JoB Cain

February 28, 2003 - At the WMBR studios and later that night at Johnny D's.

JoB Cain (pronounced Jobe) features Alvin Youngblood Hart (guitars/vocals), Audley Freed (guitars), Robert Kearns (bass/vocals) and Ed Michaels (drums). The name is a character in the 70's western flick, "Zachariah" played by Elvin Jones. In the movie Job Cain's band was none other than The James Gang, which all members of this band dig. Well this band got together about a week ago after a couple years of email correspondence between Alvin and Audley. At the time of this performance JoB Cain had only played 4 gigs as a band with only a couple of days practice before they started this mini-tour. But these guys are pros, and this was not a campfire session (though there was a lot of fire). The guitar harmonies between Alvin and Audley were amazing. Ed pounded out thunderous drums and Robert was no slouch on the bass. Alvin led the quartet with his honeyed vocals and fierce guitar playing. Both the in-studio performance and the gig at Johnny D's later in the evening were high octane. "Big Mama's Door" and their new song "Shoot Me A Smile," had machine gun guitar attacks and Alvin laid down some sweet vocals on "In My Time of Dying," which he dedicated to Mr. Rogers who had passed away the day before. I'm especially appreciative that they performed the Doug Sahm cover "Lawd, I'm Just A Country Boy, In This Great Big Freaky City." I knew Robert had played it with the Bottle Rockets (they released it on "Songs of Sahm" in 2001), but I learned that Alvin had been playing the song live for the last few years so he was in some way, "reclaiming the Doug."

What a treat, not only to have them play on the show, but to witness these very talented musicians evolve as a band. Here's hoping we see them again real soon.

Learn more about Alvin Youngblood Hart on his web site.