Zonder Kennedy and The Scoville Junkies
New York City, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2011 | SELF
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Zonder Kennedy & The Scoville Junkies follow in the tradition of other electric Blues revisionists... that is, to expand the formula and nudge it ever closer to rockier realms. Not surprisingly then, the echoes of famous forebears resonate throughout - Hendrix, Johnny Winter, the Allman Brothers, Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughn being but a few.
Then again, Blues is a well defined medium and anyone who chooses to follow that tack will almost certainly end up retracing the trail someone's travelled before. Regardless, for whatever the group lacks in originality, they make up for in inspiration. Whether it's the slash and burn of the Hendrix-like shuffles "Devil Walk" and "Blue Garden," their redo of Johnny Winter's original redo of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61," or a laidback cover of Tom Waits' "Hold On," Kennedy and company do their damndest to gain ground on a trail that's already well-trod. Catching them in concert may be the best indication of success, but even on album it's clear they're off to a good start. - Blurt online CD Reviews
Zonder Kennedy's guitar playing is full of grit, fire and authenticity. The self-titled debut release from Kennedy and his power trio The Scoville Junkies is a CD you must have as a road trip soundtrack if you’re headed west. You can feel the mesquite and dust blowing as you hear these songs hewn from a life on the road. Kennedy has been a long time sideman who backed John Campbell and Doyle Bramhall Sr. in Texas for years and now calls NYC his home. After the prodding of his wife and biggest supporter, who co wrote the quirky pop song “Blue Garden” for the album, Kennedy finally put out a CD of his own.
The eleven tracks are a fresh blend of delta blues, boogie rock, and as the song says, “$20,000 Worth of Twan,” delivered with spice and zeal. Kennedy rips on his national guitar on the classics “Shake your Money Maker” and “Death Letter” like a man possessed, and the trio turns Dylan’s “Highway 61” into a backdrop for a chase scene from a Quentin Tarantino film. Tom Waits’ “Hold On” is turned into a lilting Tex-Mex cantina lullaby with the sweet addition of concertina to the mix, while the ode to John Campbell, “Dr. Midnight,” is a psychobilly thrill ride.
Zonder Kennedy video for Death Letter ..from hi self titled debut album
Zonder Kennedy- Death Letter
It took Kennedy over 45 years to finally put out his own album. Why he waited this long is a mystery after hearing how this veteran guitar man throws it down. Let’s hope the next one is coming sooner.
more info at: http://www.zonderkennedy.com/
Rick J Bowen - The Seattle Examiner
Doyle Bramhall knows his Texas blues guitarists. He worked with Stevie Ray Vaughan, and wrote songs for and with him, before Vaughan started Double Trouble; he also influenced the way Vaughan sang. Now, he leads a four-man group with two impressive guitarists, Robin Syler and Zonder Kennedy, while he sings from behind his drum kit.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Bramhall treated Tramps like a roadhouse, playing a leisurely two-hour set of shuffles, slow blues, and just a few rhythm-and-blues songs to break the 12-bar routine. He didn't try to break any genre boundaries, just to fill the old forms with life, mixing songs from blues masters (Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker) with his own material, including a handful from Vaughan's repertory, notably "Change It."
Texas blues are more easygoing than their Chicago and Delta cousins; they're more likely to savor good times than to muse on past suffering. Mr. Bramhall follows the tradition, singing in a honey-cured baritone with jovial ease. His drumming is crisp and straightforward, sharing no-frills rhythms with Jim Milan on bass; along with shuffles, they occasionally came up with a mariachi lilt akin to the Grateful Dead. Mr. Bramhall's singing is completely independent of his arms and legs; he cruises lightly ahead of the beat, then glides through the end of a phrase, with endlessly varied syncopations.
The songs were showcases for the two complementary guitarists. Mr. Syler specialized in low terse lines, biting and logical, that rarely seemed to rush or to lose their Texas cool. Mr. Kennedy preferred the higher register, playing long smooth phrases that wailed or worked up to fast repeating lines. Even during the lengthy set, Mr. Bramhall never had the two guitarists trade solos in the same song, which could have generated even more blues spirit.
-Jon Pareles - The New York Times
With John Campbell now, we are talking mean, as in meeeean. Hailing from the deepest US swamplands, he's like something out of a Hammer movie, only twice as frightening. He has a kind of bionic face, reconstructed after a teenage drag racing accident, which I suppose gives him a lot to be angry about, but little could prepare the audience for the full-scale gutting it received.
Virtuosity comes no harder or crueller than this and the sheer intensity of the music was hard to cope with. The agony seemed to be channeled straight from the strings of his National Steel guitar into the veins of the audience, who were actually crying out in joyous pain every time Campbell rose from his stool to add one of his paint stripping solos to his dark, mutant, voodoo-ridden basso profundo twelve-bars. What's more, second guitarist Alexander Kennedy was almost as good and nearly as violent.
-Gary Revilo - Blueprint
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
A scoville is a unit of measure that gauges the tongue-searing scorch of a chili pepper. Now, with the arrival of Zonder Kennedy and the Scoville Junkies, the term also plays a role in establishing a new bar for incendiary modern blues — music that echoes the genre’s deep past, but reverberates into the future with daring arrangements, high energy and a keen, lean ’n’ dirty sound.
“It’s important to keep our approach fresh and immediate,” says Kennedy, whose adventurous life spent ricocheting around the world playing guitar fuels the spirit of his debut album.
Kennedy’s songwriting draws on all sorts of elements from his past: his family, his love of fiery foods, the colorful collection of characters and places he’s known during 45 years of living a rich musical life that culminates now in his first album as a bandleader.
One of the most important figures in Kennedy’s past is the dynamic bluesman John Campbell. They met while Kennedy was living in Manhattan in the late ’80s. Campbell was a salesman at Matt Umanov Guitars in Greenwich Village, and their friendship sprang up around their mutual love of blues.
After Campbell was signed to Elektra Records, Kennedy joined him as guitar foil and co-writer. They traveled the world for three years, playing as many as 250 dates annually and sharing stages with a roster of blues and roots legends that included Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers and the Black Crowes, Johnny Shines, Dr. John and Jessie Mae Hemphill.
“John was a very inspiring performer,” Kennedy says. “Not just a powerful guitarist and singer, but amazingly funny and charming, like a cross between Link Wray and Leslie Howard. It was impossible not to be taken with the guy, and he was a great example of how to conduct yourself on and off the stage.”
“Dr. Midnight” on Zonder Kennedy and the Scoville Junkies is a tribute to Campbell, who died unexpectedly in 1993.
After Campbell’s death Kennedy decided to pursue his own dreams in Austin, where he joined local linchpin Doyle Bramhall, Sr.’s group. The three years Kennedy spent in the Live Music Capitol of the World with Bramhall and others, plus his time with Campbell, had a substantial impact on his vivid guitar style.
It became obvious that if I was going to develop the same control over dynamics and tone, fingerstyle was the way to go.” That approach plus heavy gauge strings and tube amps opened up wide ‘n’ loud feed Kennedy’s edgy, hard-chiseled six-string attack.
“Getting my National steel guitar from a junk shop in New York also helped me define myself musically,” he allows. “Nationals are not easy to play, so you really need to sharpen your focus, but they have a fantastic sound that takes you back to the core of the earliest blues, and that inspires all kinds of ideas.”
Kennedy is joined with Bruce Martin on drums and Ari Huff or Jimmy Petit on Bass.
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