells together really well on a rather splendid album.
His soulful voice really sets off the best of the material although it’s hard to pick favourites when there are so many delights on offer. After a few plays I’m tempted to pick ‘Wizard of Babylon’, ‘Butt Naked and Funk’ (natch). ‘Bareback’ and the cover of ‘Alabama Bound’, if only because my deid Irish mammy was a huge Al Jolson fan. Get your kisses ready for your honey lamb, indeed.
It’s well produced, performed and arranged and if funky blues rock with a touch of roots sounds fun, then get a shift on and give this a listen. - The Rocker

Billy Hector
Someday Baby
Album Reviews | August 29th, 2018
Artist: Billy Hector
Album: Someday Baby
Label: Ghetto Surf Music
Release Date: 8.24. 2018
86

New Jersey blues legend Billy Hector deserves wider recognition, having written many original songs with his own unique guitar style for over three decades now. He’s the lesser-known of other iconic artists who hail from the Jersey Shore but he’s as hard-working as any of them. Sure, Hector cut his teeth with the best of them, taking a guitar chair in the bands of Hubert Sumlin and Joe Louis Walker. He’s studied all the blues greats, has appeared in Martin Scorcese’s “The Blues” series, and several high profile blues tributes. He has a versatile approach where he can pick acoustically, deliver aching slide guitar, and blast away on his Fender Strat. This is his 17th album

For these sessions, Hector gathers 16 musicians, many of whom—especially the rhythm section—play on just a handful of tracks. Hector wrote the horn arrangements for the three-piece horn section. Among the notable guests are John Ginty, whose B3 graces “Creeper,” and harmonica ace Dennis Gruenling, who blows on “Alabama Bound.” His wife, Suzan Lastovica, sings on “Alabama Bound” and “Road to Happiness.” Suzan and Billy collaborated to write 11 of the 13 songs, with “Alabama Bound” and “On Your Bond” the only covers.

Hector kicks off with his fiery guitar bolstered by the horns for the shaking “Wizard of Babylon,” and gets funky with the title track, using his wah-wah pedal, with the horns blaring. He continues the dance party with the aptly titled, horn-drenched “Butt Naked and Funk.” He takes a brief respite on the meandering slow blues, “Hit the Road” before cranking it up again for “Busy Man.” The horns prove to be a great touch. This is as powerful as Hector as ever sounded, remindful a bit of his neighbor, Southside Johnny.

“Moonlight In Her Eyes” nods to Willie Dixon’s “The Same Thing” lyrically, but musically it just cooks. Then it’s time to let loose with a barn-burning instrumental, “Bareback,” as David Nunez’s organ pushes Hector’s rampaging guitar. The horns join again for the upbeat shuffling “Jolene.” New Jersey-based Gruenling’s harp leads into “Alabama Bound” as Billy and Suzan share the vocals. Hector displays his acoustic slide guitar skills in “On Your Bond” before getting downright haunting and spooky on the disc’s longest track at six and half minutes, “Whiskey.” Supported by some adventurous organ from Nunez, Hector delivers two spiraling guitar solos that could cut through walls three feet thick. “Creeper,” with Ginty on the organ, returns us to horn driven Chicago blues. The closer, “Road to Happiness,” is a nod to that uplifting Stax sound as Billy and Suzan sound positively joyful.

Billy Hector has had New Jersey associated with his name for far too long. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, by now it’s too confining. Let’s just embrace him as one of better contemporary blues artists, period.

—Jim Hynes - Elmore Magazine

Billy Hector
SOMEDAY BABY
Ghetto Surf Music

An Exciting and Pretty Damn Unique Soulful Blues Hybrid.

My love of The Blues has been unstinting ever since I first ‘borrowed’ my elder brothers Rory Gallagher and Johnny Winter albums back in the early 1970’s; and my love remains pretty much undiminished now in 2018 as I somehow still manage to discover new artistes with their own unique way of making this historic genre fresh and indeed exciting!
Ladies and gentlemen; I present for your delectation…….Mr. Billy Hector from New Jersey.
Was it was the sparkling slide guitar on opening track Wizard of Babylon that hooked me in, or the way Hector’s distinctive voice and almost sexy guitar playing oozes seamlessly between BB King, Robert Cray and Gary Moore territory with grace and skill; but instantly hook me in he did; and when the title track Someday Baby came wailing from the speakers immediately afterwards I knew I was listening to something very, very special indeed.
Somehow Billy manages to combine Blues Rock with Super-Soul, Funk and even a touch of Jazz Rock in his superb playing on Jolene and the astonishing Road to Happiness as well as many others here too.
But, these days great guitarists are ‘two a penny’ so…….. what makes this album by Billy Hector stand out in a very crowded market is, first and foremost the quality of his songwriting.
In my eyes he can also write a love song that transcends genres like very few others can manage, with Moonlight in Her Eyes sounding like it would have blown our minds if Jimi Hendrix had recorded it; and Creeper delves into territory that very few apart from Sly Stone or perhaps Prince would dare enter; but Hector does with great composure and class!
It’s all too easy to hear why Hector has been winning Awards for decades now and was even both Hubert Sumlin’s and Joe Louis Walker’s ‘touring guitarist,’ when he gets into a groove on Hit The Road and the sweet and sassy instrumental Bareback; which I don’t think is about horse riding! But I return to Hector’s singing and his actual songs; which are all never less than excellent.
Two songs in particular stand out like bright red poppies in a field of beautiful golden wheat; and that’s the timeless Jolene (no….not that one) which has a little bit of everything in it; but sounds like no other Blues n Soul hybrid I can think of and the song that actually takes the accolade of Favourite Track by a whisker……. Butt Naked and Funk; which is exactly as cool and sexy as you’d hope for from a title like that.
There’s a lot going on here with Billy Hector merely fronting an amazing Big Band that I’ve hardly even alluded to but boy, oh boy are they red hot; evoking memories of the night I saw BB King at Newcastle City Hall when the great man allowed just about everyone to have a moment in the spotlight; but never enough to over shadow his own unique talents…..which is exactly what Billy Hector does on SOMEDAY BABY.

Released August 25th 2018
https://www.billyhector.com/ - Rocking Magpie

Billy Hector - Some Day Baby
 
Some Day Baby is the latest album from the blues and guitar veteran Billy Hector. The album 'Some Day Baby' is also full of strong songs.
Billy Hector has been musically active for almost forty years and has more than earned his spurs over the years. The album contains thirteen songs that connect the blues with soul, rock and funk.
From the first notes we hear Billy Hector as his guitar gives the tracks. On 'Some Day Baby' enthusiasm, craftsmanship and songwriting come together in a great way. As far as I am concerned, Billy Hector remains active for a long time. Lovers of varied blues rock can also purchase this album again. - Rudolf Music

Billy Hector

Some Day Baby

Ghetto Surf Music

Billy Hector was born in Orange New Jersey. He started taking guitar lessons at the age of nine. In the 1970s Hector was the guitarist for “The Shots” the house band at the renowned Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

Hector began to identify more with the blues and began drawing on his influences including T-Bone Walker, Freddie King, Roy Buchanan and Jimi Hendrix. In the 1980’s Hector formed the five-piece blues rock band The Fairlanes and released three independently produced albums on the Blue Jersey label.



Hector was named the “Best Guitarist” and “Best Blues Band” and the “Living Legend” by the Asbury Park Music Awards and The East Coast Rocker. When local venues booked Hector many would proudly exclaim “we got em’”. He has played with BB King, Bo Diddley, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy and The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Hector became the touring guitarist for Hubert Sumlin. He was a two-time invitee to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s American Music Masters series and played alongside Bonnie Raitt at a tribute to Muddy Waters. Hector performed at the Kennedy Center commemorating Leadbelly‘s 125th anniversary. He also toured with Joe Louis Walker.

In 2007 Hector released his 14th album “Hard Rockin’ Blues”. His 16th album was 2013’s “Choice Cuts”. Bluesblast stated “Hector is a veteran guitarist with roots in the Asbury Park and Jersey Shore music scenes. This oft-awarded, self-described, workingman’s musician… is a revered icon in New Jersey and beyond“.



The band on this new album includes Hector, all guitars and vocals, and horn and string arrangements. Accompanying Hector are bassists Winston Roye, Chris Plunkett, Tim Tindall, and Eric Boyd. Also featured are four drummers including Sim Cain. David Nunez is featured on keyboards.The horn section includes Steve Jankowski, trumpet and trombone; Tom LaBella, alto and tenor saxophone; and John Martin, baritone saxophone.

Hector is also a fine songwriter and all songs are written by him except for two co-written with his beloved wife and co-producer Suzan Lastovica.

The album opens with “Wizard of Babylon“ and it’s a pleasure to hear Hector with a horn section. Hector is at his very best. From the outrageous “Butt Naked and Fun”; to “Alabama Bound” featuring Dennis Gruenling on harp; to his slide work “On Your Bond”; to the deep blues of “Whiskey“; and to the closer “Road to Happiness” featuring Lastovica; each and every track on this fabulous album is worthy of airplay.



Hector will no longer be denied, He is one of our best blues rockers and this is a winning performance.

Richard Ludmerer - Making a Scene

With a career of around 35 years and fifteen albums to his name, Billy Hector has built up a notable track record. Once, in the seventies, he played with the Shots, a band that took over the role of house band from Southside Johnny & the Ashbury Jukes in the famous club Stone Pony. From 1993 he works under his own name. Hector is strongly influenced by guitarists like T-Bone Walker, Freddie King, Jimi Hendrix and Roy Buchanan. He has developed his own style, but these influences are clearly still present.

The latest CD is called "Someday Baby" and contains eleven own songs and two covers. Hector, who takes care of vocals and guitar, is accompanied by a whole series of musicians and besides bass and drums we also hear horns and keyboards. The offering is quite varied. There are songs with an influence from Mississippi, New Orleans and also swinging and funky soul and southern rock. They are all fine songs, with which Hector proves that he is also a gifted songwriter. Special mention deserve the title track "Someday Baby", with beautiful slide guitar, the slow blues "Hit The Road" and the exciting "Creeper", where John Ginty crawls behind the keys. An excellent CD. - Eric Campfrens

BILLY HECTOR
SOME DAY BABY
GHETTO SURF MUSIC GSM 026
WIZARD OF BABYLON–SOMEDAY BABY–BUTT NAKED AND FUNK–HIT THE ROAD–BUSY MAN–MOONLIGHT IN HER EYES–BAREBACK–JOLENE–ALABAMA BOUND–ON YOUR BOND–WHISKEY–CREEPER–ROAD TO HAPPINESS
Billy Hector is a blues guitarist of the highest order. A long-time stalwart on the Asbury Park/Jersey Shore scene, many scribes have referred to him as a “New Jersey state treasure,” and rightfully so. Add in his powerfully-soulful vocals, and Billy’s the whole package. With a career spanning over three decades, he’s won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jersey Shore Jazz And Blues Foundation, and his latest album, “Some Day Baby,” finds this outstanding man of the blues at the absolute top of his game.
He starts things off with the horn-soaked, funky tale of con men in general, and that “Wizard Of Babylon,” in specific, a true “joker who never done a damn thing right!” Wah-wah’s the word on the scalding blues-rock of the title cut, where our hero vows, “Some Day Baby, I ain’t gonna mop no dirty floor.” “Jolene” is a pure dance floor burner, as Billy wonders aloud, “where you get your whiskey from,” and “why you won’t give me none!” Dennis Gruenling is the guest harpoon man on the traditional blues of “Alabama Bound,” with Billy lettin’ his slide run wild, as he does on another fine old-time blues cut, “you’re gonna need somebody On Your Bond.” And, John Ginty is on the B-3 that defines the slinky groove of the story of a no-good woman who’s a real midnight “Creeper.”
We had two favorites, too. If you want to dance your blues away, there’s no better way to do it than just get “Butt Naked And Funk!” And, the set closes with a fine duet featuring Suzan Lastovica. The cut is synonymous with that whole breezy, endless-summer vibe the Jersey Shore is noted for, and it takes us on “The Road To Happiness–it’s right outside my door!”
Billy Hector sums up life in general at the end of the final cut on “Some Day Baby,”—“Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff!” His reputation as one of the most unique and revered bluesmen on the planet is further embellished by this killer set! Until next time…Sheryl and Don Crow. - Sheryl and Don Crow

Billy Hector – “Someday Baby” (Ghetto Surf Music GSM-026)
New Jersey’s Billy Hector has worked as guitarist with Hubert Sumlin and Joe Louis Walker, which is a pretty good recommendation in my book, but don’t go getting the idea that he is some kind of blues purist. He does turn in some serious blues performances on this fine CD – listen to the slow blues of ‘Hit The Road’ for a good example – and his use of horns sometimes recalls Albert King’s Stax classics (as do some of Billy’s licks). Set against this though is a number like ‘Butt Naked And Funk’, which is very, er, funky, and several examples of dirty-sounding blues-rock, such as the slide-guitar driven traditional number ‘On Your Bond’, whilst the instrumental ‘Bareback’ is a nod to the label name. Billy is also a fine, strong singer, and apart from the aforementioned traditional number and the equally traditional ‘Alabama Bound’, all the numbers are original compositions. Billy
though does build on what has gone before, as for example ‘Moonlight IN Her Eyes’, the intro of which made me think of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’ before it launches into a melody borrowed (very subtly) from ‘Catfish Blues’, and towards the end perhaps takes a little inspiration from “Sergeant Pepper’s”! The backing is equally impressive, though I confess the only name I recognised is harmonica ace Dennis Gruenling, who guests on that last-named track. No matter, though, this is a very fine release.
Norman Darwen -

• In the realm of local guitar heroes, there are few players who can touch the Fender-scorched majesty of Billy Hector. And Hector's latest release, "The Fire Within," may be only four songs long, but he makes every incendiary note count.
Hector is in top form here. The hard-rocking single "Fake I.D." features both fine slide work from Hector and guest guitar duties from Mickey Melchiondo, also known as Dean Ween. And how Jersey is Hector, you ask? This track gives a shout-out to pork roll and cheese, as well as some other less savory vices.
The baroque rocker "Broken Down" shimmers with wounded light, "Step it Up" is a party rocker through and through, and the disc-closing cover of the Rolling Stones' "Memory Motel" has a bittersweet, closing time feel that ends the record on just the right note.
Throughout, Hector is joined by plenty of ace players: along with Melchiondo, there's Bon Jovi guitarist Bobby Bandiera on "Step it Up," singer Suzan Lastovica on backing vocals and Ween and Rollins Band drummer Sim Cain. - Asbury Park Press

BILLY HECTOR’S office is wherever he plugs in his old sunburst Fender Stratocaster, and on this night — the night of his 52nd birthday — it was three blocks, and three decades, away from the place where he first started playing locally, back when everybody with a guitar around here was planning to be a star.

Most of the other musicians from those heady days, when record scouts were trolling Shore bars for the next Bruce Springsteen, have long since surrendered to day jobs, but Mr. Hector was where he always is on a Friday night, and on four other nights most weeks: at work, playing his guitar. Dancers filled the floor in front of the stage at the Wonder Bar, many of them shouting along to the lyrics of “Vagabond,” one of the several hundred songs he has written.

“Happy Birthday, Billy!” someone called when the song ended, and Mr. Hector — his black sideburns tinged with gray, the spotlight reflecting off the glasses he started wearing two years ago — took a small bow with an abashed grin before starting the next one.

It’s a powerful dream that has lured many, but eluded most: to earn your keep in life with nothing but your guitar. It’s what brought Mr. Hector south from his hometown of Orange in 1977, when he joined the Shots, the house band at the Stone Pony; what drove him through the string of other bands in the 1980s and ’90s that almost, but never quite, broke out of the local club scene; and what sustains him still, 14 albums and more than 7,000 gigs later.

“I need to play music — it’s that simple,” said Mr. Hector, whose last regular paycheck was as an equipment tester at a guitar factory in Neptune Township in the early ’80s. “It’s like a calling. My life really hasn’t changed since I was 24. It’s the same goal.”

What has changed, though, is the music business. Record companies, their sales declining, have been paring their rosters, not adding to them, leading more musicians to the conclusion that Mr. Hector reached long ago: that sometimes it’s better to put out your own recordings, and sell them yourself to loyal fans, 3,000 of whom are on his mailing list. And every year or two, another of his regular venues — the Stanhope House was the most recent — closes, and forces him to scramble to fill the empty night in his schedule.

“But when I finally put the guitar on I think to myself, ‘Thank God I’m here now,’ ” he said. “And on the good days, you go beyond thought, and the white light comes in, and then things happen. All time ceases and you don’t even think about what the next chord is, you just speak it.”

In the Wonder Bar as midnight neared, he seemed to have ascended into that realm as he closed his first set with a raucous version of “Old School Thang,” a funk-driven original that is a particular favorite among his fans. He usually plays with just a bass player and drummer, but for his birthday he splurged on two sax players, a trombonist and a harmonica player.

“These are the glory gigs,” he said as he slipped out the back door for one of the cigarettes he avoids smoking at the ranch house in Wall Township he shares with his partner — and co-writer, producer and occasional singer — of 28 years, Suzan Lastovica, who uses canes to get around these days because of her multiple sclerosis.

“There’s a lot of things you do without,” he said about the often precarious gig-to-gig life of a musician. “You don’t get the color TV for a long time. But the gauge for success is whatever you think it is. It’s not necessarily money. My gauge is that I’m still playing.”

Mr. Hector has played for big crowds (including at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland) and with big names (Bonnie Raitt, B. B. King), but he is most at home in a bar like this, on a night like this, with 150 people who come to see him not just because of what he sounds like, but also because of who he is — the one who still carries the torch after so many others have fallen away.

“Like the Statue of Liberty, and hopefully it will never go out,” said Steve Garcia, 49, of Fair Haven, who fights forest fires each summer and was grateful to have returned in time from a deployment in California for Mr. Hector’s birthday. He first saw him in the early ’80s at Mrs. Jay’s, the long-departed biker bar next to the Stone Pony, and was later a regular at the Tideaway in Long Branch, another vanished nightspot. Last call was looming, but Mr. Hector kept the dance floor filled with a 23-minute version of another original, propelled by extended solos by everybody in the band, and he closed with a new composition he called “New Jersey Transit,” an instrumental with a jazzy flavor not often heard past midnight in this rock ’n’ roll town.

“That was my birthday present,” he said as he slipped out the back for another cigarette before he loaded his equipment into his Chevy van for the next night’s gig. “I got what I wanted.”

- The New York Times

Alex Biese; Asbury Park Press

Local music scenes are nebulous, ever-changing things. So when someone consistently delivers for a few years, it’s worth taking notice.
When someone brings it night after night for decades, that’s legendary.
Billy Hector is a legend.

A native of Orange who has held court on Jersey Shore stages since making his Asbury Park debut in 1979, Hector is a fierce and fiery player on record and in concert. Now he’s taking some time to look back with the release of “Choice Cuts”, a 16-track retrospective of his recorded work from 1987 to the present, including “Callin’ on Love”, a new track that is scheduled to appear on a new Hector CD set for release later this year.

Hector is hailed around these parts as a killer blues player, and there’s plenty of material on “Choice Cuts” to back up that claim: the album’s high point is a smoldering take on “Old School Thang” from the live Stonehenge album. The track shows Hector and his band at the height of their powers.

All the songs on “Choice Cuts” are co-written by Hector and Lastovica with one exception: a searing cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Stray Cat.” It’s a fitting song choice because, as Hector explained to me in a 2008 interview, Mick and Keith are the reason why he started playing the blues in the first place. “Somebody wrote that the Rolling Stones sounded like Muddy Waters when I was 12 years old, and I said, 'Who’s Muddy Waters?’ so I just started looking into it,” Hector said.

All these years later, the Stones deserve our thanks. Without their influence, our scene may not have one of its best, and most consistent, players. - Asbury Park Press