The King Bees

The King Bees play a decidedly rocking, guitar driven blues with a touch of Texas twang, deliciously soulful vocals, and wailing sax. The band covers blues classics by icons such as Buddy Guy, the three Kings (B.B., Albert, and Freddie), and Bobby Blue Bland as well as more current blues artists such as Stevie Ray, Robert Cray, and even ZZ Top. The King Bees are a band that will get the dance floor moving and a significant chunk of the Bees set list consists of Stax hits and other R&B standards by the likes of Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Al Green, James Brown and Sam Cooke. The King Bees also play an ever expanding body of original music that ranges from straight blues, through 60’s R&B, to funky blues rock, and even includes country and gospel influences.

The band was initially put together to play a single gig – the 2006 Southern Arizona Blues & Heritage Festival in Tucson, AZ. During the run up to the Festival the band decided to enter the Southern Arizona Blues Challenge, held that September, competing against eleven other local bands and ended up as the overall winner. (This came as a pleasant surprise, since the Challenge was the first time that the band had played together on stage.) As a result of the win, the King Bees earned the right to represent Southern AZ in the 2007 International Blues Challenge (IBC) held in Memphis in Jan 2007. The trip to Memphis was a blast and although the Bees didn’t make it to the finals (only 10 out of 95 bands did), they did receive a write up in Blues Wax magazine as one of the bands worth noticing. Now equipped with new material, the band has been tearing up stages and is showing Arizona what they have to offer.