Music is about chasing a feeling – happiness, excitement, anger, sadness. Blues is the most intense combination of music and feeling. The power and emotion of the music transcends time and can be felt by people of all ages and ethnicities – the sole reason why the blues will survive and thrive for generations to come.
The blues, like all elements of life, is meant to grow, change and progress while retaining its essence. Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith and the House Bumpers accomplish just this with their latest album, Drop the Hammer.
Kenny honored the blues legends he admired by laying down a few traditional tracks. Much of his playing was molded by the teaching of his late father, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, who was the drummer for Muddy Waters for over 18 years, and it was important to give this nod of respect.
To know who you are and where you are going,
one must always honor and acknowledge from
where you came.
This album focuses on contemporary subject matter while using modern and innovative sounds. As much as Kenny loves and respects traditional blues, he was compelled to take his blues to a new realm and dimension. Kenny didn’t live and experience picking cotton in the fields. He is a native Chicagoan and inspiration for this album was drawn from the rhythm of footsteps on jagged pavement, the soulful, shadowy noise of the city at night and the soundtrack from the eras in which he grew up to be the man and musician he is today.
This music is transgenerational. It is raw. It will grab you by your core and will feel familiar yet foreign at the same time.
